Marcos Senna

Villarreal

Midfielder - Spain



Original 200 writeup:

Spanish player of the year two years (but seems forever) ago now.

The 2009/10 season was a struggle for Brazilian born Senna with always unpleasantly tied lack of form but plenty of injuries being an almost permanent feature. However towards the end he did seemingly, just in time, find enough form to validate a World Cup spot on the all conquering Spain team where he had been a mainstay and key contributor, basically ever since being granted Spanish citizenship in 2006.

Most famously of course during EURO 2008 where performances of his featuring hardly putting a foot wrong earned him much praise.

This time it wasn't to be though. The emergence of Sergio Busquets, much improved, and ever improving throughout this season, and perhaps Busquets advantage of systematic familiarity with the Barca players everywhere around him, meant at this point a starting place for Senna had become increasingly unlikely.

Still it was a surprise that uncapped Basque Javi Martinez got a spot as the assigned defensive midfielder backup, but as Del Bosque said, he had a very good season. Senna (although Del Bosque didn't say so) had not. Martinez is also the future. Senna is not.

That is not to say it's all over for Senna as one of the finest at his position. It's possible he has seen some decline in athletic ability the last few years but when healthy he is still a very smooth midfield operator in all his actions both with an without the ball.

How much he has left is hard to say. I think it will be (and is already in many ways) similar to fellow Brazilian born (94 World Cup winners) excellent defensive midfielders with great careers in Spain, Mauro Silva and Mazinho who continued to be very good into their 30s.

An even better example perhaps is Donato, who like Senna became a Spaniard, and with Mauro Silva incidentally, seemed to last forever commanding the Deportivo La Coruna midfield.

Senna kinda reminds me of those.

So if he can overcome injury problems I expect similar from Senna at Villarreal. There are even rumors currently that he is in play to fill the midfield depth lost at Barcelona with Yaya Toure's departure. Who knows if that will happen. They may very well go for someone younger instead but perhaps it does show that he is at least still relevant at the highest level.

The 300 update:

Not unlike several in-form teammates at Villarreal, Senna seems to have benefited from not playing during the summer (no World Cup virus on this team!), and he looks significantly better than he did during much of the injury plagued 2009/10 season.

Not quite the midfield master of previous years but Senna remains a quality player.

Santi Cazorla

Arsenal

Attacking midfielder/Winger - Spain

2010/2011 Mid-season: 44
End of 2010/11 - Start of 2011/12: 53
2011/2012 Mid-season: 35
End of 2011/12 - Start of 2012/13: 27

End of 2011/12 - Start of 2012/13:

Cazorla had an excellent season for Malaga where he had been reunited with coach Pelligrini who of course used to be in charge of Cazorla's former team Villarreal.

A Villarreal team who really suffered in Cazorla's absence and that combined with some key injuries meant they surprisingly ended up getting relegated.

At Malaga things weren't quite business as usual for Cazorla and Pelligrini. In serious lack of strikers Pelligrini a lot of the time went away from his usual 4-2-2-2 , remember at Villarreal he had Guiseppe Rossi and Nilmar to play the roles very well, here he basically only had the talented Rondon, so it became more of a 4-2-3-1 instead with up and coming superstar Isco who was quickly becoming way too good to hold back and the resurgent veteran Joaquin joining Cazorla in creating some quality fluid attacking football behind and around the lone striker.
Then when Pelligrini did insert another forward into the equation, mostly the very up and down Seba Fernandez, Cazorla even joined Toulalan or sometimes Duda in deeper midfield roles, not least getting a chance to showcase his fantastic range and array of passing. All this illustrating nicely I think, how Cazorla had a season where he provided quality just about everywhere. Either wing moving inside with his usual wizardry style, other times as a real number 10 type of creative playmaker and this season even showing real skill as a deeper lying playmaker in deeper midfield roles. What a player!

Of course as everyone knows, Malaga supposedly rich, having invested in a lot of quality, not least Cazorla and Isco, suddenly found themselves in financial chaos, their sugar-daddy sheik turning out to be unreliable, and one consequence was Cazorla getting sold to Arsenal.

Cazorla is so skilled with both feet that even teammates have commented that they're really not sure which foot is his strongest! Well it's his right-foot that he uses for his quality set-pieces, but naturally being capable of so many things with both, from passing, ranged to silky one touch to turning/dribbling either direction, it's a huge positive in making him such a fine operator, one difficult to cope with, in small-spaces in the opponent half.

Apart from the fantastic control in passing and overall kicking technique, he has great football instincts as well. There will be the odd mistake because of it when he will try very difficult things that just feels natural for his highly elevated style of play, but no doubt that this is a player that see openings and solutions unavailable to most and who has the brilliant touches and passing to take advantage.

Cazorla's weakness would be his physical capabilities.  There are strong small players but Cazorla isn't one of them and even in one-on-one situations if it becomes a duel of strength or pace (over more meters) rather than technique and quickness (in mind and with ball at feet) he will lose out maybe a little bit too often and arguably would be better off seeking some of the many other options in his impressive arsenal.

It will be interesting how his rather unique game translates to England. Arguably Cazorla has been even better in Spain than Mata and even Silva were. Both of those became even more effective in England partly due to an advantageous small, quick and skilled over big, slow and limited matchup that just can't be ignored, and even though Cazorla in many ways is just different (at what level compared to a Spanish environment will he be able to contribute defensively being a key question?), you have to think he will establish himself, like those did, as one of the best players in the league.


2010/11 Mid-season:

Oh yeah, Cazorla is back with a vengeance and rather uniquely somehow combine wing play, attacking midfielder and deeper lying playmaker into one very fine player for a Villarreal team that's really benefiting from not least Rossi and Cazorla very fresh from missing out on the World Cup.

For more on Villarreal check the other profiles on their players on the list.


2009/10:

At his best Cazorla is a true technical wizard capable of almost anything with a football.

Unfortunately for much of the last year he has has struggled finding form and good health coming back from serious injury, he only started 16 La Liga games hurting his ranking, and despite signs of finally being back to his best, towards the end this season, it has resulted in him not being called up for the Spain Word Cup squad where he'd actually been a regular the last couple of years.

With a summer's rest then, definitely look for Cazorla to have a strong rebound season next time around with plenty of trademark dazzling moves, quickness and creativity.

Nilmar

Villarreal

Striker - Brazil



A finesse striker if there ever was one, Nilmar together with partner in finesse up front, Rossi, are looking very good right now, spearheading and fitting perfectly into a team that under coach Juan Carlos Garrido are reliving Pelligrini's yellow submarine glory days of some exquisite 4-2-2-2.

Giuseppe Rossi

Villarreal

Forward - Italy



Orginal 200 writeup:

American born Rossi is a very skilled player who not long ago I would have ranked higher, but he's been struggling a bit this season which is perhaps his first bad one in his still young career.

He is a player with excellent technique in most areas. Very good ball control, at times exquisite passing and he has a great shot.

The negatives I think are that he has shown himself pretty limited to a role of second striker.

As a wide forward his effectiveness is too reduced to being around the penalty area, he offers almost nothing further back, and as a main striker he lacks power and maybe some pace plus work rate to really be a serious goalscoring threat without a partner that he can cooperate closely with through his great technique.

Without the ball he has never quite become good enough and often falls through on the work that's needed in both of these positions, if we're talking highest level.

Where he is excellent though is in the middle of where things happen in the final third, preferable in a functioning possession game (that could easily be the problem for Villarreal where the standard has really fallen) where he'll get lots of touches. The more the merrier. Then good things happen and even without much space at all he has great ability to be effective whether it's a great pass, shot or dribble.

The 300 update:

Villarreal is turning last season upside down. Players like Senna, Cazorla and Rossi who all struggled to such an extent they missed out on what had looked like safe World Cup selections, now, perhaps benefiting from that break, are all (along with other teammates among the 300) playing really well.

Key has also been new coach Juan Carlos Garrido. He was in charge of Villarreal B for several years and he's gone back to the style and tactics of former longterm coach Pelligrini. Tactics and style that still, very much, suits the characteristics of the players.

A lot of slick passing and 4-2-2-2 movement and Rossi with his technical skills fits in like a glove, whether it's being the end of playmaking from Cazorla or Valero or playing finesse one-twos with strike partner Nilmar.

Rossi is in the form of his life and adds both scoring and creativity to a Villarreal team that's putting up a brave case that there is more than just a couple of La Liga teams worth watching.