How is Hassania Agadir shaping up into the new season?
Hassania Agadir is most well known in recent times for the tenures of Abdelhadi Sektioui and Miguel Gamondi as head coaches. They’re the two only managers to have lasted a relatively long time at the helm of HUSA in recent seasons. Under Gamondi, The squad even finished in third place at the end of 2017/2018, just one point away from title winners Ittihad Riadi de Tanger.
In recent times, Hassania have also been remarkably good at nurturing some of the highest quality local players, so it is always interesting to keep an eye on what they’re up to. Their fast counter attacking style has always been perfect for quick profile players to grow such as Youssef El Fahli (now at RS Berkane), Karim El Berkaoui (Al-Raed) or Badi Aouk (Wydad AC). Jamal Ech-Chamakh will probably be the next player to earn himself a move to a bigger club, but before that he’ll be expected to lead, and maybe even captain his team, to a decent finish this campaign.
Ech-Chammakh, generally played as a LWB, has been topping the charts on a regular basis in the Botola in his position, in terms of dribbles and fouls suffered, and would be perfect for a team that relies on quick transitions and combinations on the wing during build up. Bonus points if set piece proficiency is also one of their attributes. Sounds familiar? That’s exactly how I would describe Hassania Agadir these last few years.
Still, with the arrival of new coach Brazilian Marcos Paquetá, and the departures of almost all of the big names that have made their success in the last few seasons (Sofiane Bouftini, Mehdi Oubila, Yassine Rami, Abdelkarim Baadi in addition to the names mentioned above), keeping up with the rest of the botola pack might be a bit more difficult this time around.
Signs such as the departure of their best CB from last season (Djibril Diop) a few days before the end of the summer window are also not the most encouraging, even if the transfer fee of €0.5M to Viking FK in the Norway top league is definitely astute business compared to the usual prices Hassania players tend to leave at…
In terms of signing, they’ve brought in Keeper Hicham El Mejhed from IRT who will be expected to start for them. A position they’ve had trouble in last season so this is expected to be a relative upgrade. Though fans are mostly intrigued by the arrivals of Tunisian attacking midfielder Fadi Ben Choug, as well as LW Mohamed Rharsallah. Two players who had pretty high peaks in terms of form in the past but who are currently in a moment of struggle in their careers, looking to bounce back. Generally not the type of players Hassania goes for, so it will be quite interesting to see how they will be able to perform in this new context.
If we assume Paquetá goes for his preferred 4-3-3, the new Hassania might look something like this:
This would certainly be a big shake-up compared to last season with only 3 real starters keeping their spots in the starting XI (Ech-Chammakh, Moussadak and Mehri). It would also signify a certain break from Hassania’s policy to give up-and-coming youngsters a real chance playing for the first team. Still though, there is still a lot of uncertainty around this starting lineup, and a lot will depend on which level the newcomers will be playing at, a lot of spots are up of grabs, especially in midfield and attack.
Of particular interest will be the signing of forward Katulondi Kati, a player that seems to have a decent shot in him, which is most often than not a precious tool in the Botola.
Overall, it feels like this will be one of those high risk seasons for Hassania. If the new signings do end up working well, they might be headed towards a top half Botola finish, but in the opposite scenario, catastrophe might very well ensue.