# 2023–24 Villarreal CF season

The 2023–24 season was Villarreal Club de Fútbol's 101st season in existence and 11th consecutive season in La Liga. They also competed in the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Europa League.
Villarreal would be eliminated in the round of 32 of the Copa del Rey by Unionistas, and the round of 16 of the Europa League by Marseille.

## Players
### First-team squad

    As of 24 January 2024
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 1 | GK | ESP | Pepe Reina |
| 2 | DF | COL | Yerson Mosquera (on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers) |
| 3 | DF | ESP | Raúl Albiol (captain) |
| 4 | MF | ESP | Santi Comesaña |
| 5 | DF | ESP | Jorge Cuenca |
| 6 | MF | FRA | Étienne Capoue |
| 7 | FW | ESP | Gerard Moreno (3rd captain) |
| 8 | DF | ARG | Juan Foyth |
| 9 | FW | POR | Gonçalo Guedes (on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers) |
| 10 | MF | ESP | Dani Parejo |
| 11 | FW | NOR | Alexander Sørloth |
| 12 | DF | CIV | Eric Bailly |
| 13 | GK | DEN | Filip Jörgensen |
| 14 | MF | ESP | Manu Trigueros (vice-captain) |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 15 | FW | ESP | José Luis Morales |
| 16 | MF | ESP | Álex Baena |
| 17 | DF | ESP | Kiko Femenía |
| 18 | DF | ESP | Alberto Moreno |
| 19 | MF | FRA | Francis Coquelin |
| 20 | MF | ESP | Ramon Terrats |
| 21 | FW | ESP | Yeremy Pino |
| 22 | MF | ESP | Denis Suárez |
| 23 | DF | ALG | Aïssa Mandi |
| 24 | DF | ESP | Alfonso Pedraza |
| 25 | FW | BFA | Bertrand Traoré |
| 26 | DF | ESP | Adrià Altimira |
| 27 | FW | MAR | Ilias Akhomach |
| 37 | DF | ESP | Carlos Romero |

### Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | DF | COL | Johan Mojica (at Osasuna until 30 June 2024) |
| — | FW | NED | Arnaut Danjuma (at Everton until 30 June 2024) |
| — | FW | FRA | Haissem Hassan (at Sporting Gijón until 30 June 2024) |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| — | FW | ARG | Thiago Ojeda (at Lugo until 30 June 2024) |
| — | FW | CHI | Ben Brereton Díaz (at Sheffield United until 30 June 2024) |

## Transfers
### In

| Pos. | Player | Transferred from | Fee | Date |
| MF | Arnaut Danjuma | Tottenham Hotspur | Loan return | 30 June 2023 |
| MF | Santi Comesaña | Rayo Vallecano | Free | 1 July 2023 |
| MF | Denis Suárez | Celta Vigo | Free | 1 July 2023 |
| MF | Ramon Terrats | Girona | €2,500,000 | 1 July 2023 |
| FW | Ilias Akhomach | Barcelona | Free | 3 July 2023 |
| FW | Ben Brereton Díaz | Blackburn Rovers | Free | 4 July 2023 |
| FW | Alexander Sørloth | RB Leipzig | €10,000,000 | 25 July 2023 |
| DF | Matteo Gabbia | Milan | Loan | 26 July 2023 |
| DF | Eric Bailly | Beşiktaş | Free | 1 January 2024 |
| FW | Gonçalo Guedes | Wolverhampton Wanderers | Loan | 19 January 2024 |
| DF | Yerson Mosquera | Wolverhampton Wanderers | Loan | 23 January 2024 |
| FW | Bertrand Traoré | Aston Villa | Free | 1 February 2024 |

### Out

| Pos. | Player | Transferred to | Fee | Date |
| FW | Álex Millán | Oviedo | Free | 1 July 2023 |
| MF | Manu Morlanes | Mallorca | €4,000,000 | 1 July 2023 |
| FW | Nicolas Jackson | Chelsea | €37,000,000 | 1 July 2023 |
| FW | Boulaye Dia | Salernitana | €12,000,000 | 1 July 2023 |
| MF | Vicente Iborra | Olympiacos | Undisclosed | 11 July 2023 |
| DF | Pau Torres | Aston Villa | Undisclosed | 12 July 2023 |
| MF | Iván Martín | Girona | 2,000,000 | 22 July 2023 |
| FW | Arnaut Danjuma | Everton | Loan + €3,000,000 | 23 July 2023 |
| DF | Johan Mojica | Osasuna | Loan | 26 July 2023 |
| FW | Samuel Chukwueze | Milan | €20,000,000 | 27 July 2023 |
| FW | Haissem Hassan | Sporting Gijón | Loan | 1 August 2023 |
| DF | Matteo Gabbia | Milan | Loan return | 3 January 2024 |
| FW | Ben Brereton Díaz | Sheffield United | Loan | 5 January 2024 |

#### Notes

    1.^ Exercised buy option.
    2.^ Up to €8 million in bonuses.

### New contracts

| Position | Player | Until | Ref. |
| GK | Pepe Reina | June 2024 | |
| FW | Haissem Hassan | June 2025 | |

## Pre-season and friendlies

Win  Draw  Loss  Fixtures

## Competitions
### Overall record

| Competition | First match | Last match | Starting round | Final position | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record |
| Competition | First match | Last match | Starting round | Final position | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Win % |
| La Liga | 13 August 2023 | 25 May 2024 | Matchday 1 | 8th | 38 | 14 | 11 | 13 | 65 | 65 | +0 | 036.84 |
| Copa del Rey | 2 November 2023 | 8 January 2024 | First round | Round of 32 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 2 | +6 | 066.67 |
| UEFA Europa League | 21 September 2023 | 14 March 2024 | Group stage | Round of 16 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 12 | +0 | 062.50 |
| Total | Total | Total | Total | Total | 49 | 21 | 13 | 15 | 85 | 79 | +6 | 042.86 |
Source: Soccerway

### La Liga
#### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 6 | Real Sociedad | 38 | 16 | 12 | 10 | 51 | 39 | +12 | 60 | Qualification for the Europa League league phase |
| 7 | Real Betis | 38 | 14 | 15 | 9 | 48 | 45 | +3 | 57 | Qualification for the Conference League play-off round |
| 8 | Villarreal | 38 | 14 | 11 | 13 | 65 | 65 | 0 | 53 | |
| 9 | Valencia | 38 | 13 | 10 | 15 | 40 | 45 | −5 | 49 | |
| 10 | Alavés | 38 | 12 | 10 | 16 | 36 | 46 | −10 | 46 | |
* 1 2 Since the winners of the 2023–24 Copa del Rey, Athletic Bilbao, qualified for European competition based on league position, the Europa League berth awarded to the Copa del Rey winners was passed to the sixth-placed team, and the Conference League berth awarded to the sixth-placed team was passed to the seventh-placed team.

#### Results summary

| Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Overall | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Home | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away | Away |
Source: La Liga

#### Results by round

| Round | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 |
| Ground | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | A | H | H | A | A | H | A | H | A | H | A |
| Result | L | W | L | L | W | D | L | D | L | D | W | L | L | W | D | L | L | W | L | L | D | W | D | D | D | W | W | W | W | L | D | W | W | L | W | W | D | D |
| Position | 14 | 11 | 13 | 15 | 13 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 16 | 14 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 12 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 15 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 8 |

#### Matches

The league fixtures were unveiled on 22 June 2023.

### UEFA Europa League
#### Group stage

The draw for the group stage was held on 1 September 2023.
| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification | VIL | REN | MHA | PAO |
| 1 | Villarreal | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 7 | +2 | 13 | Advance to round of 16 | — | 1–0 | 0–0 | 3–2 |
| 2 | Rennes | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 13 | 6 | +7 | 12 | Advance to knockout round play-offs | 2–3 | — | 3–0 | 3–1 |
| 3 | Maccabi Haifa | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 9 | −6 | 5 | Transfer to Europa Conference League | 1–2 | 0–3 | — | 0–0 |
| 4 | Panathinaikos | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 10 | −3 | 4 | | 2–0 | 1–2 | 1–2 | — |

#### Knockout phase
##### Round of 16

The draw for the round of 16 was held on 23 February 2024.

## Statistics
### Squad statistics

    Last updated 1 April 2024.
| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Total | Total | La Liga | La Liga | Copa del Rey | Copa del Rey | UEFA Europa League | UEFA Europa League |
| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| Goalkeepers ||||||||||||
| 1 | GK | ESP | Pepe Reina | 11 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| 13 | GK | DEN | Filip Jörgensen | 30 | 0 | 29 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Defenders ||||||||||||
| 2 | DF | COL | Yerson Mosquera | 10 | 1 | 6+2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1+1 | 1 |
| 3 | DF | ESP | Raúl Albiol | 26 | 0 | 21+1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2+1 | 0 |
| 5 | DF | ESP | Jorge Cuenca | 28 | 3 | 17+6 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4+1 | 0 |
| 8 | DF | ARG | Juan Foyth | 16 | 1 | 12 | 1 | 0+1 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| 12 | DF | CIV | Eric Bailly | 10 | 0 | 6+1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 17 | DF | ESP | Kiko Femenía | 23 | 0 | 9+7 | 0 | 2+1 | 0 | 3+1 | 0 |
| 18 | DF | ESP | Alberto Moreno | 29 | 1 | 13+9 | 1 | 2+1 | 0 | 3+1 | 0 |
| 23 | DF | ALG | Aïssa Mandi | 20 | 1 | 10+4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| 24 | DF | ESP | Alfonso Pedraza | 20 | 1 | 13+2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1+3 | 0 |
| 26 | DF | ESP | Adrià Altimira | 18 | 0 | 10+1 | 0 | 2+1 | 0 | 3+1 | 0 |
| 37 | DF | ESP | Carlos Romero | 8 | 0 | 2+5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 42 | DF | SRB | Stefan Leković | 2 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Midfielders ||||||||||||
| 4 | DF | ESP | Santi Comesaña | 31 | 3 | 14+7 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 5+2 | 1 |
| 6 | MF | FRA | Étienne Capoue | 36 | 2 | 15+13 | 1 | 0+1 | 0 | 5+2 | 1 |
| 10 | MF | ESP | Dani Parejo | 34 | 3 | 22+3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4+3 | 1 |
| 14 | MF | ESP | Manu Trigueros | 19 | 3 | 1+10 | 0 | 2+1 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
| 16 | MF | ESP | Álex Baena | 38 | 5 | 26+1 | 2 | 1+2 | 1 | 5+3 | 2 |
| 19 | MF | FRA | Francis Coquelin | 17 | 0 | 8+4 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 2+2 | 0 |
| 20 | MF | ESP | Ramon Terrats | 19 | 0 | 5+9 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 | 1+2 | 0 |
| 22 | MF | ESP | Denis Suárez | 6 | 0 | 1+3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1+1 | 0 |
| Forwards ||||||||||||
| 7 | FW | ESP | Gerard Moreno | 35 | 11 | 25+2 | 10 | 1+1 | 0 | 3+3 | 1 |
| 9 | FW | POR | Gonçalo Guedes | 12 | 2 | 4+5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 11 | FW | NOR | Alexander Sørloth | 33 | 17 | 22+4 | 14 | 0+1 | 0 | 4+2 | 3 |
| 15 | FW | ESP | José Luis Morales | 32 | 9 | 8+15 | 6 | 2+1 | 2 | 2+4 | 1 |
| 21 | FW | ESP | Yeremy Pino | 10 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2+1 | 0 |
| 25 | FW | BFA | Bertrand Traoré | 5 | 0 | 3+2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 | FW | MAR | Ilias Akhomach | 31 | 3 | 12+11 | 1 | 2+1 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| 30 | FW | ESP | Jorge Pascual | 5 | 1 | 0+1 | 0 | 1+1 | 1 | 0+2 | 0 |
| 43 | FW | ESP | Diego Collado | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0+1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Players transferred out during the season ||||||||||||
| 2 | DF | ITA | Matteo Gabbia | 13 | 0 | 6+1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5+1 | 0 |
| 9 | FW | CHI | Ben Brereton Díaz | 20 | 0 | 2+12 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3+2 | 0 |

### Goalscorers

| Position | Players | LaLiga | Copa del Rey | Europa League | Total |
| FW | Alexander Sørloth | 23 | 0 | 3 | 26 |
| FW | Gerard Moreno | 10 | 0 | 1 | 11 |
| FW | José Luis Morales | 7 | 2 | 1 | 10 |
| MF | Álex Baena | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| FW | Ilias Akhomach | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| MF | Dani Parejo | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| DF | Jorge Cuenca | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| FW | Gonçalo Guedes | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| MF | Manu Trigueros | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| MF | Santi Comesaña | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| DF | Yerson Mosquera | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| MF | Étienne Capoue | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| DF | Alberto Moreno | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| DF | Juan Foyth | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| DF | Aïssa Mandi | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| FW | Jorge Pascual | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| MF | Alfonso Pedraza | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| MF | Bertrand Traoré | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |