What Can We Expect from the Newly Promoted Teams in La Liga this Season?

12/08/22 2316

The 2022/23 La Liga season will begin on the 12th of August and conclude on the 4th of June, with a World Cup splitting the campaign in two.

Real Madrid and Barcelona are the two favourites for the title but what about the teams who are making the step up from the Segunda División?

Almería and Real Valladolid won automatic promotion to La Liga having finished first and second respectively, with Girona joining them as the third team following a playoff victory over Tenerife.

Almería have returned to La Liga after a seven-year absence, meaning they are the team with the longest gap between relegation and promotion in the Spanish topflight this season.

Almería finished top of the Segunda División last season thanks to having superior head-to-head points against Valladolid, who finished on the same number of points but were forced into second place.

We must go back to 2014/15 to find the last time Almería played in La Liga and they finished in 19th place on 29 points. They recorded just 8 wins from 38 games, with only Córdoba winning fewer matches that season.

Almería have been active in the transfer market with 8 new signings to date, including Kaiky, Marko Milovanovic, Alejandro Pozo, and Gui Guedes, all of whom are 23 years old or younger.

Valladolid last played in La Liga in 2020/21 and finished in 19th place. They recorded only 5 wins from their 38 matches and just one team conceded more than the 57 goals they shipped during the campaign.

Valladolid scored plenty of goals when winning promotion last season and finished as top scorers but they still had some issues in defence, conceding 43 goals in 42 games.

There were five teams in the division with a superior defensive record to Valladolid. They have made a couple of additions in the transfer market to date, including Gonzalo Plata and Monchu but have yet to strengthen in central defence.

Girona return to La Liga having been relegated from the topflight in 2018/19. They finished 18th on 37 points and the main issue for Girona was scoring goals.

They found the back of the net only 37 times in 38 matches, making them the joint lowest goal scorers in La Liga for that season. Even Rayo Vallecano, who finished bottom, scored more goals than Girona.

Having finished 6th in the Segunda División last season, Girona caused somewhat of a shock by winning the playoffs. They finished 12 points behind third place Eibar, who failed to get promoted.

It is difficult to make a case for Valladolid and Girona to avoid relegation from La Liga this season. Of the three teams, Almería look best placed to avoid the drop having made significant investment in the transfer market.

They could face a battle with Real Mallorca and Elche for the third relegation spot and following their drop in form in the second half of last season, Rayo Vallecano could also be in the mix.