The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful: Organisation v Improvisation, and futbol is back, papa! | OneFootball

A round-up of some of La Liga’s most intriguing storylines across the week, traversing through the good, the bad and something beautiful.

The Good – Futbol is back, Papa!

At least the way they like it in Getafe. Villarreal might not be enjoying their best moment of form this season, but they remain the third-side in La Liga, the third-best attack  and the third-best defence. They started the match with €42m-worth of summer investment, and later brought on €31m-striker Georges Mikautadze as they chased the game. By contrast, Getafe spent €1.8m on two players in the summer, neither of which played, and the last players to cost them money in the XI were back in 2022, Luis Milla (€5m) and Domingos Duarte (€750k).

And they were completely swatted aside by Getafe. The fans at the Coliseum are among the least-demanding in La Liga, but even they have become thirsty for some fluidity in recent weeks. After their 2-1 win over Alaves last week, Jose Bordalas side came out with a completely unearned arrogance, a bully in the playground with the new kid. Expensive tastes, this new guy, but if he thinks he can come into my bit without paying his dues…

Image via Getafe CF

Every time Villarreal tried to press, Getafe’s players seemed to know where they were coming from. Marcelino Garcia Toral spoke of Villarreal’s inexperienced defence, and January loan signings Martin Satriano and Luis Vazquez inhaled it as fuel for their engines. It’s true a penalty, absurd as Marcelino called it, helped Getafe on their way, but Vazquez won the position, giving Renato Veiga the slip. As he resurfaced from the ground, both Vazquez and Marcelino shot him the same look – ‘Too slow, fool’.

It wasn’t just that Getafe showed a swiftness of wits either. With Dakonam Djene in midfield, Mauro Arambarri and Luis Milla were given licence to move as they wished, and found ways to cause Villarreal no end of problems. Just as absurd, was watching Milla and Arambarri play two-touch football around a midfield containing Dani Parejo and Pape Gueye.

Los Azulones are up to 11th, five points clear of the drop, but this was their groove, Bordalas-ball at its most simple and effective. Led by the sensational Luis Milla, who is level with Lamine Yamal atop the assists table, who spent time joking about a Spain call-up on the radio in the press room after. It was a win that came a month and two days after Bordalas’ pencil-sharpener rant, when it looked as if the Getafe that we hate, love, the one that exasperates and frustrates, might be crumbling. But here they were, solid and cantankerous, five loans and a month later. Esto es futbol, Papa.

The Bad: Rayo and Atletico – Nobody wins like this

After thumping Barcelona 4-0, sparking genuine hope of a trophy and providing a vision of what Atletico Madrid want to be, Diego Simeone made nine changes. Having drawn 3-3 with Club Brugge on Wednesday, we now have the hindsight to say that it was not justified. Their brittle performance, characterised with a paucity of imagination and the rebellious spirit Simeone is supposed to instill, wiped the smiles off Atletico faces. Any hint of Thursday’s euphoria was gone, and so was the football team.

Image via EFE / Marca

It’s true they were met by a solid Rayo, who played with a desire to take their first division survival into their own hands. Ilias Akhomach shimmied through the defence as though they were extras from the dodgy genre of soccer cinema. Nobel Mendy and Florian Lejeune screened and bumped Alexander Sorloth like a centre in basketball.

This wasn’t Rayo Vallecano though. It was just Rayo, displaced, without the Bukaneros ultras, the spirit, identity and people that keep the club going. The game took place at Leganes’ Butarque stadium in front of 5,500 fans, in a half-empty stadium, with a mostly empty feeling. Rayo moved out of the drop zone, snapping a three-game losing streak, but Inigo Perez entered the press room with all the joy of a relegation. “On a sporting level, it’s one of the best days we’ve had, but unfortunately we can’t isolate that from the emotional side of things. It’s impossible to separate them. Today is a sad day.” For one day, hopefully the only day, President Raul Martin Presa got what he wanted – a Rayo out of Vallecas.

The Beautiful: Organisation vs Improvisation

Football is proof that the general public do not have to wed themselves to one style, one philosophy, that there is a richness in variety. On Saturday, Celta Vigo scored one of the goals of the season, a mechanical series of dominoes manoeuvered into position, for the moment when Javi Rodriguez and Borja Iglesias would tip over the first piece. No player takes more than three touches in their 19-pass move before Ferran Jutgla side-foots the ball into an open net. The remarkable thing is, none of the passes are highlight-worthy on their own, and none of the touches are decisive. The goal is rehearsed, the execution is beautiful.

Our apologies to Valencia coach Carlos Corberan for not affording him the same credit as Claudio Giraldez in this instance, even if Largie Ramazani also has a contender for goal of the season. It was a goal that belongs to a different era, one where each footballer comes up with a solution spontaneously, and their talent does the rest. There are just three passes between when Javi Guerra beats a midfielder just outside his box, driving forward into the Levante half and playing Umar Sadiq in behind. The ball is a little short for the Nigerian, who carries it forward again, and seeing the horizon of the pitch approaching backheels it to Luis Rioja with little on, at a standstill.

Desperate to keep the move going, he spots Ramazani in space on the edge of the box, but doesn’t have time to play it as he wants, rushing the pass. It’s bouncing, not quite into the path of Ramazani, and his control is improvised too – the finish, on the run, with his weaker foot, is as sweet as can be. Four players, none of which did everything exactly as they liked, combining to seduce any football fan.