Football Season Guide

When the last season’s first period came to an end, Genclerbirligi were standing in the relegation zone. Neither Stuart Baxter, nor Mehmet Ozdilek could make the club president feel satisfied. But the arrival of coach Ibrahim Uzulmez changed their destiny and the capital city side completed the season in the 10th place. In his first head coach experience, former Besiktas captain made the whole team feel the passion as he did. Although there were offers for him for the 2016/17 season, the club president persuaded him to stay. Now, he will kick off the season with a squad that was built by him. Following the last season’s success, he is expected to offer a better performance. During the summer, a huge cleaning was done in the squad. First of all, El Kabir and Campos left the team. The duo were important figures of the offensive performance in the last season. In order to fill their roles, Muriqi and Owusu were signed in but it is not clear whether their quality will replace them. To the left flank, Gbakle and Milinkovic arrived. The latter should earn a start place with his experience and former Metz winger should cover him. On the net, Hopf will be supported by the new arrivals Nihat and Taha Cengiz. They could record only nine clean sheets in the last season but they added only one defender during the summer. It seems like the coach will continue to use Ahmet Calik and Kulusic at centre-back. There is only Politevich to cover them. It seems like they are short in the center of the back line. Since they did not sign any defensive winger to the left, the fans will keep on watching Ugur Ciftci in action. With the arrival of Orhan Sam, there will be a sweet competition at right-back between him and Ahmet Oguz. With the departure of Hleb, there is only Irfan Kahveci as an attacking midfielder. He is a very talented player but it would be right to add another player to that position considering his young age. If the coach decides to stick with 4-2-3-1, he should have no problem for the front of the defence line as he has four defensive midfielder with the arrival of Scekic. Up front, they seem short as there are only Muriqi and Stancu. If they face injuries, they could face problems. So they need to bring one more attacker.