Episodes
Not a pleasant few weeks for fans of the Yellow Submarine. Remember how we said getting 12 of 15 points was our goal? Well.....3 out of 15 with four losses in a row, injuries all over the place, and a squad weakened by selling Rulli and loaning Danjuma (weaker on the pitch, anyhow) with no replacements. How much is Quique Setién to blame for recent results, and how much is the fault of a front office that decided to wait for the summer to make things happen? Sidarth and Allen discuss all of...
Published 02/21/23
Robin and Allen discuss our transfer happenings, or lack thereof. It's a wide-ranging discussion, replete with references to our favorite players over the years, why some of Villarreal's current squad just can't fit into Setien's 4-3-3, how much we will miss Danjuma, etc etc. And we even feel sorry for Valencia at the end. Have a listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Published 02/02/23
Allen and Sidarth discuss the transfer market this January, Quique Setien's impact on Villarreal, and for some reason (maybe we still have memories of Villarreal's relegation in 2012 we need to expunge?) we talk a lot about the bottom half of the La Liga table and teams that might be a little....worried? Enjoy, and Endavant Villarreal! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Published 01/30/23
Allen is joined by Jamie Kemble to talk Villarreal---what's going on in the transfer market, who might leave, where might we (or should we) look to reinforce ourselves in January or the summer? Also, we briefly celebrate our recent results. And we also talk about the stadium rebuild, not all positively given what we've seen in social media about the away end becoming even more unwelcoming. Enjoy and Endavant Villarreal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Published 01/13/23
Allen is joined by Sidarth to review recent happenings at Villarreal. We are pretty upbeat, though we still await our first victory under Quique Setien. This was recorded prior to the Athletic Club match, and prior to all these rumors about Aston Villa moving for Nicolas Jackson..... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Published 11/03/22
It's been quite a week--I spend a month in Spain and come home to this! Apologies for not having a pod for a while, but hopefully this helps to make up for it. The main topic is of course Unai Emery's departure--why now, why Aston Villa, and then the replacement. Quiqui Setien has been out of football for a couple of years but a lot of the panel remember his Betis teams fondly. Julian, Robin and Rahul are pretty mellow about it all...though the real worry will come in the next transfer...
Published 10/27/22
I was a guest on Jeremy's 'Colchonero Chat' podcast previewing the match, and now he returns the favor on a postgame pod. We were expecting this to be a tight, exciting match, and so it was, though for the first hour of a 0-0 we thought we might have jinxed it. But then things happened! We talk about Cholo Simeone's decision to let Villarreal have most of the possession in the first 30 minutes or so--a sign of respect for Nico Jackson's speed, or hoping we would turn the ball over in...
Published 08/22/22
I am joined by Sidarth to talk about things Villarreal. Two episodes in one week!! We'd like to focus on victories for the first and second teams in week one, but the looming cloud of transfers requires our attention too. Which is sad really--why can't the transfer window end BEFORE the season starts? And why do we have to focus so much on how much money everyone is making--can't we just enjoy the Beautiful Game? Well, obviously not. And that was before we heard of Barcelona trying to buy...
Published 08/17/22
Safe to say the summer has been hotter than the Villarreal transfer market, so we figured it was time to do a podcast to get the action going. Seems to be working, with Lo Celso deal apparently agreed. Anyhow, Robin, Julian and I had a good time chatting about the prospects for the upcoming season, which players might still leave, who we might still get, etc etc. Enjoy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Published 08/12/22
We jokingly called this the "Grumpy European" episode. Robin from the UK and Julian from Norway join me to discuss some controversial talking points.....sure, Unai Emery, you won the Europa League, but what have you done for me lately? 7th in the league is pretty disappointing. (Of course, when you barely got a full season out of the trio of Gerard, Danjuma, and Paco combined, maybe the medical staff bears some responsiblity.....) Anyhow, we discuss this, whether Gio Lo Celso was really that...
Published 06/29/22
Allen is joined by Sidarth to discuss Villarreal's needs in the transfer market--specifically, what we might try to do to give Geronimo Rulli some competition as goalkeeper. Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Published 06/21/22
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Published 06/04/22
Allen and Sidarth get together to talk about the victory over Bayern (of course) and look ahead a bit to Liverpool. After the break, we get into how various ex-Villarreal players and coaches are doing now, the B team, Villarreal Feminina.... Enjoy and Endavant Villarreal! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Published 04/16/22
Allen is joined by Sidarth to discuss Villarreal's first qualification for the Champions League quarterfinals since 2009, when Villarreal USA was a Word Press blog and Sid was one of the writers. (I hadn't found them yet!). Our 2009 team had some nice names in it, but two (Giuseppe Rossi and Diego Godín) were young, not what they would become later--Marcos Senna and Joan Capdevila were at the top of their game, and we had some good team players of which the best was Gonzalo and Cani,...
Published 03/23/22
Three goals in the last 20 minutes dispatched a frustrated Juventus--Allen and Jamie discuss what turned out to be a perfect night in Turin. And what will Unai Emery plan for our quarterfinal matchup against Bayern Munich? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Published 03/19/22
So we have an official changing of the guard to announce. Zach is handing over the VUSA site manager job to Jamie Kemble this week. Zach will still be around, look for his byline on articles and definitely he'll still be tweeting from the VUSA account, blue check and all. Jamie brings a lot of football writing experience, he's actually living in Spain so can see our matches in person most of the time. Plus, he's young and energetic. All good. Of course we talk Yeremy Pino. How could we not?...
Published 03/02/22
Allen and Zach catch up with Villarreal news--mostly looking ahead to the Juventus match on Tuesday but also we cover the planned redevelopment of Villarreal's stadium this summer and the news about Sr. Llaneza. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Published 02/19/22
Allen is joined by Robin and Zach. We talk about recent Villarreal performances first and who has really impressed us....then we move into a discussion of Geronimo Rulli and his strengths and weaknesses, possible reinforcements in winter (a brief discussion of Cedric Bakambu) and how we're feeling about the remainder of the season. Endavant! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Published 01/11/22
Allen and Sid chat about Villarreal's first half of the season, and the current La Liga standings. Which teams ahead of us look likely to falter? Which look strong? (we recorded this before last weekend's matches btw) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Published 01/04/22
Allen has returned, managed to see a bit of Villarreal's matches but Robin and Julian have seen more, and we're all concerned. So we talk about tactics, squad composition, squad selection, formations, all that stuff. How can Villarreal get out of this funk? In the best social media tradition, we give Unai Emery our advice. We want to win!!! And at the end we give our predictions for the Valencia and Young Boys matches. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Published 10/29/21
Allen welcomes Jamie Kemble to the podcast for the first time. Robin joins us as well. Jamie introduces himself, and then we discuss the draw against Atleti (I mean, we had to, right?), and then we analyze Villarreal's transfer window and how best to use all the players we have. And we have questions. For instance, Paco Alcácer.....is he going to return to scoring form on the pitch? We're amazed we've kept three left backs--which one might end up being the odd man out in January? With all...
Published 09/08/21
Every week, Villarreal USA is featuring the predictions of an expected goals-based model developed by Mitchel Green and adapted by Charlie Tuley for La Liga. Today Charlie joins me and Zach Hicks for an explanation of how the model works. We also discuss how we should interpret the predictions, what sort of tweaks could one make to the model to (perhaps) improve it, etc. and of course also understand what its limitations are. Zach and I really enjoyed this discussion and I'm sure we'll have...
Published 09/04/21
Allen and Sidarth discuss the Champions League draw and fixture list. And after the break we muse about what formation Unai Emery would like to play, which works best for us right now, and we predict the inevitable low-scoring draw against Atletico Madrid. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Published 08/28/21
Allen and Sid get together to discuss Villarreal's bloated roster--what moves are still to come? And after the break, we move on to the league. Where will Villarreal finish? Who do we pick to do well, and who might fall back this season? We give our predictions for Monday, also. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Published 08/16/21