Football Season Guide

Celta Vigo had a disappointing year in LaLiga in 2017/18, with former Barcelona assistant Juan Carlos Unzue failing to convince in his role as the Galician club’s head coach. His team kept possession well and averaged the joint-third most possession in the league after Barcelona and Real Madrid with 54%, but they really struggled to turn this domination of the ball into goals and wins, which saw them finish down in 13th place in the table. Keen to enjoy a better campaign this time around, the club’s board sacked Unzue and brought in Antonio Mohamed. The Argentine arrives from Mexican side Monterrey and has never coached in Europe before, making him quite a risky and wildcard appointment. Stylistically, he is a much more direct coach who likes to counter attack and this suggests that Celta Vigo will be a very different kind of team in 2018/19 compared to last year’s version. They have been busy making playing personnel changes too, having spent more money in the transfer market than they usually do. They’ve lost some of last year’s starters – namely Jonny Castro, Daniel Wass and Sergi Gomez – in addition to Borja Iglesias – who scored 22 goals in the second division last year when on loan at Real Zaragoza – but they’ve also made some impressive-looking signings. The acquisition of up-and-coming midfielder Fran Beltran from Rayo Vallecano was especially impressive, as is the loan signing of Sofiane Boufal from Southampton. Importantly, Celta Vigo have – at least for now – kept a hold of their dynamic attacking trio of Iago Aspas, Pione Sisto and Maxi Gomez, so they will boast plenty of firepower in attack. If they can get the ball up to these attacking players more quickly under their new coach then there’s no reason why Celta Vigo can’t put together a very successful 2018/19 campaign.