Alaves coach Luis Garcia faces former side Mallorca

Luis Garcia Plaza takes a look at his most recent past. In the opening match of the 12th La Liga matchday, Alaves host Mallorca. They are the last two teams of the Spanish coach, who fared slightly better, statistically speaking, on Balearic soil. But the similarities between the two spells are also striking.

The coach averaged 1.52 points after winning 43 games, drawing 19 and losing 26. That average is slightly higher than the 1.40 points he averages per game at the Mendizorroza outfit, where he has already coached 119 games. He has 48 wins, 35 draws and 36 defeats.

At Mallorca, Luis Garcia also had a better goalscoring record. His team scored 1.21 goals per game, while that figure drops to 1.13 at his current club. However, this Alaves team concedes slightly less, with an average of 0.97 compared to the 0.98 he left on the islands.

The coach's journey in the Mallorcan dugout began in the 2020-21 season, in the Spanish second tier, and lasted until March 2022. The Madrid-born coach made history by achieving promotion to La Liga with 82 points, a club record. In the 2021-22 season, he saved the team from relegation, with two victories in the last two games to move one point away from the relegation zone. But he did not finish the following season. He was sacked with nine games to go and after suffering six defeats in a row. This led to his side being relegated for the first time that season, although, under Javier Aguirre, Mallorca were eventually saved.

Luis Garcia at Alaves has so far followed a similar path. He also took the ‘Glorioso’ to La Liga in his first year and also managed to stay in the top flight in his second. However, to the chagrin of his fans, he is currently in the midst of a bad run of form that could see the team in the relegation zone. They have lost five league games in a row, which has brought them to within one point of the relegation zone, a situation that the coach hopes to turn around this Friday so as not to have a similar ending to the one he had with his next rival.