Football Season Guide

Alaves started really well last season and were as high as fifth at the midway point. However, they had a very poor second half and there was conflict between Abelardo, the coach, and those in charge at the club. They ultimately finished in 11th. The conflict with Abelardo led to the coach leaving. To replace him, Alaves hired former Leganes coach Asier Garitano, who didn’t have success in his most recent role at Real Sociedad. He is a defensive-minded coach and Alaves could be a very conservative team this year. Although they’ve lost a lot of good players, their summer recruitment has been pretty good, as they’ve strengthened the full-back positions with Saul Garcia and Aleix Vidal, while Joselu and Lucas Perez are risky bets but could pay off and improve the attack. They’ve assembled a fairly complete squad, even if there isn’t too much creativity in midfield, apart from in the form of wingers. It looks like they’ll be the kind of team that use the wings to try to get crosses into the box. A major strength for Alaves is their defending, especially at home. They’ve long been tough to score against, due to impressive centre-backs and Fernando Pacheco, one of the better goalkeepers in the division. Their main weakness might be in attack. Even though they had a good season last year, they still scored the fourth fewest goals. There isn’t much creativity up front and the strikers they have can be inconsistent.