It had been a relatively stable season for LaLiga head coaches, with only Las Palmas boss Luis Carrion having lost his job heading into the last day of November.
However all that has changed over the past few days, with Paulo Pezzolano dismissed by bottom club Real Valladolid, and more surprisingly, Alaves making a change with Luis Garcia Plaza getting the chop following a dip in form.
He departs following a 1-1 home draw against newly promoted Leganes, just the Basque club’s fourth league point in the space of nine games. Chacho Coudet has already been announced as his replacement, with the Argentine returning to LaLiga, a little over two years on from his dismissal at Celta Vigo.
Luis Garcia sacked in surprise move
Whatever the circumstances of the last few months, Luis Garcia can leave Alaves with his held high, having done an exceptionally good job in Vitoria.
He took over a club that had just finished rock bottom of LaLiga 2021/22, and immediately steadied the ship, guiding Alaves to promotion from the Segunda Division at the first attempt via the play-offs.
They were inevitably viewed as one of the leading relegation candidates last term, but Garcia’s side defied all expectations with an excellent 10th place finish. They ended the campaign strongly with four wins from their final seven matches, including a fine 2-0 victory over Atletico Madrid at Mendizorroza.
The summer brought with it a significant squad overhaul though. Top scorer Samu Omorodion and centre-back Rafa Marin’s loan contracts ended, while Ruben Duarte, Javi Lopez, Andoni Gorosabel and Luis Rioja all departed.
That meant that six of the eleven players to clock up the most minutes in LaLiga for Alaves last season were no longer around, heading into the 2024/25 campaign. With Gorosabel leaving on a free transfer, they were only able to recoup money for three of those players, so the rebuilding job was not an easy one.
12 players arrived for Garcia to attempt to shape into a competitive team once more, with Toni Martinez, Tomas Conechny and Santiago Mouriño the most expensive additions at €2m apiece.
Have things really declined this season?
Initially, a new-look Alaves side seemed unaffected, and potentially even better as a result of the changes. They won three of their opening six league games, including an impressive 2-1 win at Basque rivals Real Sociedad, with Martinez making an early impact up front.
However, results have taken a significant turn for the worse since then, and pre-season fears that Alaves would find it impossible to get anywhere near replicating last year’s top half finish have certainly returned.
Prior to the draw with Leganes in what would prove to be Luis Garcia’s final game, they’d lost seven out of eight in the league, with even a limited Real Valladolid side winning 3-2 in Vitoria in October.
| Alaves in LaLiga 2023/24 | Alaves in LaLiga 2024/25 | |
| Win ratio | 31.6% | 26.7% |
| Points per game | 1.21 | 0.93 |
| Average possession | 40.7% | 41.8% |
| Shots per game | 12.2 | 11.6 |
| Goals per game | 0.95 | 1.07 |
| xG per game | 1.21 | 0.89 |
| Goals against per game | 1.21 | 1.67 |
| xGA per game | 1.08 | 1.32 |
Most metrics do indicate a decline from last season. Compared to the 2023/24 campaign, Alaves are conceding more goals, winning fewer games, picking up less points and having fewer shots.
However, in most cases the difference is not great, and Los Blanquiazules are actually scoring more goals per game on average this term, despite the departure of Samu who has since broken into the Spanish national team.
According to LaLiga expected goals data, they are creating fewer xG however, as well as allowing more xGA per game than last term. That’s certainly a recipe for a decline, although their figures are not so drastically bad to suggest they were necessarily on course to end up in the bottom three this season had Garcia continued.
“I’m very proud of my work here during this time” claimed the now former Alaves boss following his departure with the side sat 16th in the table, a point above the relegation places.
“The team was on track to achieve its objectives” he added. “For me, it was an unfair decision”.
Alaves appoint former Celta boss Coudet
There is rarely much time for sentiment or reflection in modern football. Luis Garcia departs as the longest serving Alaves coach in 21 years, but his successor has already been appointed and Chacho Coudet is likely to be in the dugout for the Copa del Rey trip to minnows Deportiva Minera in Murcia on Thursday.
Followers of LaLiga, and particularly those of Celta Vigo, will remember his two year stint in charge of the Galician club between 2020 and 2022.
Perhaps ominously for Coudet given how his Alaves reign will start, Celta were knocked out of the Copa del Rey by third tier sides Ibiza and Atletico Baleares during his time at the club, but the Alaves board will be more interested in whether or not he can make an immediate impact in LaLiga.
That was certainly the case when he took over in Vigo, with Celta winning their first five matches with Coudet officially in charge, an extraordinary turnaround from a side that had only won once all season prior to that.
If he can make that kind of instant impact in Vitoria, the Alaves board will quickly feel as though their decision has been vindicated, but there are many reasons to doubt Coudet’s ability to get such a strong response from his new side.
While he took over a Celta squad that could count on the likes of Iago Aspas, Santi Mina, Brais Mendez and Nolito to provide attacking inspiration, there is considerably less firepower in this Alaves set-up.
Winger Carlos Vicente has perhaps been their standout attacking player this term, but Martinez has gone off the boil since a bright start, while 35-year-old Kike Garcia is the main alternative up front, although he hasn’t scored more than five goals in LaLiga since the 2020/21 campaign at Eibar.
The veteran striker is by some distance the oldest player in this Alaves squad though, so there are plenty of younger legs for Coudet to work with, as he tries to implement what is typically an offensive, high intensity style of play.
The concern from an Alaves perspective may be not just the lack of quality in attacking areas, but also the reality that Coudet is no longer the surprise package that tactically outwitted many of his opposing coaches during his early days at Celta.
While he was ultimately dismissed by the Galicians early in the 2022/23 season, the 50-year-old has since managed Atletico Mineiro and Internacional in Brazil, comfortably winning more games than he lost in both roles.
Coudet returns to Spain as much more of a known quantity this time around, but still as something of a risky pick for Alaves given the stability of the Garcia regime.
However, it’s an appointment that should capture the imagination of supporters and one of LaLiga’s tightest and most atmospheric stadiums is sure to be rocking, should he defy the obvious doubts and successfully manage to get this team playing attacking football and scoring goals.
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