August 2018 — Preseason Update

The preseason was a fun one. It’s great to really put your imprint on a club. We shifted out a bunch of dead weight, and snapped up some of Europe’s top young talents.

Transfers:

Gerson is likely the biggest signing. He has superstar potential. I’m hoping we can be open enough to have both he and Barkley on the field at the same time, but I’m not sure if we will be able to on the road.

The Ajax pair perfectly fit our style. de Light is a tremendous young talent at the back. His positioning, determination, and technical ability is exactly what I’m looking for from all our young players. He’s the type of guy who could be at the club for a long, long time.

Kluivert fits our winger profile perfectly: That of a penetrating inside forward. The only concern, however, is his finishing.

Lucas Torreira will share the pivote role with Will Hughes. I’ll split time between them early on to see who performs better. Hughes was excellent in the role last year, but Torreira profiles as the better talent.

Edouard is a real bargain. He was buried in the PSG reserves and cost just £725k. He’s a powerful player who’ll give us an extra option of the bench; challenging in behind the defence and stretching the play.

I needed to add another quality striker, but funds became sparse as I evaluated the available talent. Eduoard is about as good as we could do for the money we had left. I’d like to add a more experienced player alongside Isak and Edouard at some point during the season.

Calum Chambers and Sergi Samper completed our early signings. They both provide depth and were good value for money given our depleting funds. Chambers brings more experience than most of our backline, as well as versatility. Samper fits our playing style and can vacillate between multiple positions.

Top Premier League Transfers prior to season kickoff:

Main Tactic:

As the season gets rolling, we’ll start with the beauty tactic. It limits Barkley slightly, and it’s less expansive than our other alternatives, but it should allow us to better control possession against superior opponents.

The media (and apparently our board) expect us to finish 11th in the league. It’s a bit odd given that when I joined the side wasn’t even in the Championship playoffs, nor did they demand making the playoffs in the first season. Now, after a remarkable run, they think we’re a mid table Premier League side.

Hopefully the goodwill from last season will carry over as we attempt to play a Pep-like style against some of Europe’s finest.

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