Jose chooses new attacking approach for upcoming season

Ahead of the start of the Egyptian Premier League season, Ahly’s Portuguese coach Manuel Jose is preparing his team to play a more aggressive style of football, in order to avoid a repeat of the recent poor displays which saw the team exit the Egypt Cup and African Champions League. The 65-year-old coach came under fire after his team were stunningly eliminated from both competitions in less than a week. He was criticised for failing to make the most of the array of attacking talents at his disposal, including newly-signed forwards Walid Soliman and Abdallah El-Saied. The Red Devils’ recent training sessions show that the hugely-successful tactician is looking to switch his team’s formation from the traditional 3-5-2 to the more aggressive 4-4-2. Jose steered Ahly to a host of domestic and continental titles in three successful spells, during which he implemented the 3-5-2 formation. However, critics believe this strategy is now outdated. The 4-4-2 formation should enable Jose to give the likes of Soliman and El-Saied, who joined Ahly from ENPPI and Ismaily respectively, freedom to showcase their attacking talents and give the Cairo giants the cutting edge they are missing. Brazilian striker Fabio Junior is also waiting in the wings to prove his worth after joining Ahly in the summer. Ahly won the past seven league titles, six of which came under the guidance of Jose. They will be looking to outshine arch-rivals Zamalek again although the latter seemed in a much better shape recently, reaching the Egyptian Cup after producing some superb attacking displays. From ahramonline .