Marcelino reaches 201 top-flight wins, Villarreal boss nears all-time top eight | OneFootball

Villarreal’s 4-1 win over Espanyol moved Marcelino García to ninth on the all-time list of Primera División managers with 201 victories, four behind Javier Clemente. The ranking is led by the late Luis Aragonés with 344.

Three active coaches remain ahead of him. Diego Simeone is second on 327 wins, Ernesto Valverde fourth on 273 and Manuel Pellegrini fifth on 260. El Periódico Mediterráneo reports on the manager’s latest milestones.

Tomorrow at Getafe, Marcelino will take charge of his 200th match across two spells with Villarreal. He has won 96 of 199 to date, a 48.2 per cent return, with 51 draws and 52 defeats.

Villarreal now have 45 points from 22 league games and still hold a match in hand, which will be played away to Levante next Wednesday at the Ciutat de València. That haul equals the club’s best after the first 22 fixtures of a season, one more than Marcelino’s 2015/16 side and level with Juan Carlos Garrido’s 2010/11 team.

He is also extending his advantage among Villarreal coaches for top-flight games in charge, with Pellegrini on 190 and Javier Calleja 102. Across his career Marcelino has managed 464 matches in the top division, also coaching Recreativo de Huelva, Racing de Santander, Zaragoza, Sevilla, Valencia and Athletic Club.

The immediate test comes at the Coliseum, where avoiding a concession would prevent him equalling his worst run of 12 successive games conceding. That would require presumed starter Luiz Júnior to keep a clean sheet. Villarreal are on 11 competitive fixtures without one, spanning Champions League ties with Copenhagen, Ajax and Bayer Leverkusen, the Copa del Rey trip to Santander, and league meetings with Elche, Barcelona, Alavés, Betis, Real Madrid, Osasuna and Espanyol.

Source: El Periódico Mediterráneo