TUCKER, St James — When they open the 2014-15 Red Stripe Premier League season against promoted Reno FC on Monday at the Montego Bay Sports Complex, champions Montego Bay United (MBU), will plan on playing attacking, energetic football on both ends of the field.

“We are happy and satisfied with where we are going into the first game of the season, the players have worked hard and will be ready for the game,” said coach Carlos Garcia, a native of Spain.

Initially, there was some mix-up as to whom MBU’s first opponents would be. The club was informed that it would be Rivoli United, then they were told it would be Reno FC. Garcia said this uncertainty made it difficult to properly map a game plan.

There will be little changes in the team personnel as MBU have lost two players — Evon Taylor and Aldane Grant. Taylor, who started the season at Harbour View last year, has switched to Waterhouse FC, while Grant will be lining up against his old club on Monday in a Reno shirt.

The club has added young players, mostly from other St James clubs, who they hope will be able to complement the core of players who took them to the title last season.

Jerome Haughton and O’Carey Spence have moved over from beaten St James FA Senior League finalists Reggae Youths, Kevaughn Atkinson was promoted from the Under-21 team; Kevaun Stephens played at Manchester High last year, Phillipp Salmon transferred from a St Ann club and Lamar Thompson played for Rockfort FC in the KSAFA competitions last year.

Coach Garcia said MBU, who destroyed favourites Waterhouse 5-2 in the final played at the National Stadium last season, said the aim is to be strong in all areas of the field. Waterhouse boasted the best defensive record last season.

“This team will always try to be dominant at every area of the field,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “We will work hard and play high pressure football.”

Shortly after his arrival in July to take up the reins at MBU, Garcia said then he had no plans of changing the playing system, but would rather concentrate on correcting any flaws there were.

“I will try to get a smooth transition, I can’t come to a team that just won the league and say forget about everything I have my own ideas, I think that does not work,” he said.

“I come here and find a team that has good energy so… I say this is my idea and let’s see how we can combine both and work together and grow from there,” Garica said.

The Spaniard said then he watched the team in scrimmages and studied lots of video footage to get a better idea of the strengths and weaknesses of the team. “The players are used to playing the ball, so I am introducing structures to make this more efficient,” he said.

“I see that last year they were the best defensive team, so I looked at the videos and said, ‘you are doing really well, this is where you can improve and these are my systems to improve the team’,” he noted.

In further analysing the team, Garcia zoomed in on the defensive area, which he thinks can still be stronger even at its existing high level.

“From the back, they usually have good possession of the ball, but at times they tend to play the ball long. I say if you want to have more possession of the ball, we have to be able to play the ball short so we are putting in systems to achieve this,” the coach said.

Montego Bay United had some of the fastest players in the league last year, especially in attack. Among them are Allan Ottey, Bahamian Lesley St Fleur, Dino Williams and Kemiro James. And Garcia plans to capitalise on this fleet-of-foot brigade.

“We have fast players and good strikers and if we have space we are going to run and try to score, but if we don’t have that space, we must know what to do to make the space,” he argued.

Jacomeno Barrett, last season’s top goalkeeper, will anchor the experienced defence line that will see Orlando McBayne, Ladale Ritchie, John Barrett, Winston Wilkinson and Cordel Simpson in action.

Converted midfielder Fabian McCarthy will start the season in the holding midfield role that he took over last year in a reshuffle and should be joined by Keniel Kirlew, one of the most improved players. Dwayne Ambusley, Jermaine Woozencroft and Leon Irving are others who should figure prominently in the middle of the park.

After employing at least five coaches over the past three seasons, MBU will be hoping for some stability at the helm and the management team will be hoping the Spaniard, who turned down offers elsewhere to make the trek to Jamaica, will at least last the entire season.

Three different coaches played a part in their successful campaign last season. Donovan Duckie started the season but left midway the second round; Hugh Solomon, who had started the team’s first season in the Premier League as interim coach until Brazilian Neider do Santos arrived took over, but soon made way for Dean Weatherly in his third stint to take them to the title.