Football Season Guide

Real Mallorca

In


Siebe Van Der Heyden (def) Union SG; Omar Mascarell (mid) Elche; Toni Lato (def) Valencia; Javi Llabrés (att) Mirandés – end of loan;

Out


Kang-in Lee (k) (mid) PSG; Iñigo Ruiz de Galarreta (r) (mid) Athletic Club; Ángel Rodríguez (sp) (att) Tenerife; Leo Román (sp) (gk) Real Oviedo; Matija Nastasic (sp) (def) Released; Tino Kadewere (sp) (att) Lyon – end of loan; Ludwig Augustinsson (sp) (def) Sevilla – end of loan; Dennis Hadzikadunic (sp) (def) Rostov – end of loan;

Real Mallorca put together a very impressive season in 2022/23, finishing ninth and almost sneaking a European spot. That is down to the great coaching job done by veteran Javier Aguirre, whose 5-4-1 system was so hard for teams to score against, while Kang-in Lee and Vedat Muriqi did enough in attack to pick up points. It’s problematic, therefore, that Kang-in Lee has left for PSG in the off-season. He was so important for the system last season and nobody Real Mallorca have brought in can replace what he did. Losing central midfielder Inigo Ruiz de Galarreta is also a big blow. The Real Mallorca squad has definitely weakened in the summer, then. It’s also gotten a lot smaller, and there are just 21 players on the books one week before the season. They’ll try to add another piece or two, but that still might not be enough to maintain the quality level of last term. One thing’s for sure, though, and that’s the fact that Real Mallorca will remain a strong defensive unit with their solid and well-drilled back five. But, their weakness will be in attack. If they only scored 37 goals – the fifth-lowest tally in the division – last season with Kang-in Lee, they’ll struggle to even match that this term unless a shock signing is made.

Target


Survival. Even though they finished as high as ninth last season, the fact that the squad has gotten weaker in the off-season means that Real Mallorca should fall down the table this term. They’ll just hope they don’t slip all the way down to the relegation zone.