Football Season Guide

Deportivo Alaves put together one of the best seasons in the club's history in 2016/17 so repeating that run to the Copa del Rey final and their 9th place league finish will be an incredibly difficult task. It’ll be especially tough because they lost their very talented coach Mauricio Pellegrino to Southampton in the summer, while star loan players Theo Hernandez and Marcos Llorente have both returned to the Spanish capital and have joined the Real Madrid senior squad after impressive loan spells. Also departing was Deyverson, who was their top scorer in thelast campaign but whose loan deal similarly expired in the summer. Victor Laguardia, one of their key defenders, has stayed at the club but he is out injured until December and his absence will feel like another loss. Given how well Alaves exploited the loan market last year, there is some hope that the new arrivals like Hector Hernandez and Tomas Pina can perform as well as those who spent a year in the Basque Country last season, while they've also added promising midfield talents Enzo Zidane and Burgui. It does, however, remain to be seen how successful new coach Luis Zubeldia will be, especially given that he is fairly inexperienced and that he has never coached in Europe before. One of the most impressive things about Pellegrino’s side last year was the way they could seamlessly switch from a 5-4-1 to a 4-2-3-1 formation so it will be crucial for Zubeldia to try to maintain that tactical flexibility which served Alaves so well. Overall, Alaves supporters should expect a drop off in performance this coming season especially as pre-season results have been far from encouraging, with the team winning just two of their first six friendlies of the summer - both of those wins came against lower division Spanish sides. If, however, the new arrivals perform even half as well as those who have departed, then Alaves can still expect to be a competitive side.