Football Season Guide

Cadiz

In


Santiago Arzamendia (def) Cerro Porteno; Tomás Alarcón (mid) O’Higgins; Varazdat Haroyan (def) Astana; Martín Calderón (mid) Real Madrid; Milutin Osmajic (att) Sutjeska Niksic; Álvaro Giménez (att) RCD Mallorca – end of loan; Nano Mesa (att) Logrones – end of loan

Out


Pedro Alcalá (sp) (def) Cartagena; Augusto Fernández (sp) (mid) Retired; Jairo Izquierdo (sp) (mid) Girona – end of loan; Rubén Sobrino (r) (att) Valencia – end of loan; Ivan Saponjic (att) Atletico Madrid – end of loan

Last season was Cadiz’s first campaign back in Spanish football’s top flight in a decade and a half and it went excellently as they finished 12th place and were never at risk of relegation. They were able to consistently pull results out of the bag, with a defensive style that focused on not conceding. That might sound a little strange to say when you consider that Cadiz conceded the second most goals of the division, with 58. But, the context behind that is the fact that whenever Cadiz conceded the first goal they tended to fold and lose heavily. When they could shut their opponents out early on, though, they made every game a tight one and often snatched victory. There is a need to advance tactically this campaign and to offer more in attack. Cadiz were efficient in front of goal last season, scoring enough even though they had the second fewest shots in the whole division. It’s not a given that they’ll be able to keep that up, especially with striker Alvaro Negredo turning 36 this August. Overall, Cadiz have the second oldest squad in the division this year. They’ve tried to improve in the transfer market, signing some relatively unknown players. This has been a theme of Cadiz’s recruitment in the past few years, with some of these random arrivals working out great and with others not making the grade. In any case, they could do with another signing in attack as this is the area where they really need to evolve this season.

Target


Avoiding relegation. Cadiz did really well to come 12th last year, but they still have one of the smallest budgets in the division and will simply look to consolidate their top tier standing.