The 80th anniversary season will go down in the history of Albacete for being one of the worst of the La Mancha club. In the absence of two days for the end of the championship, Albacete has descended mathematically to the First RFEF. In 40 days, the white team has only been able to add 38 points with a balance of 9 wins, 11 draws and 20 losses. The numbers speak for themselves and this sad season has several reasons:
Bad sports planning
Albacete already suffered a lot last season. In fact, the team from La Mancha was saved with a penalty scored by Maikel Mesa in the last minute of the last day in Cádiz. It was the warning of what could happen months later and the sports management made a template in summer unbalanced and regardless of players with experience in the category such as Pedro Sánchez, Erice or Susaeta to bet on players with a Second B projection who have not offered the expected level.
Coaches and sports directors dance
Not having a defined sports project made Albacete start the season with Lucas Alcaraz on the bench, but the Andalusian coach only spent five days on the bench manchego because after adding only one point out of 15 possible, he was replaced by LÓpez Garai but the Basque coach did not know how to make the most of a team that was already showing signs of relegation. Alejandro Menéndez arrived in December as third coach of the white team after the resignation of sports director Mauro Pérez and the arrival of Toni Cruz to the technical secretary, but the Asturian coach could not find the key either and was dismissed with 5 days remaining for the end of the championship, having to finish the season Fran Noguerol as interim coach.
Winter market failure
The winter market was very active in Albacete as 6 players left the club. Only 3 signings arrived (Dani Torres, Tana and Cedric) but only the Colombian midfielder has offered a consistent performance with what the category demanded since the other two players have barely had minutes.
Little gunpowder in attack
Albacete, like last season, has been the team with the fewest goalscorer in the category. This season he has only managed to score 27 goals in 40 days. Only Alfredo Ortuño, with 7 goals, has been at the height and the poor figures of Roman Zozulia are striking, who has only managed to score 2 goals, one of them from a penalty. In addition to the lack of efficiency in attack, the defense has made serious mistakes that have cost Albacete many points this season and a large part of the squad players have not performed at the expected level.
Specific errors
In recent games, Albacete has suffered very hard blows. The first of them, in Girona where the La Mancha team won 0-1 in the 91st minute but in the discount he ended up losing 2-1. The following day, Albacete lost 0-1 at Carlos Belmonte against Castellón after missing a penalty with 0-0 on the scoreboard and enjoying numerous occasions. The third blow received in a few weeks would arrive in Vallecas after winning 1-2 against Rayo and the Madrid team playing with one man less could equalize the game in the last minutes. In the last match played against Lugo, Álvaro Jiménez missed a ridiculously thrown penalty that would have meant winning the match in the last minutes and still hope to achieve permanence.
All these causes explain an unfortunate and disastrous season for an Albacete that still does not settle in professional football and that the next season will play in the bronze category. Now the Skyline group, owned by the club since the summer of 2017, has a lot of work ahead of it to plan an entirely new squad with the aim of returning to professional football as soon as possible. Alfonso Serrano, new sports director of the La Mancha entity, will be in charge of leading the project.