Although Sunday’s game will be a clash between the top and bottom of the table, both Castellon and Atlético Baleares will be motivated to prove a point, for very different reasons. The Albinegres need to back up their impressive win against Eldense, while the team from the islands will be full of players wanting to make an impression on new manager Tato, who was appointed this week.
With Eldense’s lead now only one point, any slip up from them against Sabadell could potentially hand the lead back to Castellón, so now is not the time for the Albinegres to take the foot of the gas, even slightly.
The same can be said for the fans, who after showing up in numbers last weekend, and recording the highest attendance of the season, can’t revert to normal. The club is continuing its discounted ticket price offering, even going as far as setting up a Valentine’s sofa pitch side for one lucky couple to watch the game.
Form & team news
Atlético Baleares have won just one game in 2023, against Gimnastic Tarragona. Since then, they have picked up just two points, which is what precipitated the coaching change. Onésimo Sanchez was dismissed on Monday, and replaced the same day by Santanyí manager Tato, making him the team’s fourth manager this season.
Castellón are now undefeated in eight games, their second longest streak of the season, winning three of those. Should Castellón score two or more, it would be only the third time season that that has happened in consecutive games. Goalkeeper Alfonso Pastor will also be looking for consecutive clean sheets for the first time since October.
The availability of players for both teams remains somewhat unclear although Pablo Hernández and Koné will definitely miss out for Castellón due to injury. Salva Ruiz, who played his first minutes back from injury against Eldense, might be fit enough to start.
On the Mallorcan side, Castellón loanee Bilal Kandoussi is ineligible to play against his parent club due to the so-called “fear clause”, and there could be some significant squad rotation in line with the managerial change.
Opponent analysis
It’s difficult to find much footage of Santanyí’s games to find out what Tato might have in mind, although from the couple of highlights in YouTube, they seem to have played a slightly higher line, with a more pressing style.
Atlético Baleares’s vulnerabilities have been mostly on the defensive end, with major spacing issues both in transition and in more static play. In the first example below, Cornellà take advantage of a counter attack, and the fact that the Atletico Baleares defender doesn’t close down the passer fast enough. Despite it theoretically being a three on three situation, the lack of pressure makes it a three on two. This gives the Cornellà player the chance to play a beautiful through ball which gave them their third goal and killed the game. 37-year-old right back Laure can also be seen trying to catch up, something that Fabricio or Fuentes can take advantage on Sunday with their pace and physicality in transition.
The example below is of a more static situation, with Atlético leaving a huge area of open space to be passed into. Neither of their extra defenders drops back to occupy the space, which leaves the La Nucia player free to run into it and score.
Castellón definitely have the tools to exploit these weaknesses, and new manager Tato should have spent this week trying to improve the spacing and managing the distance.
Offensively things are better – Dioni is Atletico’s top scorer this season, with 10 goals in 23 games, and will be the focal point of the visitors’ attack at Castalia. He offers a physical presence as well as a goalscoring touch, and Castellón’s likely defensive pairing of Granero and Indias will need to on alert. The Mallorca side also have a nice selection of wingers, including Victor Pastrana who has a nose for goal.
Albert Rudé’s comments
“We expect uncertainty because we know that when there is a change of coach, the team will change in terms of attitude and tactics. We have analysed the new coach's work with his previous team to see how they play. We have also studied his players to see what their tendencies are and to prepare for the scenarios that we think could happen”
“We take it one game at a time so that we don't lose focus on immediacy and we believe that we must continue in this upward trajectory of play because that brings us closer to better results. If we get good results, we know we will be there and we want to be there when the moment of truth arrives. To do that we need to stay competitive and improve our game every week.”