Apart from losses of Real Madrid and Barcelona, there was another La Liga team knocked out in the latest round of the Copa del Rey. Mirandes successfully kicked three first division teams out in their epic trip in this competition. Before the game, Celta Vigo and Sevilla had already failed to challenge the team at Anduva. This time, it was Villarreal being knocked out.
In this tactical analysis, we will show you how Mirandes beat Villarreal. It is an analysis that focuses on tactics.
Lineups
Mirandés’ manager Andoni Iraola played the exact team as he did in the previous week. Their second-top scorer Marcos André was still on the bench; another familiar name, Iñigo Vicente, also appeared on the substitute list. In this match, Matheus Aias started the game as a lone striker with Martín Merquelanz, Álvaro Peña and Álvaro Rey behind him. They played in a 4-2-3-1 formation.
Javier Calleja started a strong team which played in a 4-1-4-1 formation. The keyman, Santi Cazorla, partnered Vincente Iborra and André Anguissa in midfield. New signing Paco Alcácer was on the bench with another striker, Carlos Bacca. That position was filled by Gerard Moreno in the starting XI.
The attack of Villarreal
Villarreal tried to keep the ball in the first phase of the attack, looking for chances to play out from the back if they could. They had 59.04% of possession and 511 passes in this game. Last round, Sevilla completely lost the midfield battle in terms of number. Therefore, Villarreal tried to avoid this situation by dropping Anguissa deeper into the middle of the pitch.
Below we can see his heatmap. He always appeared between zone eight and nine and tended to drop deeper instead of moving upward. It seemed Calleja instructed the Cameroonian to defend more instead of joining the attack.
