Crystal Palace returning to the Premier League after an eight-year absence

Crystal Palace are back in the Premier League and will start the season as relegation favourites against Totthenam in the first game of an initial schedule featuring probable key relegation battles against Stoke, Sunderland, Swansea and Southampton in their first six fixtures. Palace will try to execute a counter attacking game play with low defensive back line to neutralize Tottenham’s pace. They will go with the 4-2-3-1 with Jose Campana playing in a deep playmaker role trying to orchestrate the counter attacks and with Jonathan Williams playing as an inverted winger. When not in possession, Palace will stick to a compact and narrow line up to stop Spurs midfielders from passing to Soldado. Known for employing an attacking philosophy for the majority of his time at Bloomfield Road regardless of the opposition, Holloway has conceded he may have to play a little more defensively this time around. "Hopefully we can stop the opposition doing whatthey are doing," he said. "We can break it up and then go and score ourselves and get three points instead of none and get to 40 points so we can do it again [next season]. What I've got to do is stay calm, keep my feet on the ground, keep working and keep being realistic. "I need to give them tactics that I have picked up along the way that might stop some of these teams who have got technically better players." Despite the slow recruitment and the loss of Wilfried Zaha, there are reasons for optimism. The Australia midfielder Mile Jedinak could prove he’s worth the Premier League, and Julián Speroni is a consistent goalkeeper. There is excitement for the arrivals of Dwight Gayle from Peterborough and Marouane Chamakh on loan from Arsenal. And you also will have to take a look to the captain of Spain Under-20s team, José Campaña, a deep-lying midfielder that is a rough diamond. He will have to strength the midfield alongside Williams and Yannick Bolasie. Gayle is the club's record signing from Peterborough for an initial £4.5m and he scored 13 goals in 29 games last season. Chamakh is a risk but it’s good to take. He has the pedigree and Holloway hopes he can flourish in the way to fill the void left by the injured Glenn Murray whose 31 league goals last season were the key of the team's promotion. He will have to boast a forward bunch featuring also Elliot Grandin and Stephen Dobbie.

What Tom Huddlestone can add at Hull?

Hull City boss Steve Bruce thinks the Premier League will be forced to take a look to his side's ambitions after landing England Tom Huddlestone on the eve of the new season. Bruce is determined to keep Hull in the Premier League. Hull finished second in the league last season utilizing a 3-5-2 formation featuring three solid centre-backs and two up and downs wing-backs as Ahmed Elmohamady and Robbie Brady. Hull's transfer activity this summer has been finalized at giving the Bruce more options. He got two good goalkeepers in Allan McGregor, bought for £1.5m from Besiktas and free-agent Steve Harper, signed from Newcastle. In preseason, Bruce switched between 3-5-2 and an attacking 4-3-3 designed to exploit the speed of Aluko and the centre-forward Yannick Sagbo. But the surprising move was the signing of Huddlestone that joined the club for a record £5.25m deal. He could make a big impact with the Tigers after a two-year stint plagued by injury that forced former Forest midfielder and England international to start just 11 Premier League games, and that made him expendable for Andre Villas-Boas this season. Huddlestone isn't the most mobile midfielder and has a low tackle accuracy as his 62.5% EPLIndex stats showed, but still remains a very technically gifted midfielder with good passing abilities. According to WhoScored, the Englishman picked up six assists in his Premier League and Europa League appearances last campaign, averaging 1.1 key passes per game. Maybe he isn't the best ball playing midfielder around but he could be a decent deep-lying midfielder if paired alongside runners. Passing is something he can do very well if placed in a comfortable position. His chances at Spurs were limited behind Sandro, Moussa Dembele, Paulinho, and Etienne Capoue. His move away from Spurs would finally aid Huddlestone to gain regular first team football play action and capture Roy Hodgson's attention. Huddlestone he will definitely be a key part of the Hull squad who is playing to retain a top-flight spot.

Paolo Di Canio revolution

Former Wales assistant manager Raymond Verheijen, an assistant coach with Barcelona, Chelsea and Manchester City, called Moyes’ methods “Jurassic Park” after Robin Van Persie was taken off in United’s 3-2 defeat to Yokohama F Marinos this preseason. Verheijen blamed the Moyes for overworking the forward, who has a history of injury problems.
He wrote on Twitter: “In Sydney Moyes said: ‘We’ve overtrained Robin this week to build up his fitness’. [In Japan] he picked up muscle injury. It really makes you wonder how these prehistoric training methods can still take place at the highest level.
"All over the world in pre-season you see the pattern ‘overtraining-fatigue-injuries’. Always avoid accumulation of fatigue in pre-season.
"But as long as most dinosaurs are still in denial & ignore how things develop in other countries, nothing will ever change in Jurassic Park. Obviously, players like RVP should learn to protect themselves better against ‘overtraining’ & ‘punishing training’.”
“The main reason for injuries in football is accumulation of fatigue,” he once told the Australian edition of FourFourTwo. “Injuries do not happen because of bad luck. Football players have made football actions all their lives. All of a sudden a hamstring or ligament snaps and that has to do with the status of the body at that particular moment: fatigued.“

For Verheijen fatigue comes from training lack of balance. “It is very important that you are doing the right football training at the right moment and in the right sequence. As an example, if you play four versus four in training today, which is very demanding on the body, you will definitely be tired the next day. If you do sprint training or shooting exercises the next day, then an already fatigued body, with fatigued muscles, is doing more maximum explosive actions in a higher frequency than they normally would in a game. You are asking for trouble. You are overloading a fatigued body.” Fitness has also been a personal trademark for Paolo Di Canio the manager, just as it was for Di Canio when he was playing. But maybe Verheijen would disagree with Di Canio’s methods. The Sunderland manager has overhauled the club since replacing Martin O'Neill, moving out some players while recruiting others this summer, and completely changing his staff. But, above all, he was  focusing on improving team’s fitness. “This club’s unique in the fact that we train or we’re in training every day. Monday to Friday we’re in and even Sundays when there’s a Tuesday game”, Paul Benson told the Advertiser. “There was a time between January when I first joined and probably the middle of April or the end of April when I only had three or four days off. When I was at Charlton I pretty much had that in one week.” Since he took the job as Swindon Town manager, Di Canio has made a name for himself as a hard worker on the pitch, pushing his players through intense workouts to raise their strength and conditioning skills. He mixed conditioning drills with ball drills. A great article from former Swindon player Stuart James details these drills. Training under the guidance of Paolo Di Canio is a hard task. His methods are modern. A lot of sprints, 400 and 800 metres runs with short rests between, are utilized more than long runs to get players in shape. John O’Shea spoke of the impact Di Canio has had. ‘Managers have their own styles,’ said the one-time Manchester United defender. ‘It’s a new approach and one that the players are really enjoying. ‘He does quite a bit more with the shape of the team than we’ve done previously and that’s an individual style. Managers all have their own style and he’s quite hands-on in terms of showing the players where he wants them to be, the movement he wants them to make and the options we could have. He wants prove his routine of double training sessions is worth of  faith. Di Canio thinks these new training methods and some quality signings should make the impact Sunderland needs.

Paulinho and Soldado in Villas-Boas's formation

Spurs have just paid £17m for a defensive midfield player, and have completed also a £26m club-record signing of striker Roberto Soldado from Valencia. What impact is expected from Paulinho and Soldado at White Hart Lane? Paulinho can bring to the side something that Scott Parker or Tom Huddlestone or Sandro and Dembele didn’t. Parker and Huddlestone in particular are far from perfect for the midfield Andre Villas-Boas is building, lacking of skills needed to be part of Portuguese’s formation. In the Confederations Cup, Felipe Scolari utilized Paulinho as box to box midfielder in a midfield lined up with a double pivot containing Paulinho and a distributor, Luiz Gustavo, who sat deep allowing Paulinho to get space up front. Paulinho is strong defensively while maintaining an offensive threat that neither Parker or Huddlestone can do. But with Paulinho's arrival, Spurs can be lined up in the 4-3-3 way that achieved success with Villas-Boas's Porto side. Villas-Boas favourites a 'vertical' style of play with quick circulation and transition. With 24 league goals last season, Soldado is in the mix with Edinson Cavani, Falcao, Alvaro Negredo, and Dortmund's Robert Lewandowski between the major leagues’ goal scoring available players during this summer. He could be the front man was lacking at Tottenham since the arrival of Villas-Boas. To support Soldado, Villas-Boas needs of a midfield trio that didn't hold onto possession but that be able to transfer the ball forward as quick as possible. The 4-3-3 system at Porto was built around Fernando moving forward despite being a holding midfielder, and switching spot with Freddy Guarin who usually drop deep if Fernando advanced and with Joao Moutinho acting like a classic box to box midfielder. Villas Boas tried to reply this midfield rotation at Chelsea but it didn’t work as the same manager admitted:  

“Our No 6 [at Porto, usually Fernando] sometimes became a more attacking midfielder and we tried to do that here [at Chelsea]. We decided it doesn’t work here, so that’s one of the things I have adapted. You lose a little bit of balance in the Premier League if you play that way. Transitions here are much more direct, making the importance of the No 6 to stay in position most decisive.”

The midfield rotation creates a mobile midfield, and allows team to make free a midfielder in the build up if opponents are chasing the deep-lying midfielder. With the Spurs, Villas-Boas has in Moussa Dembele a typical box to box midfielder while Sandro could be the intelligent player able to rotate with Paulinho. Add that Villas-Boas can rely on Gylfi Sigurdsson too, good on distributing and that could adapt his game to a more deep role. That said, the Brazilian could be a key part of triangle midfield that Villas-Boas is looking for.

Where does Seattle play Clint Dempsey?

The Clint Dempsey era started in Seattle in a winning way as goals from Mauro Rosales and an own goal by Doneil Henry made the Sounders beating Toronto FC 2-1 at BMO Field. US national team Clint Dempsey made his debut in the 29^th minute when Seattle forward Obafemi Martins left the game due to injury. And Sounders head coach Sigi Schmid had the opportunity to test Dempsey up front. The question is where Schmid will line up Dempsey when Martins will be back as the head coach will have to find a spot for Dempsey in Seattle’s system. Schmid has recently opted for a 4-4-2 with Eddie Johnson and Martins as forwards. Keeping that formation would likely mean to line up Dempsey on the flank with the freedom to drift in between the lines, moving near to the penalty box where his could exploit his a goal scorer ability. But Schmid could also line up Dempsey as attacking midfielder playing behind a center forward, as he does with the U.S. national team. That would require moving Johnson or Martins out wide. Another scenario could be to leave Johnson and Martins paired up front lining up Dempsey as attacking midfielder in a 4-3-1-2 formation, maybe with Brad Evans and Mauro Rosales flanking him and with Osvaldo Alonso in front of the defence. There are various ways to utilize Dempsey's skill set and Schmid has to determine how to build his side around him. Some decisions have to be made.

Goalie controversy?

The LA Galaxy announced that the club has signed goalkeeper Jaime Penedo on a free transfer. The 31-year-old Panamanian international spent the last six seasons playing in Guatemala with Municipal and most recently he was one of the stars of the CONCACAF Gold Cup helping Panama to reach the Final. He began his career in Panama, then had two stints in Europe from 2005 to 2007, playing for Cagliari and for Osasuna, before joining Guatemalan side Municipal in 2007. He's the fourth goalkeeper on the Galaxy roster, following starter Carlo Cudicini and backups Brian Perk and Brian Rowe. With Cudicini sidelined by a minor injury, head coach Bruce Arena could take a look to Penedo when LA will face Milan before they return to league play next weekend. Rowe has made two league starts and went the full 90 against Real Madrid and Juve while Perk has been dealing with concussions. While LA Galaxy added Panamanian goalkeeper to the roster, a goalie controversy could rise for D.C. United. In fact, despite Bill Hamid has been D.C. United’s starter for three seasons, backup Joe Willis has been solid playing over Hamid in last weekend's match and head coach Ben Olsen has already said that Willis will be in goal next U.S. Open Cup semifinal.

Clint Dempsey come back

The news that Clint Dempsey is headed back to MLS was a shocking and a surprising one too. The Sounders will pay Spurs a $9 million transfer fee to acquire the 30-year Dempsey’s rights while the wide-forward's reported base salary will be of $32 million over four years. For Sounders coach Sigi Schmid the move was right. This move is a huge for Seattle and MLS. It's the same for Dempsey? The move is shocking as Dempsey, with 2014 World Cup less than a year away, opted to made a step back on his career returning to MLS for the first time since he left in 2006, after productive spells at Fulham and Tottenham. Dempsey didin't face the troubles Landon Donovan had overseas, passing several seasons there scoring regularly. When he became expendable and Spurs decided to part ways with him, Dempsey pick a move back to MLS instead to look for another European signature. It was against Jurgen Klinsmann demanding that his players play at the highest level. Before Dempsey, both Clarence Goodson and Carlos Bocanegra decided to come back in MLS but they are players with a modest background. Sure, money was no doubt a big factor as Dempsey received an offer he couldn't refuse. But it's enough for a player to forget his ambition and made a step backward?