Football Season Guide

It was a torrid 2016/17 campaign for Valencia, who looked like relegation candidates during the first half of the season before drifting along in mid-table for the second half of the campaign. Supporters were upset, there were disagreements and disruption in the boardroom as the team moved through Pako Ayestaran and Cesare Prandelli before deciding to give the coaching job to caretaker Voro until the end of the season. All at the Mestalla are hoping for a much improved year this time around, especially now that they've hired Marcelino as coach - the man who guided Villarreal to 4th place in his last job. However, the transfer activity so far has not inspired too much confidence and there have been reports that Marcelino is unhappy with the lack of signings, with Neto Murara and Nemanja Maksimovic the only two new arrivals – as all other summer imports are simply loan recalls. The fact that a number of players have left the club – including star goalkeeper Diego Alves and last year's loan signings Mario Suárez, Munir El Haddadi and Eliaquim Mangala – means that the squad looks even weaker than it was this time last year. The hope, then, is that the arrival of Marcelino will be such a boost that it squeezes more out of a lesser squad. There is a good chance that this low-cost plan could indeed come to fruition, given the successes Marcelino achieved at Villarreal. He played some fairly defensive football there, organising his players in a simple 4-4-2 formation, and he has been installing this system during Valencia’s pre-season. Valencia, therefore, should be far more organised than they were last season and they should concede far fewer goals than the 65 they let in last year. As for scoring them, that task will fall on Simone Zaza, who joined on loan last year and who impressed enough to be kept on.