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There were a lot of changes in Real Madrid’s Juvenil A team, but one thing didn't change — the coach. Guti started his second campaign at Juvenil A and while many La Fabrica followers would love to see him barking orders at Castilla players, the hierarchy of La Fabrica chose to trust Solari this season.
Here's how Guti's RM U19s line up against Aravaca at 6pm CEST. Three-man defence. 4 changes: Moha Ramos, Chust, Antonio, Pedro come in. pic.twitter.com/tJxjTotbQv
— Alex Kirkland (@alexkirkland) September 9, 2017
As you can see from the lineup, only three players from the 16/17 campaign were in the starting lineup — Moha Ramos, Gorka Zabarte and Alberto. If we take a look at the whole squad, only seven out of the 25-man squad are players who were at Juvenil A last season.
Guti decided to run with the formation de jour -- 3-4-3. Just looking at it before the game, it was plainly obvious that this lineup was hyper-attacking. Antonio was the only true central midfielder, because Miguel Baeza, the star of the team, is a winger/no.10 type of a player.
I have to mention one thing, before I delve into the match. The pitch conditions were suboptimal (at best). It looked like an artificial turf you find at high schools and the dimensions were way off. The pitch was so short that most of Moha's goal kicks ended up either on the edge of the box or directly in the box.
Guti basically gave up on any intricate schemes and went for as many forwards as he could and hoped that the boys will score from a set piece or a corner. It was probably the best idea, because as soon as the match was kicked off it became apparent that there is no space at all. It was either defending or attacking with nothing in between.
The match didn't offer us many chances, and unfortunately, Alberto and Pedro failed in those few chances that Juvenil A had. I wouldn't blame them in the slightest, because it was a very difficult match and we have to give credit to Aravaca. They were organized and kept the spaces between their lines to the minimum. It was hard for Juvenil to break them down on this sort of pitch.
One of the few positive outcomes from this match was Fran Garcia's short cameo in the second half. This small, but wonderful and tenacious left-back returned after getting injured last season in the Copa del Rey and I'm sure Guti will be ecstatic to have him back on the left side.