Cádiz faces a crucial match at the Reino de León against Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa, a game that could determine both teams’ survival in the Segunda División. With Iza Carcelén sidelined due to injury and Bojan Kovacevic suspended after a direct red card, manager Imanol Idiakez must find solutions to shore up his defensive line.
The right-back position seems clear. Juan Díaz is likely to start, as he did last week when he replaced the injured full-back shortly after halftime. The academy product, who has started in other matches this season, has earned the nod over Alfred Caicedo, who has seen very little playing time in the final stretch of the campaign.
The real question is who will partner Iker Recio in central defense, assuming Recio retains his starting spot. With Kovacevic out, three candidates are vying to replace the Serbian. When asked about it in the pre-match press conference, Idiakez hinted that he had already made his decision, even with one training session left before traveling to León. “A coach doesn’t truly know his players until he works with them. Now I’m getting to know them a bit more. We have three alternatives, and in my mind, it’s very clear,” he said.
The three options are Pelayo Fernández, Jorge More, and Sergio Arribas, but none of them have been particularly impressive lately. Pelayo has only played 682 minutes this season and has been left out of recent squads; he has featured for just 45 minutes in the last eleven matchdays, against Real Valladolid. Jorge More, who barely played earlier in the season, gained some prominence after Kovacevic’s injury but has struggled for minutes again—he hasn’t played since March 21, when he was on a run of six consecutive starts. Sergio Arribas made his first start as a left-back in Ceuta and then started against Real Valladolid, Andorra, and Córdoba, but didn’t feature against Sporting or Las Palmas.
It remains to be seen which of the three will be chosen, or if Idiakez will even opt to deploy a midfielder as a center-back, though that scenario seems unlikely. If that happens, it would underscore the disappointing depth of a defensive unit that has failed to meet expectations this season.