My aim is to take a previously unplayable team and take them from obscurity to the heights of European football. If you want more details, check out the intro post.

Backroom

First impressions on joining my new club were that the staff room looked a little bare. First order of business, then, is to bring in a backroom. AssMan and Physio as priority, then ideally I wanted fitness and GK coaches and finally to set up a scouting team. Unfortunately the board blocked the GK coach, claiming we already have enough coaching staff as far as they’re concerned. Money is definitely tight, so only a Head Physio and Chief Scout have been brought in, along with a Director of Football whose main role will be offloading players whom I no longer have a need for. Much as I’d love to be bringing in youth-related staff members, it feels like it’d be a severe waste of money at the semi-professional level we’re currently at.

Tactics

Next on the agenda was to pick out a tactical approach that I felt would fit. The club had barely enough players to scrape a first eleven, so I knew that wholesale signings were going to be made and therefore I could use that fact to mould the team to fit pretty much whatever tactic I wanted. I’ve been watching Euro2016 recently and one of the more effective strategies has been the use of wingbacks to provide width to otherwise narrow formations, so I wanted to try and incorporate that. The impact that Griezmann had on Euro2016 has also inspired me to have a go at using the “Shadow Striker” role as my primary goalscoring threat, with a deep-lying forward sitting in front of them. Finally, I’ve always been a fan of teams that work hard when they don’t have the ball, so a high-pressing, high-tempo style is to be called for.

Final Preparations

This was all well and good up to this point, but I still didn’t realistically even have a starting eleven that I felt were satisfactory. Time to invite some trials in. Lots of trials. So many trials I actually think I didn’t even have a proper look at about half of them while they were at the club. But I’ve built a squad of 22 players that I feel will be sufficiently good for this level.

Friendlies were next, and such dramatic upheaval meant I could only realistically be looking for 2 things to come out of them: fitness and cohesion. I organised 7 fixtures, all at home (for the slight extra income!) and of those 7 only one of them should have been a challenge for us, at least on paper.

A brilliant string of results, especially the 1-1 draw with Real Madrid Castilla. Friendlies are never a good measuring stick for how you season will go, but at this stage I’m at least very happy that my tactical approach seems to be having the desired effect. My first competitive fixture in charge of SD Beasain will be Bilbao Athletic (The ‘B’ team to Athletic Bilbao), so I’m not expecting an easy ride!