Football Season Guide

Levante finished 15th last season and were in danger of slipping into relegation trouble towards the end of the year. They were spectacularly fun to watch as they scored the fourth-most goals in the division at the same time as they conceded the second-most. For coach Paco Lopez, he’ll remain confident in his attack. But the defence has to improve and it’s no coincidence that half of the club’s summer signings have been defenders. Jorge Miramon and Oscar Duarte will be contenders to start, while Carlos Clerc adds depth too. They also managed to tie Ruben Vezo, who joined on loan in January of last season and who played well at cente-back, down to a permanent deal. The overall outlook for Levante is a fairly positive one. They haven’t lost many players and the ones who have departed were generally fringe players anyway. Their obvious strength going into the season is their ability to score goals and Jose Luis Morales is such a special talent that they’ll be a danger to all defences. Clearly, the defence is the weakness, but this shouldn’t be as big of an issue as it was last year based on the signings they’ve made. If Lopez can come up with a system that works and stick with it, instead of tinkering with his tactics too much like he has done in the past, then Levante might be able to stop the leaking of goals at the back.