The Galatasaray defeat marked the first loss for Trabzonspor since coach Abdullah Avci took charge. From day one, Avcı has sought to completely change Trabzonspor's usual ways.

Under Ünal Karaman, Hüseyin Çimşir and Eddie Newton's leadership, the team was always forward-looking and energetic but imbalanced. Coupled with the departure of many crucial players, including Alexander Sorloth, Jose Sosa and Filip Novak, the new coach was forced to establish a solid defensive game first.

With this game plan, Trabzonspor remained unbeaten with four wins and two draws but Galatasaray proved to be a different challenge altogether. Without Caleb Ekuban and Abdülkadir Ömür, Trabzonspor could not match its opponent's superior numbers in terms of individual talent.

Losing Ekuban and Ömür to injuries, Trabzonspor was left with its solid defensive play, where Avcı blocks the center with four men. Abdülkadir Parmak and Lewis Baker's primary roles are to build another set of defense before anyone reaches the central defenders.

The team that conceded 15 goals in nine games before Avcı's arrival, conceded only four in six games, including two in the last game against Galatasaray. Of course, the price the team had to pay was that it scored only five, but with a solid enough defense to keep a clean sheet, almost all of these goals returned three points for the team.

However, all of Trabzonspor's opponents during this period, except Hatayspor, were from the bottom half of the table, below the 10th spot. Galatasaray, on the other hand, became the league leader after beating Trabzonspor. It was obviously a different team than what the Black Sea side had encountered.

None of Avcı's opponents before had the luxury of replacing injured Sofiane Feghouli with Ömer Bayram, let alone having Radamel Falcao, Emre Akbaba and Jesse Sekidika, or other substitutes. Besides, Galatasaray's the starting 11, with a forward line of Arda Turan, Younnes Belhanda, Sofiane Feghouli, Emre Kılınç and Oğulcan Çağlayan, posed a great threat to Trabzonspor's defense.

Although Galatasaray manager Fatih Terim let go of his dominant game after the first weeks of the season, he still employs a similar tactic against defensively strong opponents. With a loosely organized 4-6-0, Terim gives a lot of room for creativity for his players, who are able to function better in narrow spaces than other teams.

Against this loose and wide forward line, Avcı did not have many options as his priority was to keep its center safe. Quite cleverly, he decided to break the line between defensive midfielder Taylan Antalyalı and central defender Marcao before this great coalition of talents. Nevertheless, as he only assigned Flavio for this role, he could not stop Galatasaray's attacks from the beginning and had to face his opponent around Trabzonspor's penalty box.

Then, Galatasaray took the initiative and settled in its opponent's half. As Trabzonspor was pushed far back into its penalty box and the fast players like Ömür and Ekuban being absent, the game quickly became one-sided. Even though Avcı's team still managed to create some opportunities, the game was clearly dominated by Galatasaray, which got the three points with two goals to none.

Now, I do not expect Avcı to come up with a solution to this offensive dullness this season, it is well beyond his capabilities at the moment. Added to that, establishing a solid defensive game first is the best way to create a balanced and reliable team. But most importantly, it is crucial that the city of Trabzon backs his plan as well.