Football Season Guide

The objective last season for Athletic Club was to qualify for Europe and they failed to achieve it, although only by five points. Their problem in the league was inconsistency, as they had some very positive runs and some very bad runs of form. They did, though, make the Copa del Rey final, even if that hasn’t been played yet due to Covid-19. With directors at the club largely content with the project and with the club’s Basque-only policy restricting what they can pull off in the transfer market, Athletic Club have made almost no changes in the transfer market. Some veterans have left and they’ll be replaced by talents from their impressive academy, but that’s it. This, then, is Athletic Club’s main strength. It’s that they basically have the same squad as last season and they 100 percent have the same starting XI as last season. The coach Gaizka Garitano has been there for one and a half years already, so everyone knows what they’re doing. With Athletic Club solid in all areas of the pitch, their weakness is more of a mental one than a tactical or personnel one. It’s their inconsistency. They need to stop getting stuck in runs of poor form.