Charlie Hatch

chatch@enquirer.com

Life around Futbol Club Cincinnati will likely become increasingly active in the coming days and weeks.

Last week, the returning players started offseason training. Monday afternoon, the club announced former centre-back Paul Nicholson retired from professional soccer. Later that night, head coach Alan Koch returned to Cincinnati after a 13-day dispatch across the planet looking for new players.

What discovers Koch made remain unearthed, but news should follow. As will an announcement about FC Cincinnati's soccer-specific stadium, likely after Tuesday's election results and before mid-December's Major League Soccer expansion unveiling.

From the player side, though, the club has kept a status quo.

Bounced from the first round of the United Soccer League Playoffs, FC Cincinnati has continued training at the University of Cincinnati's Gettler Stadium. Monday morning saw eight players participating, with midfielder Jimmy McLaughlin the lone omission.

It's a much different approach for a club that's rapidly trying to change its roster identity.

After the 2016 inaugural season, players, coaches and the front office seemingly hibernated before preparing for the 2017 season, which saw the former head coach sacked the night before Cincinnati's preseason trip to Florida in February.

Now, the small squad had worked on small-sided games that emphasize quick passing and less touches on the ball. The team has no goalkeeper on its roster.

Center midfielder Kenney Walker said the rapid return to practice is the only major difference so far this offseason.

"Not letting the body rest is probably the only thing," Walker said Monday. "It's not a bad thing, but still, taking a pounding on the turf and your knees and all that stuff, then adding in the cold weather doesn't really help. But it's still part of the job, though."

The players only had one week off since their 3-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rowdies on Oct. 21. For context, the USL Championship Game is next Monday, when rival Louisville City FC hosts Swope Park Rangers.

A down time will come, as will additions to the squad, but the head-first approach into the offseason suggests FC Cincinnati wants to enter 2018 with more momentum than the previous season, despite Koch missing the first week of training and players still waiting to hear specifics about the future.

"There's nothing yet," Walker said. "They're probably putting plans together, but their first base is going to be filling the roster. So once they get that set up, I think they'll be able to plan once they figure out the pieces they have."

As for what's needed, though, remains open until new signings are announced and Koch discusses the playing style he's interested in carrying out.

The 2016 team under John Harkes saw FC Cincinnati play aggressive, attacking play, usually from a 4-3-3 formation. Players would often overlap one another and had more fluid movement between positions.

This past season, Koch implemented a more defensive approach, with the club using three-centre backs and two fullbacks in a 5-4-1 lineup. Toward the end of the season, a defender was dropped and it became a 4-4-2.

"It's hard to tell what you need," Walker said about a tactical identity. "The first year we weren't very big, but we had a bunch of guys who were extremely skillful that we played a lot. This year was kind of different. We had three big-target center forwards, a huge backline and then midfielders who played all around and whatnot.

"We can walk in Jan. 15 and have the same makeup, or a completely different makeup from the past two seasons. It'll be interesting."