Leeds United legend Pablo Hernandez continued his dream start as manager of CD Castellon after maintaining his unbeaten record.
Pablo Hernandez was thrust into the spotlight at his hometown club, CD Castellon, when former head coach Johan Plat left the club.
The former Leeds man enjoyed a dream managerial debut, steering Castellon to a victory in his first game in charge. Hernandez quickly turned this into three victories in a row to continue his impressive start.
Having opened up on a chat with Marcelo Bielsa that changed his career in the build-up to the game, Hernandez faced arguably his toughest task yet, as Castellon travelled to Eibar, who were unbeaten at home heading into the game.
Although the Leeds United legend was unable to maintain his 100% win rate, he remained unbeaten as Castellon secured a 0-0 draw, earning praise from the Spanish media in the process.
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Leeds United legend praised by Spanish media after Castellon draw
Although Castellon were unable to find a winner against Eibar, the stats from the game show that they were the better side, managing 16 shots to Eibar’s seven, including five shots on target.
Spanish publication Marca praised Hernandez’s impact in their match report, running the headline, “The sweetest thing ever: Pablo Hernandez, a sweetheart for Castellón”.
This praise continued in the main body of the report, as Marca said: “Castellón earned a valuable draw at Ipurua, where Eibar are unbeaten.
“Pablo Hernandez’s arrival was the best thing that could have happened to the Orellut team, who have collected 10 points out of a possible 12 (having played three of their four matches away) under their new coach.”
This praise was echoed in Diario AS, which stated that Hernandez had allowed Castellon to dream of more than a relegation fight, writing: “Pablo Hernandez has changed the face of this Castellón side. If he did it in their style of play before, now he’s doing it in the results too.
“Ten points out of a possible twelve to move away from relegation and even dream of something more. It’s not fanciful to think about it after continuing to add points in one of the few unbeaten stadiums in the division.”
Pablo Hernandez pleased with dominant performance
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Hernandez explained that he was pleased with his side’s ability to match Eibar’s intensity. According to Hernandez, he sets his side up to try and win every game, and he believes this has been crucial in changing their mentality.
The former Leeds hero said: “We knew that to produce a good performance here we had to match at least or beat their intensity.
He added: “We have our philosophy. We are going to try to win all the games. The changes I made were in search of that, looking to refresh the team a bit, especially in attack, where we lacked a bit of strength.
“We tried to get dynamic, fresh people in attack, continue going to the whole game, and we have had some chances. But hey, as I said, the second half was a bit more even, but overall I feel like we’ve given a good account of ourselves and we could have got the three points.
“But in the end, we knew it was a difficult game, so we had to keep going. We continued our four-game unbeaten run.”
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