Alavés Faces Scoring Struggles Ahead of Camp Nou Visit

For the first time this season, Deportivo Alavés has suffered two consecutive defeats just a week before their visit to Camp Nou, with all the implications that entails. However, beyond the unfavorable results against Girona and Celta, the most concerning aspect is that they finished both matches without finding the net, a trend that has now occurred in four of their last five outings.

Aside from the victory against Espanyol, where Denis Suárez and Lucas Boyé found the net, Eduardo Coudet’s squad has struggled to score against Valencia, Rayo Vallecano, Girona, and Celta. There were already reasons for concern in Vitoria regarding their lack of finishing before this series of matches, but the last month of competition has evidently exacerbated Alavés’s difficulties in scoring with ease.

The defeat to Celta presented a new challenge that had not been present in the previous three matches. While against Valencia, Rayo Vallecano, and Girona, the focus was on their inability to convert numerous goal-scoring opportunities, last Saturday’s match highlighted a more fundamental issue in their gameplay creation. Alavés generated very few dangerous situations, a significant departure from their previous performances.

The Vitorians appeared overly predictable in their ball movement, lacking the necessary speed in their transitions and sometimes relying too heavily on horizontal passing. There was a clear absence of progressive passes and dribbles that could create the space that they were unable to find through passing alone. This collective struggle resulted in their lowest offensive production of the season in terms of completed shots and expected goals (xG).

Coudet has no choice but to continue dedicating extra hours with the team to address their scoring issues. Currently, Alavés ranks as the third-lowest scoring team in La Liga, and at this point last season, they had three more goals despite having two fewer points than they currently hold.