Raul is in a bind

Raúl is not in danger as coach of Castillabut in the absence of a week to complete a thousand days directing the white subsidiary, his training journey in Valdebebas seems stagnant. From a sporting point of view, his team is suffering to the point that they have lost four of their last five games, the last one this past Tuesday against Albacete at the Di Stéfano (0-1), they are one of the worst teams in the entire First RFEF as a visitor and they have not just imposed their style, with games in which he has used variations such as including three central defenders. Moreover, he sees the relegation zone to the Second RFEF out of the corner of his eye, one point away.

Within a hypothetical League of Affiliates that we assembled among the subsidiaries that play in the two groups of this brand new First RFEF, Castilla (32 points) would be the fourth of the eight that play it, being in points right now behind Celta B (47), Villarreal B ( 46) and Barcelona B (33), although the culé subsidiary can argue the loss of troops and even the coach himself (Sergi Barjuan) to the benefit of the first team.

‘Veterans’ without motivation…

Madrid promised at the beginning of the summer to expand the role played by youth squads who reared their heads last season with Zidane. TO Miguel Gutierrez and Anthony White They were given the role of being on horseback with the first team, but the first disappeared after the infamous 1-2 with the Sheriff and the second, directly from the signing on Camavinga’s buzzer. Marvin and Arribaswho by age (21 and 20 years old, respectively) were willing to go out in the summer and had offers to do so, directly they have been cloistered in Castilla. The result has been ‘veterans’ with more aspirations than the First RFEF nestled in an unpleasant category and to whom Ancelotti did not give ball even in the Cup. Raúl has had to deal with that point of demoralization of an important sector of the Castilista dressing room.

Victim of arbitral severity

Castilla has been suffering a cascade of expulsions, especially when they play as visitors. During the stretch of six starts between December 11 and January 6, the white kids suffered expulsions in four of them. It started at the home of Sevilla Atlético, where Cid Camacho showed Mario Martín a direct red card in the 84th minute and the duel finally ended 1-1. Two starts later, at 1-1 in Alcoy, Retu saw a yellow card at 81′ and nine minutes later, the second. Something similar happened to Pablo Ramón in the Mini Clásico (2-2). Castilla was holding a 1-2 until the Majorcan’s double yellow occurred, with the first in the 75th minute and the second ten minutes later… A story that repeated itself, with more dire results, on February 20, in San Fernando. Conejero Sánchez sent the castilista defender Rafa Marín to the locker room without delay. Yellow card at 15′, another at 25′ and a match that Castilla had 0-0 went to hell. Tthree minutes after staying with one less, he conceded the first goal and although there was a red card against a local player, in the 75th minute, by then the thing was 2-1 and the comeback was almost impossible due to Castilista exhaustion.

Changes and more changes

Outside of the times that Ancelotti has sporadically pulled one of his pupils (Santos, Peter, Rafa Marín…), sanctions or technical decisions, Raúl has employed 30 footballers this season and that only has 22 players on the squad. He has resorted to several footballers, including Juvenile B, cases of Alvaro Rodriguez, Edgar Pujol or the Argentine pearl Nico Peaceall of them 17 years old. The footballers employed by the legendary seven this season they average just 18.5 years. Even so, without going any further in the defeat against Albacete, he preferred to give Álvaro Rodríguez the lead of the attack instead of Latasa, the team’s most experienced nine and its second top scorer (six goals). At the break he removed the ‘rookie’ and put in Latasa. Not for those.

Away from home, the horror

The previous point, nerves and lack of experience are penalizing even Raúl’s Castilla who every time he leaves the comfort of Valdebebas it is synonymous with defeat. Only three teams in the entire Group 2 of this First RFEF are worse in terms of points (nine) than Castilla. Cornellà, Costa Brava and Linense, and only the first exceeds the nine defeats away from home for the Castilista team. In Group 1 the same thing happens, only Tudelano accumulates ten defeats as a visitor.