As far as first impressions go, Paul Dalglish got off on the right foot on his first official day as head coach and general manager of Ottawa Fury FC.

The Sun was first to report Thursday that the former Scottish international had been chosen for the job and the club made it official during a press conference at TD Place on Friday.

The 38-year-old son of Scottish legend Kenny Dalglish, the new Fury bench boss was completely at ease at the podium and during a long scrum with the media Friday.

While he wouldn’t get into many specifics in regards to the roster and what the rest of the coaching staff would look line in 2016, Dalglish likely eased at least a few concerns that the team would take a major step backwards after losing Dos Santos.

Most recently the head coach and technical director of the USL side Austin Aztex, Dalglish said he was aware he was stepping into a unique situation — typically a team in search of a new head coach is in some kind of disarray, not coming off a season where it reached the finals — but the circumstances didn’t give him pause.

Quite the opposite.

“It makes the job much more attractive,” he said after being introduced by Fury president John Pugh.

“You’ve got a solid foundation to build on, but you’ve got to make sure that you know how you’re going to improve it.”

He even had a Dos Santos-esque line when asked how he would fill the former coach’s shoes.

“It’s easy to fill Marc’s shoes because I’ve got bigger feet,” he cracked.

Jokes aside though, Dalglish knows he has his work cut out for him.

For starters, he needs to sort out his coaching staff.

Technical director Phil Dos Santos is under contract for 2016 and Bruce Grobbelaar recently extended his deal as well.

Assistant Martin Nash, who was considered for the head coaching job, may not want to stay and if he does, will likely be looking for a raise.

Fury is expected to lose Academy coach and first-team assistant Darko Buser.

Dalglish didn’t exactly make any guarantees about the staff.

“I hope so,” he said when asked if the group would remain intact.

“(It’s a) great staff, Phil and Martin are two people we want to work with.”

There’s also a great deal of work to be done with the roster. While Fury has been tight-lipped about who is staying and who is leaving, there will be several changes to the squad for next year.

Dalglish will be looking to keep the core as intact as possible, beginning with captain Richie Ryan, who is signed through 2016.

“My main priority at this moment in time is trying to keep the squad together after the success (of this season) and make sure that we have the success we had this year or better it,” he said.

“You want to keep your best players. (Ryan’s) a top player — he’s captain of the club, the club got to the final, (named to the) NASL best 11 ... he’s going to have offers from other teams but he’s under contract with us.

“I’m going to fight to keep our best players and Richie certainly falls into that category.”

But he won’t be able to keep everyone.

Striker Tommy Heinemann won’t be back. Forward Andrew Wiedeman and defender Rafael Alves are expected to pursue other opportunities as well.

Others will be in for significant raises and the team, which impressed by doing so well on a budget that fell somewhere in the bottom third of the league, won’t be able to accommodate them all.

The good news is there will be more money at Dalglish’s disposal.

“We give our head coaches the resource and facilities that they need,” said Pugh.

“They will have a substantially increased salary budget.”

Dalglish didn’t seem at all concerned by the financial side of things, pointing out he is used to running a team on much less.

“I’m not going to hide behind a budget,” he said.

“There’s enough money to challenge and be successful. (Fury’s is) certainly a substantial budget compared with what I was used to.”

***

Before he left, former Fury FC coach Marc Dos Santos listed off a few things he believed the club needed in a new coach.

Critically important, he said, is that his replacement coaches in a 4-3-3 formation, which Dos Santos had built the club around.

Well, so far so good, as new Fury FC coach and GM Paul Dalglish said Friday he operates with the same system — four defenders behind three midfielders behind a striker and two wingers — though not identically to the one Dos Santos put in place, which would usually see Tommy Heinemann as the lone striker with his wingers playing out wide.

“My preferred way of playing is having the wingers a little more inside, behind the striker, to get more support to the striker and then leaving space for the fullbacks to overlap,” Dalglish said.

“We’ve got the player profiles to do that and if we don’t, we’ll find them.

There will be little tweaks tactically that I’ll introduce, but a lot of it will stay the same.”

chris.hofley@sunmedia.ca

Who is Paul Dalglish?

Dalglish is a 38-year-old former player from Glasgow, Scotland

Son of Scottish great and former Liverpool FC manager Kenny Dalglish

Developed in the Celtic and Liverpool youth programs before joining Newcastle United in 1997.

Professional career spanned 1997-2008 and included stops at Norwich City, Wigan Athletic and Houston Dynamo, among others. Scored 22 goals in 206 appearances during his playing career.

Started managerial career as an assistant coach with Houston Dynamo in 2009 and arrives in Ottawa having also coached at FC Tampa Bay, Austin Aztex and Real Salt Lake (assistant).

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