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The arrival from Reims adds to the attacking quality under Unai Emery, but it remains to be seen if they battle hard for La Liga title
It would be churlish to overly criticise Boulaye Dia’s climax to the 2020/21 season with Stade de Reims, despite a goal drought to close out the campaign.
Having netted 12 Ligue 1 goals in the first half of the campaign — he featured 17 times in that time — only two more strikes followed for the Red and Whites after the midway point. There was a 10-game drought in that time and another seven games without scoring in the campaign’s denouement.
Reims fired four blanks in the latter run which didn’t help as they battled for top flight survival. Having ended eighth and sixth (just outside the European spots in the curtailed 19/20 season) in the preceding campaigns, last term’s 14th-placed finish was concerning.
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Still, it was a rather successful individual season for Dia, who was David Guion’s go-to star for most of the campaign. 14 league goals was also the 24-year-old’s highest-scoring campaign of his career so far and he ranked in the division’s top 10 for goals scored — only eight players scored more.
One wonders what might have been if he hadn’t failed to score in 17 of his 36 appearances, but his exploits have led to a move to Villarreal, winners of last year’s Europa League.
Unai Emery’s team are beneficiaries of the champions of Europe’s second-tier tournament gaining an automatic place in the Champions League, a competition the Yellow Submarine wouldn’t have played in via the league.
The EL champions ended seventh in La Liga on 58 points, a staggering 19 behind Sevilla in fourth spot and a further 28 adrift of eventual champions Atletico Madrid. In 19/20, the side from the province of Castellon finished 10 points back of the Andalusians and 27 adrift of Real Madrid.
Indeed, the aforementioned demonstrates the chasm that exists between Villarreal and the division’s leading sides.
What Dia adds, however, is another attacking threat to Emery’s team as they look to make a sustained run for a top four spot and compete on their return to the Champions League.
The Yellow Submarine haven’t participated in the continent’s hallowed club competition since 11/12 and the fact they got there on the back of claiming their maiden title in Europe made the former Arsenal manager’s debut season a success.
His second season will now hinge not only on Gerard Moreno — who contributed to exactly half of the team’s 60 top flight goals — but also on Samuel Chukwueze hopefully showing even more consistency in what could be his fourth full season in the side’s first team.
The Nigeria winger led the way for shot-creating actions per 90 in 20/21 and ranked sixth for average goal-creating actions, but his raw numbers have always underwhelmed and a tendency to blow hot and cold has limited his development.
“He’s a very young player who has to find consistency,” Emery told the club website after the Nigerian ended a run of five months without scoring in April. “We need to take steps forward with him and be demanding.
“He’s a footballer with great quality. He has a lot of talent, but he needs to improve in front of goal. [Against Levante] he put in a great performance and managed to score.”
Taking that next step will greatly benefit Emery, as it gives a side that often resembles a one-man wrecking ball an extra edge and dimension in the attacking third.
Throw in Dia’s potential at centre-forward and the Yellow Submarine could suddenly have three young, direct menacing forwards next season.
It remains to be seen if the Senegal striker’s 20/21 was a one-off, after all, it was the first time that he’d enter double figures. Not being on penalty-taking duties in Spain — Moreno takes Villarreal’s penalties — may further reduce his numbers, given 36 percent of last season’s Ligue 1 return came from 12 yards.
Having said that, Dia does offer a lot to the team when he isn’t scoring.
The 24-year-old ranked fourth for in-play shot-creating actions per 90 at Reims last term, fifth for goal-creating actions and was one of the team’s progressive ball carriers. He was also useful in hunting for possession, making the fifth-highest volume of pressures for the French side in 20/21.
The possibilities that exist for Emery if his three attacking talents dovetail successfully next season could make for an interesting top four race in La Liga. For Villarreal, it could end their five-year wait without finishing in the coveted spots since their successful 15/16 campaign under Marcelino.
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