Villarreal B—Levante B gamethread

Villarreal play Levante again, but this time it’s in Vila-real, and since it’s a matchup of our respective B teams, there is no VAR, thankfully.

Villarreal’s second team is trying—again—to get out of the Segunda B and back to the Segunda A; remember, we were relegated in 2012 because our first team went down; we actually finished in a comfortable mid-table position that season.

Since then, we have been in the promotion playoffs three of the last four seasons, narrowly missing out on going up in 2017-18, especially. We’ve tried various roster strategies over the years—going strictly with youth, blending in some older players—and this year we look to be going primarily with our guys who have come up in our system and are 23 and under. We did sign two players who are slightly older—Sofiane Chakla is 25, Edu Espiau 24—but that’s really it.

Players to watch for me include keeper Diego Fuoli, midfielders Iván Martin, Iván Morante, and Mukwelle Akale, and striker Alex Millán, who tallied 16 times for our C team last season.

As a reminder, here are the team numbers for this season:

Keepers: Diego Fuoli (1) and Josele Martínez Cárceles (13)

Defenders: Andrei Ratiu (2), Edu Adell (3), José Castaño (4), Carlos Blanco (5), Sofian Chakla (15), Goyo Medina (14) and Migue Leal (22)

Midfielders: Ramón Bueno (6), Iván Martín ‘Pacheco’ (7), Fran Álvarez (8), Akale (10), Carlos Beitia (16), Juan Agüero (17), Ramiro Guerra (18) and Sergio Lozano (21)

Strikers: Edu Espiau (9), Villa (11) y Álex Millán (19).

Endavant!!