Football Season Guide

Alaves had a disastrous start to their 2017/18 campaign. By the 13th round they were bottom of the table and were already sacking their third coach of the season, with Luis Francisco Zubeldia, Javier Antonio Cabello and Giovanni De Biasi having all tried and failed to get the team going. At that point the board opted for Abelardo Fernandez, finally hitting the jackpot. The former Sporting Gijon coach took over after that 13th round and he ultimately led the team to 14th place. He averaged 1.64 points per game, whereas his three predecessors had combined for an average of 0.46 points per game. This year, Alaves will start the season with Abelardo in charge and this is a reason for them to be optimistic. He developed a 4-4-2 formation last year which played to the squad’s strengths, with lots of players helping out in defence and with the team scoring so many of their goals through quick counter attacks. This season, though, Alaves will not have Munir El Haddadi, who was the focal point of their attack last term. The forward, who was on loan from Barcelona, scored 14 LaLiga goals and assisted seven more, meaning he was directly involved in 21 of Alaves’ 40 league goals, which is 52.5%. They signed Swedish striker John Guidetti to a permanent deal after he did well following his January arrival on loan from Celta Vigo and they have signed Borja Baston, who has previously had success in LaLiga with Eibar, but who has struggled at Swansea and at Malaga over the past two years. However, it’s unlikely that either of these players will have as much of an impact as Munir did. The acquisition of right winger Patrick Twumasi Astana is quite exciting too. However, the loss of winger Alfonso Pedraza – another loan player who has returned to his parent club, in this case Villarreal – similarly overshadows this arrival. While Alaves do seem to have the right manager for this season, their squad appears to be weaker than it was last term.