Football Season Guide

Alaves

In


Rodrigo Battaglia (mid) Sporting CP; Deyverson (att) Palmeiras; Olivier Verdon (def) KAS Eupen – end of loan; Antonio Sivera (gk) Almeria – end of loan; Saul Garcia (def) Rayo Vallecano – end of loan; John Guidetti (att) Hannover – end of loan; Patrick Twumasi (mid) Gaziantep FK – end of loan; Adrián Diéguez (def) Alcorcon – end of loan; Javi Muñoz (mid) Tenerife – end of loan; Burgui (mid) Real Zaragoza – end of loan; Jeando Fuchs (mid) Maccabi Haifa – end of loan

Out


Lisandro Magallán (sp) (def) Ajax – end of loan; Oliver Burke (r) (mid) West Brom – end of loan; Aleix Vidal (r) (mid) Sevilla – end of loan; Víctor Camarasa (sp) (mid) Real Betis – end of loan; Ljubomir Fejsa (sp) (mid) Benfica – end of loan; Roberto (sp) (gk) West Ham – end of loan; Ismael Gutiérrez (sp) (mid) Real Betis – end of loan

Alaves spent most of the 2019/20 campaign flirting with relegation, while they suffered some humiliation in the Copa del Rey as they were the first top-flight side to get knocked out. In the end, they did stay in LaLiga after bringing in Juan Ramon Lopez Muniz to coach the final four matches. Lopez Muniz was not kept on, however. Instead, the club opted for former Girona, Sevilla and Espanyol coach Pablo Machin to come in. It’s an intriguing appointment since he usually plays with a back three and it means that either the coach or the squad will have to adapt. The squad has been shaken up quite a bit, but mostly with on-loan players leaving and those who were on loan returning. The one really exciting signing, though, is that of feisty Brazilian forward Deyverson, who adds much-needed depth at the striker position. The strength of this Alaves team is the fact that most of the key starters from last season have remained at the club, with several players having been there for many years. On the other hand, this strength could turn into a weakness if the new coach tries to change up too much. There is a need to improve in both defence and attack, but Alaves also won’t want to move too far away from their counter-attacking roots that have generally served them well over the years.

Target


Avoiding relegation. With Alaves having come close last season and with Pablo Machin having been one of the coaches at relegated Espanyol last season, both club and coach will be content with simply staying up.