Last season was something of a transitional year for Sevilla. They were still coming to terms with the loss of their excellent sporting director Monchi, who left to join Roma in Italy, and the coaching situation at the club was uncertain with both Eduardo Berizzo and Vincenzo Montella taking the reigns at the club and failing to impress.
This resulted in a 7th place finish as the club finished below city rivals Real Betis for the first time in a number of seasons.
This summer has seen the club move to address these issues with the appointment of a coach who impressed hugely in La Liga last season, Pablo Machin of Girona.
Machin has limited experience of coaching at the top level but his eye for detail and ability to organise his side tactically saw his Girona side finish the season in 10th place, no mean feat given that they had been tipped for relegation prior to the season. During the season Girona saved their best performances for the best sides in La Liga with matches against Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid, in particular, standing out as examples of a well-conceived and implemented gameplan.
Under Machin last season Girona were resolute and hard to beat with a 3-4-2-1 system that would become a 5-2-2-1 out of possession. They defended from a low and compact block that looked to suffocate the central areas to deny the opposition space to play before attacking through lightning fast transitions.
Whilst that gameplan was effective for a side looking to survive relegation it is unlikely that the fans of Sevilla will be happy to see their side play from the back foot in quite the same manner. To this point this season we have only seen Sevilla in serious competition twice as they have overcome the Hungarian side Ujpest 7-1 on aggregate in the early stages of Europa League qualifying. These matches have given us an early indication as to what to expect from Sevilla under Machin this season.
The Structure
Early signs are that Machin will take his tactical structure with him to Sevilla with both competitive matches to this point seeing them line up with the same 3-4-2-1 system that served Girona so well last season.
The back three for Sevilla to this point have perhaps enjoyed more time in possession than we saw with Girona last season but this is to be expected with the jump in quality of players between Girona and Sevilla. With more high-quality players at his disposal this season we could well see Machin evolve his own playing style to become a more progressive and attacking coach.
