As Girona’s unthinkable season flickered to a close, Artem Dovbyk had one last piece of history on his mind.
Punching home a penalty to make it 7-0 against Granada, he sealed his hat-trick, secured La Liga’s golden boot, and clinched an unprecedented third-place finish for a side competing in only their fourth-ever top-flight campaign.
Now Dovbyk, the tricky winger who won that spot kick — Manchester City’s Savinho — and four other players who featured on that joyous day, are gone.
Earlier that same week in Italy, Thiago Motta’s Bologna raced into a 3-0 lead over Juventus, Riccardo Calafiori scooping the ball over Wojciech Szczesny to help clinch their highest league finish in 57 years. The manager, the goalscorer, and the man with the megaphone shouting his name — Manchester United’s Joshua Zirkzee — all gone.
Bologna lost Riccardo Calafiori to Arsenal in the summer (Image Photo Agency/Getty Images)
In Germany, Serhou Guirassy plundered his 28th goal of the season as Stuttgart ended the season with a thumping 4-0 win over Borussia Monchengladbach. And still, there were bittersweet goodbyes; Guirassy, Waldemar Anton, Hiroki Ito, with clubs who finished below them in the Bundesliga circling… gone, gone and gone.
It is nothing we haven’t seen before — Europe’s established elite snapping up high-performing talent — but with the abundance of tactically daring sides on the continent last season, playing slick, feel-good football and performing beyond their means, it feels more of a shame to see them inevitably gutted for parts.
After a summer of change, all three sides — along with fellow overachievers Stade Brestois — are gearing up for historic Champions League campaigns. But how do their new-look squads stack up?
Despite the mass turnover, four of the five sides mentioned above have retained their managers. That feels particularly important at Girona, where energetic tactician Michel continues to light the fire beneath a very different squad.
Ten of the 18 who travelled to take on Barcelona this weekend were not present at the club last season, and while they have lost specialists — the expansive passing range of Aleix Garcia, the dribbling dynamism of Savinho, and the destructive power of Dovbyk — the game plan remains much the same.
Artem Dovbyk fired Girona to the Champions League but won’t play in it for them (Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Looking to control possession, the defensive line quick to step up and squeeze high, Girona’s dominance hinges on wide centre-backs who can fire passes into tight-space technicians in the middle. Daley Blind leads the way for completed forward passes in La Liga this season — as he did last campaign — while only one defender in the Segunda Division completed more passes into the final third than new signing Alejandro Frances last season, just 22 years old.
Early signs this season, as we can see from the graphic below, are that both will continue to fizz passes into their wingers, as well as new centre-forward Abel Ruiz, who is tidy with his back to goal and can help with the build-up on either side.
Miguel Gutierrez continues to cause problems with his movement into midfield, while a new-look forward line is varied in profile; Ruiz, poacher Bojan Miovski, and direct runner Arnaut Danjuma. Watch out for young Yaser Asprilla, too, creative when he can drift inside onto his left foot, but also packing a punch from distance.
Swept aside by the irresistible Barcelona side on the weekend, a trip to the Parc des Princes to take on Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday is daunting. Girona are a slick side on their day, however, and will look forward to ties with Feyenoord, Slovan Bratislava and Sturm Graz as opportunities to prove their Champions League worth.
Sebastian Hoeness has made a similarly transformative impact from the dugout at Stuttgart, taking the club from the brink of relegation to a convincing second-place finish in the space of 14 months. His contract renewal means that optimism remains high.
The heavy-hitting Guirassy is a devastating loss at the top of his possession-based 4-2-3-1, but Hoeness has kept hold of the supporting cast while bringing in a solid replacement, Ermedin Demirovic, at the top of the team.
Sehrou Guirassy is now a Borussia Dortmund player (Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images)
Deniz Undav has signed on a permanent deal after he averaged a goal contribution every 75 minutes last season, while Chris Fuhrich will continue to drive Stuttgart down the left alongside the technically gifted Enzo Millot, given free rein to drift across the attacking third.
Such fluidity is what makes Stuttgart so dangerous in build-up, looking to lure the opposition in with dangerous possession close to their own goal, before finding the free man and springing into the space.
Here against Mainz for example, as they build out from their signature shape – goalkeeper Alexander Nubel inviting pressure with his foot on the ball between the two centre-backs, full-backs wide, and a double-pivot up ahead – it is Millot who floats into the space behind the opposition press.
Nubel finds the incisive pass into the Frenchman, who lays off a ball for holding midfielder Angelo Stiller. He breaks forward, and Stuttgart are five-vs-three, bearing down on goal.
On another occasion, Undav drops into the space to pick up the ball, while during longer spells of possession, midfielders switch roles to move around opposition marking systems.
As the graphic below illustrates, Stuttgart are happy to be patient with the ball under Hoeness, stringing together plenty of passes in their attacking sequences while advancing towards the goal slowly, happy to go backwards and soak up the pressure before searching for the space ahead.
With the same processes, but with a few different faces, both sides will be competitive in the Champions League this season, even if they lack some of the firepower that got them there so impressively last season.
In Bologna, meanwhile, confidence isn’t quite so high. Propelled to a fifth-place finish last season by Motta’s unorthodox approach, there are concerns that the shock factor has worn off, a feeling not helped by an indifferent start to the new campaign.
That is not to say that Motta’s successor is not a capable one; Vincenzo Italiano led Fiorentina to consecutive Europa League finals, finishing in Serie A’s top eight in all three of his seasons at the club, and also favours a possession-based style.
“I also try to play out from the back with defenders who start the moves,” the 46-year-old said in the summer. “The striker has to work for the team first and then score. I am in sync with the ideas of the club.”
There have been traces of Motta’s influence throughout their opening league games — a win, three frustrating draws and a heavy defeat — with centre-back Jhon Lucumi stepping into midfield during their build-up against Empoli below.
A key feature of last season’s build-up, it’s a movement that drags markers away from the defensive players, creating more time and space for Bologna to locate the free man and build up through the thirds.
That said, controlling games has not been the issue for Italiano so far; Bologna have averaged the highest possession in the division, even retaining 61 per cent of the ball in their 3-0 defeat away at Napoli.
Their issues have been at the sharp end of the pitch, the biggest underperformers of their non-penalty expected goals (xG) in Serie A after four games, scoring three times when the quality of their chances would suggest they should have almost six.
Bologna have also been shaky out of possession, allowing an alarming number of driving runs through the midfield. It is how Empoli equalised against Italiano’s men seconds after going behind, and how Napoli extended their lead after a quick free kick caught the midfield off guard.
Even with similar structures in place, there is an undoubted loss of the superstar factor without Calafiori in defence, while the athleticism and intelligence of Zirkzee up front has been missing to pull apart the opposition block.
There is time for finishing fortunes to turn around, but Liverpool and Aston Villa should fancy their chances next month against a side still trying to figure things out.
All of this, without a mention of arguably the biggest overperformers of all last season: Brest. That said, the French side haven’t lost too many key players or their manager, and head into their first European campaign in much the same shape.
Before last season’s shocking run to third place, Brest’s previous best in the French top flight was eighth, and that was 37 years ago.
Eric Roy’s simple-but-effective 4-3-3 got the best out of winger Romain Del Castillo, while the colossal defensive effort of Pierre Lees-Melou — the player with the second-most ball recoveries in Europe’s big five leagues last season — allowed roaming midfielders Mahdi Camara and Kamory Doumbia to attack the box.
No Ligue 1 side completed more crosses than Brest last season and in that respect, they have lost an important piece of the jigsaw. However, the arrival of 6ft 4in (193cm) striker Ludovic Ajorque should go some way to replacing the aerial presence of Steve Mounie in the middle.
A slightly more direct style, backed up by organisation and desire without the ball, can be seen from The Athletic’s playstyle wheel, where Brest score well for defensive intensity, allowing their opponents few touches per tackle. Their central progression is low — hinting at their heavy-crossing policy — while a rating of 26 for deep build-up tells us that they are not afraid to go long from defence.
A favourable Champions League draw does give Brest a chance to compete while Lees-Melou and influential full-back Bradley Locko edge closer to full fitness, although confirmation Brest will have to play their home fixtures close to 70 miles east of their old-school stadium, the Stade Francis-Le Ble, is a shame for the purists.
At least they won’t be the only side stepping into the unknown.
(Top photo: Xavier Laine/Getty Images)
