Gerard Moreno: The making of a Villarreal legend
By Thom Harris
As Dani Parejo floated another teasing cross into the Manchester United penalty area, something seemed to pull it out of the sky and towards Gerard Moreno’s boot.
His 30th goal of the season, his 82nd for the club, Gerard couldn’t have picked a better time to become the club’s joint all-time leading scorer. The opener, to put Villarreal ahead in their first ever major final, to cap off one of the greatest individual seasons in Yellows memory, it just seemed inevitable that the talisman would have his say.
Throughout the 2020/21 campaign, the Cantera Grogueta graduate established himself as one of the deadliest strikers in all of LaLiga, winning the prestigious Zarra Trophy, awarded to the highest scoring Spaniard, for the second time running. And, with the recent departure of Lionel Messi to Paris Saint-Germain, the forward’s 23 LaLiga goals last season make him last season’s highest scoring player, along with Karim Benzema, still playing in the Spanish top-flight.
A player who just always seems to do the right thing — very rarely losing the ball and always picking the right pass — Gerard seemed untouchable throughout large spells of the season, including a two-month spell between February 6th and April 15th where he scored or assisted every single Villarreal goal, contributing 25 goals over an extraordinary 14-game run. It’s little wonder then, that Unai Emery looked to secure the Spaniard’s future, with a recent deal committing the forward to the club until 2027 looking like it could be one of the deals of the Spanish transfer window.
Now the club’s all-time top scorer, after firing home his 83rd Villarreal goal against Chelsea this week, the magical winger could well hit 100 goals before the season is out, and will move higher and higher up the list of the club’s record appearance makers as he represents the club into his mid-thirties. And, while it ultimately wasn’t to be for the Yellows in Belfast, Gerard’s sensational man-of-the-match performance was an incredibly encouraging sign for the season ahead.
Despite playing on the wing, Gerard’s tremendous goalscoring instincts leave his numbers right up there with the best, only trailing Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland and Robert Lewandowski for goals in 2021. Starting out on the left and always looking to drift inside onto his lethal left-foot, he often likes to drop deep and demand the ball from his teammates in midfield, before driving forward and looking to fire the ball into his strike partners.
And, it was Villarreal’s new signing up front, Boulaye Dia, who linked up with Gerard for the record-breaking goal in Belfast, receiving the ball from the winger, before producing a sublime back-heeled pass for an onrushing Gerard to collect and finish perfectly. It’s early days, of course, but the mobility, physicality, and positivity of Dia gives Gerard a fantastic target in the centre, as the two fed off each other perfectly throughout an impressive second half showing. After just two weeks of working together, there look to be promising signs of a blossoming relationship at the spearhead of Villarreal’s attack.
Dia’s desire to make runs in behind the Chelsea back-line was a noticeable feature of the agonising Super Cup defeat, as the French-Senegalese forward caused problems all game long with his powerful and direct approach. With a strike partner constantly living on the defender’s shoulder, always looking to use that burst of pace to spring into life, Gerard has that extra runner to aim for when he drops between the lines and looks for a forward pass.
Examples of how a positive forward runner can benefit from Gerard’s passing abilities are scattered all throughout last season, most notably in the impressive 4–0 victory over Sevilla, as Villarreal’s №7 set Carlos Bacca through to net his second with a delightfully weighted, defence-splitting pass in behind. And again, in another 4–0 win, this time over Celta Vigo, it was Fer Niño who made the direct, central run for Gerard to pick out with another pinpoint ball.
Going forward himself, and aside from his world-class finishing abilities, it’s Gerard’s close control and unpredictability that makes him so deadly in and around the penalty area. Able to use both feet, the winger often likes to produce sharp turns onto either foot, leaving the defender guessing and which way he might spin. A perfect example came from match day 2 of last season, as Gerard, receiving the ball with his back to goal, produced a dazzling Cruyff turn to take the ball towards the by-line, before lasering a crisp finish back across goal with his “weaker” right foot. In addition, in a 3–0 victory over Granada, it was another sharp Cruyff turn that left defender Germán Sánchez in a heap on the floor, before lifting the ball perfectly over the goalkeeper with a delightful, chipped finish.
And so, with just days to go until Gerard begins his 5th season in the Yellow of Villarreal, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic that 2021/22 could be just as prolific as the last. He’s already helped fire the club to their first ever trophy — who knows where the magic feet of Gerard Moreno — Villarreal’s legendary goal-scorer — could take the club next.
