Season Preview 2012-13: Can We Do It Again?

Once again here we are, wondering how next season could possibly be any better than last. Levante fans were overjoyed in 2011 to see their team play out to a 0-0 draw in Mestalla against archrivals Valencia CF to mathematically avoid relegation. No one really ventured to place the bar any higher than it already was, though at the start of the 2011-12 season, Levante had clearly made a huge jump in the quality of its roster. At each position, Levante improved drastically and in retrospect in should have been obvious that Levante were going to be looking up and not down. Though the Europa League and a very foreign-filled roster could prove to be major obstacles for the club’s 2012-13 Liga campaign, I am going to venture to say that Levante can be as good and maybe even a little bit better than it was last year. Let’s take a look at how Levante have improved… Click to Read Full Article

DEFENSE

Javi Venta < Christian Lell  

• Javi still is solid, however his form really fell off the deep end midseason. Lell will bring youth and profesionalism, along with a real hunger to compete. This should help Pedro López stay in top form with some competition and provide for rest.

Cabral < Hector Rodas & David Navarro & ???

• Cabral was quicker than the other center halves, but mentally had lapses, and so did Navarro. However, one has to believe that with a young and inspired Rodas and a tough and experienced Navarro, who will rejoin his former Mallorca mate Ballesteros, in the middle can make fans easily forget Cabral… at least until Celta come to town, that will be a sight to witness. Also, Levante are expected to sign another center back.

Del Horno < Karabelas

• If Del Horno had not struggled so much with injury, this would go the other way. If Karabelas can clean up his game (terrible own goal against Villarreal in preseason friendly) and stay healthy, he can probably be better than Del Horno, though Asier’s profesionalism and all-out gifting of himself to the cause will have to be replaced by Karabelas and someone else, hopefully Rodas. For just one of them, that load would be too much to carry.

MIDFIELD

Xavi Torres < Pape Diop  

• Younger, quicker and stronger defensively, Diop will be better than Xavi Torres. Let’s not forget Iborra was the real star midfielder last year, not X. Torres.

Farinós < Dudka

• The signing of Dudka from Auxerre seems close to conclussion but is not official. If the deal did produce itself, Dudka´s youth and ability to function at multiple positions (Defensive Middie, Centre Back and Outside Back) would mean he will offer more to the coaching staff in terms of strategy than Farinós did.

Valdo < Pedro Rios

• Ríos is faster and ever so slightly more imaginitive. This is perhaps the closest battle, but Valdo clearly must have felt he could not keep up to par this year in La Liga when he packed his bags to go to Cancun.

Pedro Botehlo < Óscar Serrano

• Even if Serrano turns out to be a total bust (again?), the mere fact that he won’t look like he went straight from the discoteca (*ehem*, I mean err… the dentist!) to the field makes him much, much, much better than Botehlo. Even a dazzle of good form could be all Levante really need from Serrano.

Ruben Suarez = Michel

• This really is not a fair comparison as its not a direct swap, but Rubén´s free kicks are just irreplaceable. Michel will do his best to post a fair number of goals. Though he won´t equal the style of Rubén, if he equals his goal register from last season, he will be a runaway success for Levante.

ATTACK

Ghezzal < Ángel

• More agile and quicker in general, Ángel should fit like hand in glove at Levante. Ghezzal struggled and came on strong, but never really showed consistency.

Arandà < Gekas

• Much more prolific and much quicker, Gekas should be miles ahead of Arandà, though it remains to see if Gekas has a better attitude than Arandà who had a notoriously poor demeanor in his time at Levante. Do not expect Gekas to learn Spanish. In all his years in Germany, he still refused to speak even a little German. His reasoning, “they pay me to score goals, not to speak”.

KONÉ > ???

• Let´s face it, the last signing Levante will make will be a striker and barring some obscenely incredible turn of events (hey, it´s happened: see Caicedo and Koné) the #1 striker will not be better than Koné. He made the Levante counterattack work with his precision and most importantly his quickness. Whoever Levante sign, the shoes may be far too big to fill. Luckily the other strikers will carry some more weight this year as opposed to last year, where Koné was mostly alone amongst the strikers.

Is it enough?

While Levante have seemingly improved across the board, this alone is obviously not a guarantee of success. The vast majority of the new signings are new to La Liga and Spain. Language difficulties may present a serious problem for the club and the team. A certain amount of adaptation time will certainly be required for many of the recent signings, a time period that the Liga and Europa League calendars, beginning in earnest over this next week, do not permit. Lastly, its not like the rest of La Liga has been sitting by idly. Sevilla, Real Sociedad, Deportivo, Rayo, Granada and several other teams that theoretically would compete with Levante in the table. A weakened Málaga and a disillusioned Athletic could help matters, but the most important thing for Levante is not to focus on other teams, but rather focus on each game and avoiding injuries, a tall task when considering the additional games being played this year with a roster size about the same as last year. All things considered, Levante should be in the middle of the table, hopefully avoiding relegation for a third consecutive year. ¡Visca Llevant!