Player Ratings: Real Madrid Castilla 3-0 Sabadell

Real Madrid Castilla defeated Sabadell 3-0 on Sunday evening and picked up their fourth (!) win in a row, bumping them up to 7th place, at least temporarily.

They’ve managed to turn their season around, and seems to have put the rough patch behind them. In a game where Castilla dominated proceedings from start to finish, there wasn’t a whole lot to be concerned about. A few issues were prevalent here and there, of course, but for the most part, Castilla looked good. Their pressing caused a lot of trouble for Sabadell, and after a slow start offensively, they started creating chances regularly as well.

Here are my player ratings:

Toni Fuidias-6.5: There’s not a lot that Fuidias had to do in this game. He passed the ball relatively well from the back. He had a pretty good save around the 36th-minute mark — a free-kick attempt, following a foul in a dangerous position by Juame Jardi. The goalkeeper closed down the angle on a couple of shots from Sabadell’s players, but again, not a lot to do.

Sergio Santos-6: Santos wasn’t involved in the build-up play as much as he would’ve liked. He made runs into the attacking third when he knew he was being covered by Peter Gonzalez. Other than that, a few defensive interventions, a few good passes, that’s really it. Nothing fancy from the Spaniard.

Rafa Marin-7.5: Rafa had a very good game. Defensively, he was as no-nonsense, clearing the ball one time after the other. He was also involved in the attacking third, particularly in the first half when Aranda put the ball into the box from a free-kick, his effort drifting just wide, and again when he wasn’t fast enough to latch onto Peter’s cross. He was tidy in possession, and was definitely the more active centre-back in most defensive sequences.

Mario Gila-7: As I said, Gila was a bit less active simply because Marin did most of the work for him. But, he had his share of defensive interventions. He was great with the ball, and successfully picked out Latasa many times through long balls. He was very important in the circulation of the ball.

Pablo Ramon-6: Ramon started on the left against Sabadell, and had a fairly decent game. Nothing to write home about, but nothing bad either. Had a pretty good cross in the first half, but was relatively quiet in the offense otherwise. Oh, and he sort of dribbled past two or three players in tight spaces in a sequence late in the game. Nothing happened because of it, but it was cool to see.

Mario Martin-6.5: In the first half, Martin had a few very good interceptions. He was a bit sluggish in possession, but did help Castilla by playing the ball out wide on a number of occasions. He had a couple of blocks in the second half, was always positioned well, and had a quiet, yet impactful game in the middle of the park.

Carlos Dotor-7.5: I was confused about whether to give him a higher rating than this. Dotor had a very good second half. He was involved a lot more, he looked a lot more active, and he won and scored a penalty to get his first goal of the season. But, the first half is what brought his rating down by a point, he just looked a step slow in most sequences, and felt out of the loop when he was defending. He improved on it, though, and that’s what matters.

Peter Gonzalez-5.5: Didn’t have the best game offensively, but covered well for Sergio Santos whenever the Spaniard surged forward. He had a couple of very nice passes, and was good with the ball, but nothing impactful from him in this game. It didn’t feel like he wasn’t involved, or that he didn’t get the ball as much as he would’ve hoped, but he just didn’t do as much as he could have with it.

Oscar Aranda-7.5 Aranda slotted home a penalty in the 54th minute, scoring his fourth goal of the season. The thing that impressed me the most was his pressing. He was just so diligent with the press, and he never gave up on winning the ball, which forced Sabadell into quite a few turnovers.

Juanme Jardi-8: Jardi had a beautiful cross to Latasa for the first goal of the game — but he did so much more than that. More often than not, he tracked back and helped out the defense. When they did win the ball, he sprinted out wide to open up an opportunity for a counter-attack. He had a bunch of interceptions and tackles due to the pressing of Latasa and Aranda, while also doing some of it himself. Excellent game from Jardi.

Juanmi Latasa-7.5: Latasa was also pretty good today. He backed into his defender quite a bunch of times and used his frame to win aerial duels. He won quite a few headers and passed the ball out wide to start attacks. He was, like I said, a great presence when Castilla didn’t have the ball. He urged his team to go forward and press while doing so himself, I really liked that about him. Didn’t have a great second half, but he did what he had to do. Did receive a yellow card in the first, though.

Substitutes-

Ivan Morante-7: Best substitute out of the five. He was heavily involved in the game, won the ball back a bunch of times, and was good at keeping it. Had a few pretty good passes as well.

Sergio Arribas-5.5- Didn’t really have a huge impact on the game. His pressing was fine, he had a few passes, a couple of nice touches. Nothing worth remembering, though.

Marvin Park-6.5 Marvin brought with him some much-needed energy. His pressing was fantastic, and he used his pace to get past his man and cross a couple of times, one of which was very good, but unfortunately, Dotor’s shot wasn’t good enough. He also had a brilliant run late in the game, but he messed up the chance at the end as he wasn’t composed enough.

Andri Gudjohnsen-N/A Nothing noteworthy from Gudjohnsen.

David Gonzalez-N/A Nothing noteworthy from David.