Tenerife coach Álvaro Cervera was cautious about Saturday’s visit to Arrenteiro, bottom of La Liga Group A, and recalled his team’s pasts at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez against lower-ranked opponents, such as Unionestas Salamanca, which ended in an unexpected 2-0 defeat.
The Blue and White coach admitted that that match was one of the matches that raised “the most doubts” in him this season, and for this reason he does not trust the visit of the Galician team, the lowest scorer in the tournament – eight goals in thirteen matches – and which also witnessed a recent change of coach, and the difficulty that this entails in preparing a way to counter its virtues.
Cervera said in a press conference, “These teams, for whatever reason, were not good with us,” and his new coach, Jorge Cuesta, who comes from Vigo, “suggests a good match, with good handling of the ball,” and remembers that this type of competitor “caused us harm.”
The Blue and White coach also highlighted the presence in Arrenteiro of midfielder Alvaro Bastida, who made his debut for Cádiz in the Primera Division, and is a player who “will have a career” in football, although he plays for the Galician team in a more backward position.
Cervera did not want to reveal whether he would maintain the tactical system he followed in the past few days, but he then admitted that his team, which includes strikers, is “dangerous, more decisive and does not suffer much in defence,” so his idea is “for the changes to be in the players, not in the drawing.”
To face this match, which will start at 5:30 p.m., the Al-Zaeem coach will not be able to rely on the injured Marc Mathieu, Javi Perez and Danny Fernandez.
The next match will be at home again, in the Copa del Rey against Granada, next Thursday 4 December (9:00pm), in which Cervera has admitted that he will propose a different line-up than usual, not only because “the most important thing is the league”, but also to prevent players playing more than three games in just nine days, with the visit of Lugo (Sunday 7 December) looming on the horizon.