Football Season Guide

Celta Vigo's 13th place league finish from last season was a little bit misleading given that they stopped focussing on the league and turned their attentions to their Europe League from around springtime onwards. They reached the semi-finals of that competition before losing out to eventual winners Manchester United by just one goal and also reached the semi-finals of the Copa del Rey, knocking Real Madrid out en route. So there were a lot of positives to take away from their performances in cup competitions last season. This year, though, they'll have to adapt to life without coach Eduardo Berizzo, who had done so well at Celta Vigo that he was hired as Sevilla's new coach. Coming in to replace him was Juan Carlos Unzue, who was Luis Enrique’s assistant at Barcelona and who was even in contention to take over from his old boss at the Camp Nou before ultimately losing out on that job to Ernesto Valverde. At Celta Vigo, where he was Luis Enrique’s assistant in 2013/14, Unzue will be looking to prove himself as a head coach and the signs from pre-season have been promising, with the Galician side pressing opponents high up the pitch and excelling on the counter attack. They scored a lot of goals whilst conceding a lot too last season and it already seems Celta will play similarly attacking football under Unzue, as evidenced by the fact that both teams have scored in all but one of their pre-season outings. In terms of personnel, the squad hasn't changed much from last year, with only a few squad players departing and with few new arrivals coming in. Jozabed's loan from Fulham was made permanent and they then strengthened midfield with the signing of Stanislav Lobotka from Nordsjaelland and added another attacking option to the existing ones of John Guidetti and Iago Aspas by signing exciting Uruguayan prospect Maxi Gomez.