Villarreal manager Marcelino Garcia Toral has a reputation of suffering anything less than 100% effort and commitment. As he tries to instill those traits back into the Yellow Submarine, Alexander Sorloth was made an example of.
The big Norwegian striker is Villarreal’s second-top scorer this season, and has been one of their better players this season. Against Barcelona two weeks ago, he came up with the 99th minute winner. However the script was flipped against Cadiz at the weekend, with Sorloth being brought off at half-time, something Marcelino was asked about after the match.
“In 45 minutes you didn’t shoot on goal and you had enough time to have done so. If you don’t, the coach makes decisions. You have to take advantage of every minute. Wait and see what might happen… First you have to earn it on the field like happened the other day in Barcelona.”
Marcelino highlighted that he saw exactly what he wanted against Barcelona, but that it had to be maintained.
“If he had played at Barcelona’s level, I’m not saying in terms of precision, but in repetition of effort, he would have been on the pitch longer,” said Marcelino to Cadena SER.
Villarreal have struggled for both consistenty and effort all season. Sitting in midtable, frequently they have dropped points against bottom half teams they should have enough firepower to see off. However as Marcelino starts wielding the axe, he will be hoping that there is healthy competition in the squad by the end of the season.
