There is no way to sugar-coat it: Valour FC’ spring season was an utter disaster, and despite the team being a relatively young group of players that are still gelling together and finding their feet, there isn’t much excuse for the way things finished. In a league where most of the teams are on par and matches are extremely close, losing 6 games in a row is extremely alarming, and is a sign of major problems.

Luckily, Valour get a fresh start for the fall season, but we cannot act as if this team will somehow click together at some point if they keep doing what they’re doing – changes need to be made, and the coaching staff has a checklist of things they need to figure out prior to their opening match of the fall against Edmonton on the 17th. Here is that checklist:

5. Who’s the starting goalkeeper?

This is a topic that has been swirling around the team for a few weeks now: At the beginning of the season, you would have put your money on hometown goalkeeper Tyson Farago being the #1 for Valour. Now, nobody is sure. Belgian youngster Mathias Janssens has been given an opportunity by the coaching staff, and while he hasn’t always been convincing, neither has Farago. Now, it’s time for the team to pick which one will be the permanent starter for the fall season.

An increasingly important trait for goalkeepers in the modern game is to have quality with the ball at your feet, and be able to distribute the ball cleanly and efficiently – Janssens does this at a higher standard than Farago, which gives him an advantage from a technical standpoint. Farago on the other hand, is in his prime and is far more of a leader, whilst also being from Winnipeg and being able to connect with fans a little bit more.

Both keepers have their strengths and weaknesses, but there is no room for sentiment in football. This team needs stability and that must start from the back, so the coaching staff has to make a decision on who to put in net for the long-run.

4. Who’s the starting striker?

The Canadian Premier League was rocked on Tuesday morning by the news of Stephen Hoyle’s departure from Valour FC by mutual consent. Hoyle was the team’s first international signing and was expected to become one of the star names and fan favourites, but niggling injuries and inconsistent performances forced him into becoming nothing but a rotation option throughout the spring season. Hoyle did manage to score the first goal in club history, but that ended up being the only goal he would score for the team.

While for now there are no details as to why he was released, Valour have a gaping hole at the top of their lineup that must be filled accordingly. Calum Ferguson also has just 1 goal to his name, and he simply does not possess the athleticism, size, or speed to become a starting striker in the Canadian Premier League. Tyler Attardo scored in consecutive matches to end the spring campaign, but he is still a bit too raw to rely upon over the course of an entire season.

It seems that Valour are now looking toward the transfer market for their answer, as neither Ferguson nor Attardo seems fit to take up the #9 spot for good. Whoever the #9 ends up being, they have to be mobile and be able to pick up the scraps that this team creates for them, because as of right now, not enough clear-cut chances are being created. This leads directly to #3 on the checklist.

3. Which positions need strengthening in the transfer market?

We already talked about the need for a striker, which may very well come from the transfer window, which runs from July 9th to August 7th, but Valour’s coaching staff must ask themselves: what other positions need strengthening?

There are currently 3 spots available on the roster, and 3 international spots remaining as well (with Hoyle gone, only Arguinarena, Janssens, Golubar, and Mitter are internationals), so if Valour wanted to, they could fill up the rest of their squad with foreign talent. The ethnicity of the player doesn’t matter as much as the role they will have to play though.

Josip Golubar’s season ending injury is one of the main reasons that Valour’s season went in a downward spiral, and while Raphael Ohin replaced him admirably toward the end of the spring season, the team will be needing another midfielder, preferably a starter, to help control the middle of the park a little bit better. The team tends to struggle in the moments right after losing the ball, and adding a disciplined central midfielder could help aid that deficiency.

Central defence should be another pressing concern for Rob Gale and co. Their questionable decision to sign only 3 centre-backs hasn’t really worked out, as none of them have been particularly stand-outs, and a bad injury to one of the 3 could make that position very thin. This is an area that must be addressed in the market. Canadian international David Edgar is currently without a club, and he is someone that could improve the Valour defence by a considerable margin.

2. Which players deserve a place, which players don’t, and what is the first-choice starting XI?

One of the main issues that has been holding Valour back all season long, is the lack of a clear starting XI – The first XI has been different in essentially every single match, and that has already become a setback for the team, as clubs like Cavalry, Edmonton, and Forge have had a clear cut XI for the most part since early in the season.

Of course, the injuries haven’t helped, as key players like Petrasso, Golubar, and Gutierrez have all spent lengthy time on the sidelines. Now, heading into the fall season, the coaching staff will have seen enough of each player to decide who deserves a starting place and who doesn’t – and therefore, the decision must come before the opening game on July 17th, so that they can finally find some stability and consistency with their team selections.

1. What’s the identity of this team?

Throughout the early portion of the season, we saw Rob Gale speak a lot about wanting his Valour team to have a clear identity, and wanting his players to represent that identity on and off the field. While we saw bits and pieces of how this team was set up to play, we can honestly say now that it didn’t really work out.

Valour dictated the tempo in most of their matches, passing out from the back well and showing off some intricate play in midfield, but for some reason, things continued to break down in the final third time and time again, leaving this team dead last in goals scored alongside being dead last in the table. This is not a sustainable style of play for this team, as there was no evidence even toward the end of the season that the scoring would improve whilst the identity of the side stays the same.

We did see them revert to a more defensive style of play against Pacific late in the season, conceding possession to their opposition throughout the match, but that did not work out either, as they lost 2-1.

So, the technical staff have to sit down in these next few weeks, assess their strengths and weaknesses, and then decide what the identity of this team should be for the fall season and beyond. What we saw in the spring season was disastrous, and should be left in the past. The fall season gives this wounded team a chance to get back up on their feet, but many things need to change on and off the field if things are to improve in the league table.

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Mahith Gamage Website An avid football fan right from his first experiences with the sport, Mahith Gamage has been dabbling in football journalism for a few years now, creating his own world football blog and podcast, freeflow football, whilst featuring frequently on many other football media outlets, covering European football. With the start of the Canadian Premier League in 2019, Mahith began coverage of his hometown club, Valour FC, through NSXI. He enjoys spreading his knowledge and opinions of the beautiful game to fellow football fanatics in Canada and throughout the world, using articles and tweets, thriving particularly on tactical analysis and player scouting. You can find him tweeting about world football day and night, at @mahithgamage.

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