Sevilla fought their way into the UEFA Champions League by winning the Europa League (once again) but this season they’ll want one step more in LaLiga as well.

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Manager – Jorge Sampaoli

Jorge Luis Sampaoli Moya (56), is an Argentine football manager currently managing Sevilla as he replaced Unai Emery who departed for PSG. Sampaoli started out as a youth player and eventually switched to management due to a severe injury. Sampaoli started with an impressive managerial period at Coronel Bolognesi in 2006, and then again with a brief but successful period at O’Higgins and Emelec.

Sampaoli definitively proved his worth with Universidad de Chile where he won league title and the Copa Sudamericana championship. This success led him to coach the Chilean men’s national team in 2013 and he led the Chilean national football team to their first Copa América title, after defeating Argentina in the final in the 2015 edition in Chile. He is well known for his attacking tactics, similar to those of Marcelo Bielsa according to the press and fans alike.

Stadium – Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán

The Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán stadium is the home of Sevilla Fútbol Club. The stadium holds 42,500 and was built in 1957. It replaced the Estadio de Nervión.

It was the venue for the 1986 European Cup Final between Steaua București and Barcelona and the 1982 World Cup semi-final game between Germany and France.

This stadium contains a singular legend: the Spanish national team has never lost a game against an international team in this stadium. In European competition, Sevilla has lost only three times at home; to AZ in the 2006–07 UEFA Cup group stage, to CSKA Moskva in the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League and to Real Betis in the 2013–14 UEFA Europa League.

Squad

Squad as of 15 Aug 2016:

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Notable transfers

Players in:

Franco Vázquez (Palermo) – €15M

Joaquín Correa (Sampdoria) – €13M

Ganso (FC Sao Paulo) – €9,5M

Wissam Ben Yedder (Toulouse) – €9M

Hiroshi Kiyotake (Hannover 96) – €6,5M

Gabriel Mercado (River Plate) – €2,2M

Pablo Sarabia (Getafe) – €1M

Luciano Vietto (Atlético) – loan

Matías Kranevitter (Atlético) – loan

Players out:

Grzegorz Krychowiak (PSG) – €33,6M

Kévin Gameiro (Atlético) – €32M

Coke (Schalke) – €4M

Ever Banega (Inter Milan) – free

Rumours

According to Sevilla insiders, Jorge Sampaoli is still on a hunt for another goalkeeper (David Soria suffered a heavy injury) and central midfielder. Diego Alves of Valencia is high on a priority list for Los Nervionenses but seeing that Valencia are unlikely to sell players to the club they see as a direct rival, maybe some other solution will help as well. Nastic’s Fabrice Ondoa could be in.

As for the midfielder, Dani Parejo (also of Valencia CF) was a hot-topic for a long time but he now looks to stay. Roque Mesa of Las Palmas is also in the mix.

How will they play?

Well, Sevilla already played two competitive matches this term against very strong opponents – UEFA Super Cup against Real Madrid and the Spanish Super Cup first leg against Barcelona. They’ve lost both but looked mostly solid and somehow different than what they played under Unai Emery. Sampaoli will probably insist on his 4-3-3 that can shift to 4-2-3-1 if needed.

Sergio Rico is the first goalkeeper while at the moment it looks like Mariano and Escudero are chosen full-backs – however, Escudero was injured yesterday in the Spanish Super Cup and Sevilla’s defence looks depressingly empty at the moment with Carrico, Kolodziejczak (suspensions) and Tremoulinas (injury) unavailable. Mercado and Rami played as centre-backs and looked solid and they could be expected to continue for at least a while.

Kranevitter, N’Zonzi and Franco Vázquez were the middle three of somewhat asymmetrical formation that can easily switch with Vázquez roaming further forward to allow Kranevitter and N’Zonzi to play as holders – what’s more, if Sevilla bring another central midfield to play here they can look towards more solutions.

Kiyotake, Vitolo and Vietto served as an attacking force against both Real Madrid and Barcelona but we can expect Yevgen Konoplyanka and Krohn-Dehli to be in the mix as well.

Sampaoli’s principles were pretty clear in Sevilla’s matches so far – they’ve looked for possession, longed to play with ball at all times and practice a football with high pressing. That’s completely new style for Sevilla and they’ve struggled with a ‘final pass‘ and suffered damage from the counter-attacks (both against Real Madrid and Barcelona).

Sevilla dominated pitch with a clear idea to completely flood the midfield and close down their opponents looking to get the ball as soon as possible.

However, they’ll have to practice more – transition from the meaningless possession towards clear-cut chances was the trouble as Sevilla were left without a shot on target against Barcelona although they looked as a better team on the pitch. Execution of Sampaoli’s ideas is crucial and we’ll see how long team takes to adapt.

Key man stats and attributes – Yevgen Konoplyanka

Expected finish – Continental race

Sevilla definitely have the quality to beat anybody. Two problems they’ll face in the season are the UEFA Champions League where they’ll want to make amends and try to go past the Group Stage and time they’ll require to change the philosophy and employ Sampaoli’s ideas – and, of course – if these ideas prove successful.

Our prediction – 4th place. With some key opponents also focused on the European competitions Sevilla will get enough time to get nose ahead and win that precious 4th place. First three are still out of question this season. Starting fixtures haven’t been keen and they’ll have to start strong in order to achieve their goals.

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