FC Goa took a significant change in their approach in the build-up to Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18. With the legendary Zico at the helm for the past three campaigns, the heavy influence of Samba flair by the Brazilian icon was evident for all to see in the way his side played and the personnel in the squad. But Zico’s reign came to an end last season and he was subsequently replaced by Spaniard Sergio Lobera.

The 40-year-old began his coaching career 16 years back with the famed youth academy of Barcelona, where he enjoyed a nine-year stint and went on to manage the Barcelona C squad for a season as well. A freshly retired Pep Guardiola earned his coaching license under Lobera, who perhaps had one of the best views of Guardiola’s rise to the pinnacle of coaching in club football. Besides Guardiola, Luis Enrique and Jordi Cruyff have also interned under him, while Lobera himself has been an understudy to the likes of Tito Vilanova, Frank Rijkaard and Louis van Gaal at Barcelona.

His propensity to play the Catalan club’s expressive and attractive style of football is thus obvious, given his time at the Blaugrana as well as the attacking football seen in Goa over the years. After Lobera took over FC Goa’s coaching reigns, the composition of the squad changed as Goa signed numerous Spaniards in keeping with the type of football their head coach had in mind.

The Gaurs have signed six Spanish players. Among them, three – Sergio Juste, Edu Bedia and Manuel Lanzarote – have represented Barcelona B in the past. Ferran Corominas, the league’s top scorer (seven goals) and the only individual to net hat-tricks in consecutive Hero ISL games, was a successful player at Barcelona’s local rivals Espanyol. The strategy seems to have paid dividends with them topping the goal-scoring charts with 13 goals from four games so far, and 12 of those strikes have come from Spaniards – seven from Corominas, four from Lanzarote and one from Manuel Arana. The only other goal came from Mandar Rao Dessai.

In fact, there have been four instances where the involvement in a goal saw one Spaniard assist, while the other scores. Three of these four goals have featured Lanzarote and Corominas combining with each other. In all, Spaniards have contributed six assists, further underlining their importance in the final third. Co-incidentally Hero ISL’s most successful side ATK had been highly reliant on Spanish players in the past. Similarly, much of Goa’s success can be put down to their Spanish contingent, who have been instrumental in scoring, providing, stringing passes together and sometimes initiating as well as finishing off moves themselves.

While not perfect as the nine goals against them – joint-most in the league with Delhi Dynamos FC – tells you, their expansive style of football is surely a sight to behold and a neutral’s delight. The first two seasons witnessed Goa turn on the style as Zico guided them to a semis and runners-up finish before last season’s disappointment. Even though it’s still early days, Lobera has definitely returned the Gaurs to what is expected of them in terms of performance and results. What remains to be seen, however, is if Goa can maintain their free-spirited style of play and forge a genuine title tilt, as Lobera and the Gaurs eye, achieving what they were so close to achieve under Zico – winning the coveted Hero ISL title.