Real Madrid Castilla 4-1 Linares Deportivo player ratings

A solid 3-1 win (Rodriguez, Blanco, Dotor, Arribas) over the lowly Linares keeps Castilla season alive for another few weeks. Currently in 15th, the reserves will have a chance to rise up the table with two games in hand and eat into the nine point deficit that separates them and the final promotion spots in Group 2.

Here are the player ratings from Sunday’s win:

Toni Fuidas - 6: Had hardly anything to do, but did fail to keep a clean sheet which was disappointing for him. Slapped away a few decent chances at 2-1, but outside of that a pretty standard match for Fuidas

Miguel Guiterrez - 8: Do you guys remember that really cool full back that rounded off last season with the first team? Because he’s on something of a comeback tour. Having dropped out of favour with both Ancelotti and Raul for a period, Miguel has recently broken back into the Castilla side in his favoured full back spot and in more central position. This game saw him play a more inverted full back role than usual and he really blossomed in it.

Aside from his gorgeous LaLiga standard crosses, Miguel was a really fun passing option for Aranda and the duo combined to devastating effect throughout the match. It’s interesting to see Gutierrez starting to work on his underlapping runs with Ferland Mendy’s stock being questioned and Fran Garcia be linked with a return. One hopes that Carlo noted this too and has left the Di Stefano with a selection headache for future games.

Mario Gila - 6.5: I saw him barking instructions at his fellow defenders in the first half and thought he passed well under pressure. It’s always difficult to judge defenders in big wins so take the rating with a big pinch of salt.

Alvaro Carillo - 6.5: Had some good moments like Gila, including stopping Linares best chance to equalize in the second half.

Marvin Park - 6.5: He did alot of running and came very close to saving Fuidas’s clean sheet. Played his role well

Antonio Blanco - 7.5: The first half of this game was actually the most I’ve seen Blanco involved in a while. He had some lovely pivots in his own half under pressure and just gave you everything you want to see from a midfielder of his mould. Unfortunately, anything he did in the second half has been cleared away in my memory due to the absolute pearl of a goal he scored. Blanco has never been afraid to shoot while playing for Castilla and after many (somewhat embarrassing) efforts, he finally hit the jackpot.

Carlos Dotor - 6.5: Got a goal of his own to make it 3-1, but I can’t remember any other outstanding moments.

Sergio Arribas - 7.5: Arribas has set a high bar for himself at Castilla and its rare that his teammates match his level like they did on Sunday. It was nice to see the diminutive midfielder actually have options when he received the ball and he even benefited from some nice hustling in the second half.

Oscar Aranda - 8: Joins Miguel as my man of the match and Arribas as one of the few consistent bright sparks for Castilla. The parrels between Aranada’s season this year and Arribas’s during the Youth League are quite striking, especially when you consider compare their technical skill and shooting from outside the box. The latter was really on show today with Arranda coming quite close to grabbing a goal for himself.

Outside of that, him and Miguel were the life of the party with their combinations on the left. The winger has gathered alot of momentum over the last two years and it will be important that Real Madrid take note of the stagnation from their other young stars that stayed this season and ensure the same doesn’t happen to Aranada.

Alvaro Rodriguez - 7: It’s a miracle! A striker in Raul’s system actually played well!

Perhaps one of the defining trait of Castilla’s manager is his love of a particular style of target man forward. Anyone hoping to to play up front for Real Madrid Castilla needs to be able to have alot of strength and ability in the air. Hugo Duro excelled at it, but his more youthful and inexperienced successors have struggled to put it together consistently this year. Rodriguez could still very well join that cohort in the long term, but he certainly looks promising right now.

Aside from the opening goal (a poacher’s finish his manager will be proud of), Rodriguez had one of the brightest games I’ve seen from a Castilla striker this season. It’s been a low bar from the games I’ve watched so it was nice to finally see someone pass the test with flying colors. He bullied the Linares backline and could of had at least a brace in spite of the fact he didn’t get all that much quality service. Hopefully this is the beginning of something bountiful for Castilla because Duro’s presence has been sorely missed so far.

Peter Federico - 6.5: Peter’s stints at full back have made him much better at tracking back than he was last year, though, I really don’t think it was worth breaking his offensive momentum as a result. He was pretty quiet given what Castilla watchers are used to and opted to impact the game from deep. He’s good at it, but its not really what you want from a footballing lightening bolt like Peter.

As I hinted at with Aranda, alot of the old heads from last year clearly haven’t benefited from staying another year and Peter might just be one of those players that needs a new challenge based on my inconsistent viewing.

Subs

Sergio Santos - 5: Apparently he replaced Peter in the 66th minute but I didn’t notice he was playing until the final 10.

David Gonzalez - 6.5: Assisted Arribas for the fourth goal. Some nice hustling from the sub to win the ball back high up.

Ivan Morante - 5: Came on the same time as David, but I didn’t really note anything he did.

Andri Gudjohnsen -N/A: Played five minutes

Theo Zidane - N/A: Played five minutes.