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Something that stands out to me in these 5 games is you always had less pass completion than the other team. Nothing in your instructions suggests you are playing too risky (very high tempo/mentality/directedness). Does it worry you?

Friendly vs Mação It wasn't one for the history books, but I wanted to give rhythm to some players and also try some roles. I was already impressed with the movement of CM-A and MEZ-A; DLF-A upfront is also very interesting; I’m still trying to find how to best use the SS-A; and I’ve now tried the VOL-S. A combination of VOL-S/A, CM-A/MEZ-A, DLF-A and eventually a DLP-S is inviting and something I’ll probably use when I have players capable of doing it. Creating a box midfield/attack Creating a diamond In the next friendlies, I will try IWB and eventually WCB. Planned Transfers I started to delve into the transfer market, focusing on a GK and a RB. Starting with the RB, I was thinking about getting a decent starter and leave Lavrador as backup, but when I started going through the lists, I spotted Filipe Pereira from Coruchense. He isn’t as good as a number 1 option must be, but he’s clearly better, taller and younger than Miguel Silva. He’ll come in as a squad player, and I’ll still try and find a good first-team player even if only on loan. I tried to offer Miguel Silva in exchange and they accepted it, but he snubbed them. He’ll have to leave anyway. I asked the DOF about the GK, and we brought Ygor Vinhas on trial. He seems better than what we have, but not by a mile. Let's see what his expectations are. Cesco will finish his loan in January and sincerely, I don’t want to keep him, so I went through the scout reports we had and found João Queirós who has no contract. He’s left-footed, decent on the ball, tall and good in the air. On trial. Regarding the DM/CM position, also without a contract is João Lameira. Identified as a BWM, but he’s good on the ball so can play as DLP. He's on trial with us. I have some more players on trial, but these are the ones I’ll be looking more detailed into. Matchday 09 (A) vs Mafra 2 minutes into the game they score; 19 minutes in, Andrade got sent off on a double yellow… We changed to a 4-2-3. Madeira and Castro holding the midfield, direct passes, higher tempo, attacking mentality; regroup after losing the ball because we can’t risk pressing. Denilson left the field injured in the 42nd minute. The first half ended 2-2. The second half wasn’t as dramatic and the game ended 2-2. More heart than reason on this one, but I’m happy for the boys. 2 goals for Karamoko out of 4 shots, all on target. Daniel did his best in goal despite the 2 goals conceded. Madeira and Castro have held the midfield pretty well.

Comparing my team with the league Leader in chances created, tied for 3rd in goals per game, 2nd in shots. Only 12th in shots on target ratio, 11th in conversion rate, 14th in passes completed and pass completion ratio. Defensive-wise: 4th in shots on target against, 7th in passes attempted against, 16th in tackles won, 15th in goals conceded and expected goals conceded (with a difference of 2,58 – 0,37 per 90). We are creating chances and not letting many shots, so my first thought is the process is good at least. Do we need a new and better GK? New forwards? Is there anything we can do without changing the players? Possibly playing a bit shorter will help increase the pass completion ratio and we won’t lose the ball so many times. We are at 82% and 454 passes completed per game, getting to 85% on 500 is the goal. Important as well: on salary, we are dead last. 301K, above us is Oriental Dragon on 388k. Torreense, Mafra and Varzim are reported as financially insecure, the rest of the league is ok. Matchday 08 (H) vs Amora Most frustrating game yet! We were better all the way. They had maybe 3 or 4 highlights. The first goal when they hadn’t even shot once, and a penalty… Pedro Mendes returned from injury. He was still not at 100%, but I didn’t have many options. Midway through the second half I had to sub him off and played Luís Ferreira as DM-D. On the bright side: Madeira and João Castro both had wonderful games. Between them, they had: 2 goals, 1 assist, 10 key passes, 6 interceptions and 6 shots. The season so far – Part 2 Rewinding to the last post, I wanted to get something out of Torreense, Oliveira do Hospital and Amora and were afraid of Sporting B. The preview was just about right: 2 wins, 1 draw where we wanted points; 1 loss against Sporting. 6 goals scored, 4 conceded. One more game until we played everybody once. We need to defend better. Although I’ve been saying we should be scoring more, it’s the other end that is not working. Only 2 teams have conceded more than us and they are the last two. From my 5 most defensive players, the score for average rating is GK – 6,66; RB – 6,59; RCB – 6,81; LCB – 6,72; LB – 6,80. I can’t be happy with 6,80, but it looks way better than 6,59 and 6,66. That must be my focus on the next transfer window. In the meanwhile, I’ll think about some tactical changes we can make. Next games: Mafra (A, 3rd, above); Vizela (A, Cup, 1st tier); Caldas (A, 9th, above); Oriental Dragon (H, 1st, below); Académica Coimbra (A, 4th, above). The year ends after the game against Académica and the January transfer market opens. Quite a tough end to the year. I’ve beaten Caldas, lost to Oriental and drawn to Académica; shouldn’t be much different this time, but if we could get 2 wins and 1 loss/draw from these 3 wouldn’t be too bad. Mafra will certainly be a difficult game, but their players want to leave the team and their morale is really low, so I’m confident we can pull an upset.

First of all, thanks for reading! It is a concern, but also it isn't... I like to keep finances controlled, but I'm the manager, not the Financial Director or President or whoever runs the business. I like to think that I'm doing my job right when I'm under the given budget - and in this case, I am. It was a struggle to think like this for a long time, but right now I follow this "train of thought". Let's see what happens.

Comparing this season to the last one Without going into too much detail, I decided to compare last season’s most important players (Luís Ferreira, Pedro Mendes, Kisley and Karamoko) to their stats this season. Name DEF ATT D+A Poss +/- G+A /90 Gls-npxg /90 Luís Ferreira 6,15 0,54 6,69 21,83 0,08 -0,03 Luís Ferreira 4,31 0,30 4,61 21,87 0,15 0,07 -1,84 -0,24 -2,08 0,04 0,07 0,10 Name DEF ATT D+A Poss +/- G+A /90 Gls-npxg /90 Pedro Mendes 3,83 3,44 7,27 -7,89 0,27 0,03 Pedro Mendes 2,78 3,37 6,15 -9,54 0,20 -0,06 -1,05 -0,07 -1,12 -1,65 -0,07 -0,09 Name DEF ATT D+A Poss +/- G+A /90 Gls-npxg /90 Kisley 3,65 5,70 9,35 -6,39 1,07 0,31 Kisley 2,48 3,54 6,02 -4,26 0,00 -0,12 -1,17 -2,16 -3,33 2,13 -1,07 -0,43 Name DEF ATT D+A Poss +/- G+A /90 Gls-npxg /90 Mohamed Karamoko 1,53 5,05 6,58 -4,79 1,35 0,53 Mohamed Karamoko 2,09 3,70 5,79 -6,59 0,64 -0,01 0,56 -1,35 -0,79 -1,80 -0,71 -0,54 Luís Ferreira DEF rating is lower; Pedro Mendes DEF and ATT rating are both lower; Kisley is nowhere near what he was last season; and Karamoko’s shooting is also too far off. Just from Kisley and Karamoko we are losing 1,78 Goals + Assists / 90! I know since we are competing on a higher level, it should be expected some drop in performance. But it’s quite massive and all across the board. We probably need more time to settle, but one or two new players would be a great help. Taça de Portugal – Third Round (A) vs Fabril do Barreiro Decided to give some guys a chance since we were playing a 9th-placed from the tier below us, but had to change to get the win. 3 clear-cut chances and 6 half chances. Our scoring was been a disappointment. Late in the game decided to give Herculano Cassamá his chance and he made the assist for the first goal. My first junior debutant. Also important, we get 5k for getting through this round. Next round we play a first-tier team: Vizela. Matchday 07 (A) vs Sporting B To make things worse Miccoli is also injured so we are left with only 3 midfielders. I’m changing to 4-2-3-1 with Denilson behind the ST. Quite a bad game, but wasn’t expecting much. We beat them on xG and created chances, but once again we fail to convert chances into goals. Finances As expected, the math doesn’t seem to be right. I’m working on the budget I was given, but the numbers are terrible. And the projection is even more frightening! Hope this is wrong and the future will be much brighter.

Take your time and ask anything you want.

That's a great start to the season!

Training Performances Daniel Andrade should be our starter LB and has been until now, but every week I get an email regarding training performances and he is always on the bad side of the list. I’m going to drop him as also his performances haven’t been anywhere near the expected level. I had some talks with him already. If this keeps happening, he’ll be warned and possibly transfer listed. His low determination is a concern. We have some mentoring groups set up, but since he is the 9th player with the most matches played in his career and he’s also the player with the highest reputation, he’s more an influencer than someone who can be influenced. Matchday 05 (A) vs Torreense Our best game so far. 3 clear-cut chances (vs none), 7 shots on target (vs 2). Very happy with my decision to give Moura a starting position as he won the MotM award. 2 chances created, 4 key passes, 37% cross-completion ratio, 3 dribbles and 1 assist. LCB Problem – Update Since Deyvison took over the spot, he played vs União Leiria, Cinfães and Torreense. Had 43 passes attempted / 90% pass completion; 57 / 87%; 65 / 89%. I’ve also asked my LW to stay wider so he doesn’t move into the same space as the MEZ. It’s getting better. Will continue to monitor this situation. Matchday 06 (H) vs Oliveira do Hospital Previous to my encounter with them I personally attended their game vs União Leiria. They play a 4-3-3 with a Holding DM; LCM is very attacking; and we must be prepared to deal with their striker movement as he is a DLF. They’ll have 2 men upfront (ST and LCM) and move up the field with 4 players (3 MF + 1 ST) + 2 wingers out wide. The passing stats from the first half show some interesting points: RB way more involved than LB; LCM isn’t too involved relative to his midfield partners; RW is also very involved; ST is a DLF and it shows very well. Very strong right side compared to the left. Adaptations? I’m thinking about setting my LCB to a stopper role, but I don’t know if Deyvison is the right man for the job. He doesn’t have the agility and acceleration to deal with all the movement. I don’t trust Bastian or Cesco to do this, so don’t think I’ll change this. Perhaps dropping the DLP to DM will do and he’ll also help deal with the opposition LCM movement. Regarding their superiority on the right side, I have my LW on support and this should be enough to help out. This makes me think about setting my base tactic differently. 4-3-3 DM Wide makes more sense to be the starting point now as I’ve played this way every league game: 3 times vs 4-2-3-1; 2 times vs 4-4-2. There’s a problem in my squad: I only have an accomplished DM from my 5 CM (Pedro Mendes); other options for the DM position are Luís Ferreira and Bastian. Luís Ferreira is needed on defence, Bastian isn’t comfortable enough on the ball to play CB let alone DM. I brought 2 Argentinians on trial, recommended by the DOF. The first half wasn’t very exciting, they got a penalty and scored. We had many shots but just 1 on target. Karamoko scored one but he was offside. In the second half, we weren’t getting better, but we really only changed the game after some substitutions. Regarding what I watched from their game against Leiria, they really were more dangerous down the right which made my LB, LCB and LW get yellow cards; they switched their attacking LCM to the right as well. Karamoko has 1 shot on target over the last 4 games. I’ll drop him on the next game, Nicolatti also didn’t get a single shot on goal when he came in so Gonçalo Cabral will play upfront and Kisley returns to the RW spot. Unfortunate news about Pedro Mendes. I said he was our only option as DM and we’ll have to find a way without him over the next 3 to 4 weeks as he finished the game with a knock.

The LCB problem! The attributes of my CBs are the following: Name Best Pos First Touch Passing Technique Composure Decisions Vision Total Pass % Deyvison D (L) 11 10 9 10 9 8 57 81 João Cesco D (C) 6 7 6 7 13 4 43 73 Bastian D (C) 8 8 10 8 7 7 48 63 Luís Ferreira D (C) 9 10 7 12 11 9 58 93 (Pass % from my friendlies) I first noticed the problem with Deyvison last season and he’s far better than Cesco and Bastian. Deyvison will have his spot back for now. I’ve also asked the DOF to recommend some CBs and we brought 2 of them on trial. Name Best Pos First Touch Passing Technique Composure Decisions Vision Total Tomás González D (C) 10 10 10 7 13 6 56 Glen Matondo D (C) 10 10 10 10 10 10 60 Although, both are right-footed and I would prefer a left-footed one. Matchday 04 (A) vs União de Leiria They are first in the league, predict 4th in our group, 5th in the league (yes, out of the top-5, 4 teams are in our group; and we’ve played 3 teams predicted ahead of us already – Académica, União and Caldas). I adapted the team a bit: asked Pedro to play deeper; start the build-up through him; Kisley wider; Andrade more supportive than attacking; push them inside and try and recover the ball where we had the numbers; Madeira (RCM) was more offensive. It didn’t play out how I wanted. We had a very bad first half with an xG of only 0,05. They weren’t playing that well but were definitely better than us. Then they scored just before half-time. Asked the team to retain some possession, and they looked encouraged. Second-half we battled toe-to-toe, eventually scored from a corner but then gave away a penalty in the 85th minute. 2 shots in the first half, 8 in the second; 0,78 xG vs 0,05; they had 0,85 xG in the second half, 0,06 before the penalty. The season so far South Division standings As I’ve said before, we played 3 teams predicted to finish ahead of us in 4 games, so no reason to be that disappointed. Next games: Torreense (Away; 10th-placed; predicted below Sertanense); Oliveira do Hospital (H; 4th; below); Sporting B (A; 6th; above); Amora (H; 5th; above). We need to get some points against Torreense and Oliveira do Hospital; don’t know what we’ll get against Sporting B; and hope to get something out of the game against Amora. We also play Cinfães in the Second Round of the Cup. They are amateurs so we have no excuse. Taça de Portugal – Second Round (A) vs Cinfães We should have been better with 20 shots but only 4 on target. We created a lot, and I’m happy with that. At the end of the day, we got the win, we move on.

New Training Schedule I developed a new training schedule since my last one was designed for a semi-pro team. I’ll test this intensity and see if it fits the team. Don’t want to push too much, but we’ll start the week with physical training; then a day dedicated to specific training for every unit; one day to practice for the next match; after that 2 days on a lower intensity: one focused on technical aspects of our playing style; the other dedicated to technical-tactical aspects of the game; we usually play on Saturdays and recover on Sundays. We’ll train some set pieces along with the more intense training sessions. Team for the first part of the season GK – Unchanged from last season: Daniel and Pedro will compete for the number one spot. RB – Also unchanged, but it might change in January. Lavrador will start. LB – Andrade was the first player we spent anything on, he will start. Novais and Rúben will be backups and can help with rotation in the LW position. CB – Comfortable playing all 4 of them. CM – Madeira, Mendes and Castro will likely be the starters. Miccoli is the first choice from the bench, Luiz will fill in when we need it. RW – Kisley should be the starter, but he’s declining and Gonçalo is a good shout. LW – Both Ruster and Denilson have been playing well. I’m happily starting any of them. ST – Karamoko is the obvious answer. Nicolatti is my backup. TWEET Don’t usually pay attention to this, but found it funny: Let’s go crazy on the last day! Matchday 02 (A) vs Oriental Dragon Ridiculously bad game! We could create any chances. They weren’t that better, but they took they created 2 chances and scored both. My fault: I didn’t prepare the game, I should have adapted to their 4-2-3-1. The same thing happened with my LCB, although he increased his pass completion to 75%. Will try once again with a roaming inverted winger. Another thing I didn’t check: Cesco’s composure is 7, Deyvison's is 10. I will be approaching this in a future post. Matchday 03 (H) vs Académica de Coimbra Better but not great. Académica also played in a 4-2-3-1 and Pedro Mendes played as DM to cover for their AM. We created 4 half-chances, they create 1 clear-cut chance and 3 half-chances. LCB had 69% pass completion, which means I’m not getting anywhere near a solution. Although, this time he found the LWB (but this time couldn’t find the CMs). Will look into this in more detail.

World Transfers Since I didn’t write anything about last season’s transfers around the world, I will do a recap on what happened both last season's windows and in this window. Portugal France Spain Italy Germany England Matchday 01 (H) vs Caldas 3 goals in the first 16 minutes showed us the way. In the first game Kisley missed through injury, Gonçalo Cabral took his chance with 1 goal, 1 assist and 3 key passes. The main man was Karamoko with a hat trick. Bastian scored and Madeira assisted on their debuts. Cesco was my LCB and he had 66% pass completion. Look into the passing map, it’s obvious he has a difficult time finding the LB and the LW. It’s much more obvious when confronted with the pass map from the RCB. I’ve watched some clips and noticed there’s a clear pattern: LB goes forward, LW is tucked in LCM and CM are being marked; LCB tries to find ST on a long pass. I see some problems here: LW and LCM are often too close to each other; LB is too often behind the pressing RW; ST can’t challenge these long balls. How to solve this? 1. Try and get a Ball Playing Center Back (Cesco has Passing 7, Technique 6, Decisions 13 and Vision 4 / Deyvison has 10, 9, 9, 8). 2. Try a right-footed CB so he has more tendency to play inside and possibly find CM and RCM. 3. Change LCM to DLP and eventually change CM to another role, possibly CM-S or Box-to-Box. If CM is CM-S then RCM might be a CAR/MEZ ? Or another option would be to change CM to RPM so he moves more and LCM to some role where he holds his position. 4. Change LW to IW-A or try and give him a roam from position instruction. Solution 1 – is a bit hard at this level; Solution 2 – I don’t think it will do much; Solution 3 – If I had a RPM that would probably work, but just like Solution 1, finding a RPM at this level isn’t easy; changing the MEZ is something I’m not very interested in right now; Solution 4 – I’ll try the roam from position first as I don’t think it’ll benefit the team to have him in an attacking duty. Both Ruster and Denilson don’t have that much on Off the Ball, but let’s try something.

Good luck with this new challenge! Quite a decent team you have. Midfield and left-back will need to be "refreshed", but the rest of the squad has many years ahead of them. And didn't know there was a "new" Bogarde. Just googled and he's the nephew of the old Winston Bogarde

New tactic? While searching for a winger who can beat opponents on the ground and also in the air, I noticed that aside Kisley, there are not many. So I have to consider a different approach. Right now I’m thinking about two options: either 4-2-3-1 as my midfielders and Denilson can play the “10” and it wouldn’t be such a big change. In terms of chance creation, we wouldn’t have the ball in the air threat, but we could have another player in the middle. It could also help on regaining the ball upfront and moving to a higher block; the second option is a 3-man defence, maybe 3-4-1-2 / 3-5-2 / 5-3-2. Changing to a 3-man defence would mean one more player in the back, turning us into a bottom-heavy team by nature of the formation and I would have to test the pairs upfront, although some of my wingers can play there. This would probably lead to a low block. Preseason Fixtures and Stats Mostly wins and just 2 losses against teams from the Spanish second tier. I’ve tried out the 4-2-3-1. Probably wasn’t the wisest of choices to do so against one of the best teams we faced, but I did it when Kisley was injured which is exactly what I’m afraid of. The fixtures: And the stats [ DEF = Tackles + Interceptions + Blocks | ATT = Shots on Target + Open-Play Key Passes + Dribbles | D+A = DEF+ATT ]: Name Best Pos Apps Mins Gls/90 ShT/90 Asts/90 Pas % Poss Won/90 Hdr % Drb/90 Av Rat DEF ATT D+A Pedro Simões GK 3 (1) 256 0,00 0,00 0,00 99,00 11,60 0,00 0,00 6,95 2,11 0,00 2,11 Daniel Júnior GK 2 (2) 194 0,00 0,00 0,00 88,00 9,74 0,00 0,00 6,57 1,86 0,00 1,86 Daniel Júnior played against Lugo which affected negatively his stats. Still, I'll let Pedro start the season. His 99% pass completion is very encouraging. Name Best Pos Apps Mins Gls/90 ShT/90 Asts/90 Pas % Poss Won/90 Hdr % Drb/90 Av Rat DEF ATT D+A Alexandre Lavrador D (R) 2 (5) 331 0,00 0,27 0,27 78,00 19,03 74,00 2,18 7,06 10,60 4,63 15,23 Miguel Silva D (R) 4 (2) 282 0,00 0,32 0,00 80,00 18,51 22,00 1,91 6,63 7,66 3,19 10,85 Lavrador was dominant and will keep his place on the first eleven. Right now, both will stay but I'll try and find a replacement for Miguel Silva if he doesn't play any better until January. Name Best Pos Apps Mins Gls/90 ShT/90 Asts/90 Pas % Poss Won/90 Hdr % Drb/90 Av Rat DEF ATT D+A Daniel Novais M (L) 2 (4) 254 0,00 0,00 0,71 79,00 9,21 78,00 1,77 6,77 1,77 4,25 6,02 Daniel Andrade D (L) 3 198 0,00 0,00 0,91 79,00 15,45 90,00 1,82 6,93 5,45 4,55 10,00 Rúben Moura M (L) 1 (4) 180 0,00 0,00 0,00 74,00 9,00 40,00 2,00 6,70 5,00 5,00 10,00 Rúben Moura didn't have the best preseason and new signing Andrade will take his place. Name Best Pos Apps Mins Gls/90 ShT/90 Asts/90 Pas % Poss Won/90 Hdr % Drb/90 Av Rat DEF ATT D+A Deyvison D (L) 3 (2) 332 0,00 0,00 0,00 81,00 29,82 72,00 0,00 6,98 7,05 0,27 7,32 João Cesco D (C) 5 329 0,00 0,55 0,00 73,00 35,56 72,00 0,00 7,00 7,38 0,55 7,93 Bastian D (C) 3 (3) 301 0,00 0,00 0,00 63,00 37,38 100,00 0,00 6,95 6,88 0,90 7,78 Luís Ferreira D (C) 3 (2) 298 0,30 0,30 0,00 93,00 33,22 86,00 0,00 7,30 7,55 0,60 8,15 João Guerra D (C) 3 197 0,00 0,46 0,00 86,00 21,47 71,00 0,00 6,83 4,56 0,46 5,02 Luís Ferreira is the clear best defender. Cesco will start alongside him. Once again, will look into the low passing completion from my LCBs. I think it's mainly down to my attacking wing-back on the left. I might have to change his role. Otherwise, I could try to resolve this with my CMs but I don't want to change the dynamic right now. Name Best Pos Apps Mins Gls/90 ShT/90 Asts/90 Pas % Poss Won/90 Hdr % Drb/90 Av Rat DEF ATT D+A João Castro AM (C) 4 (4) 413 0,44 0,44 0,22 87,00 7,41 43,00 0,65 7,09 4,57 2,83 7,40 Luís Madeira M (C) 5 (2) 400 0,00 0,22 0,22 85,00 10,80 82,00 0,45 6,99 3,59 2,24 5,83 Pedro Mendes M (C) 5 (1) 312 0,00 0,29 0,58 78,00 6,06 57,00 0,87 6,85 2,31 2,60 4,91 Miccoli M (C) 3 (3) 277 0,00 0,00 0,32 77,00 7,80 17,00 0,97 6,64 2,26 2,27 4,53 André Luiz M (C) 1 (6) 265 0,00 0,00 0,00 78,00 5,77 20,00 0,34 6,63 4,08 1,36 5,44 João Castro was a monster in the preseason. Goals, Assists, Defensive Actions, Pass Completion,... He did it all. I'm also happy with Luís Madeira. Will try and sign another midfielder just to be prepared for the season, but André Luiz was pretty decent as backup and Miccoli will fight with the other 3 players for a starting spot. Name Best Pos Apps Mins Gls/90 ShT/90 Asts/90 Pas % Poss Won/90 Hdr % Drb/90 Av Rat DEF ATT D+A Gonçalo Cabral AM (R) 2 (1) 191 0,47 0,94 0,47 76,00 10,37 59,00 3,77 7,23 4,71 7,54 12,25 Kisley AM (R) 1 (5) 182 0,99 1,98 0,49 76,00 4,45 64,00 1,48 7,30 3,46 8,41 11,87 Gonçalo Cabral played both RW and ST, so his stats might be a bit skewed. Other than that, I feel like I have 2 good options. Kisley will be the number-one choice, but we'll see how the season pans out. Name Best Pos Apps Mins Gls/90 ShT/90 Asts/90 Pas % Poss Won/90 Hdr % Drb/90 Av Rat DEF ATT D+A Denilson AM (L) 4 (3) 423 0,43 0,85 0,43 79,00 3,19 29,00 3,19 7,07 2,77 6,81 9,58 Ruster AM (L) 4 (1) 266 0,34 1,69 0,34 83,00 9,81 33,00 2,03 7,02 4,74 6,77 11,51 Once again, two very good options. I'm happy with both. Ruster helps a lot defensively and since I ask my wide players to press the opposition wide players, he'll be the first choice. Name Best Pos Apps Mins Gls/90 ShT/90 Asts/90 Pas % Poss Won/90 Hdr % Drb/90 Av Rat DEF ATT D+A Victor Nicolatti ST (C) 3 (3) 277 0,65 4,87 0,00 89,00 2,27 47,00 0,00 6,85 1,29 5,84 7,13 Mohamed Karamoko ST (C) 4 (3) 262 1,37 2,75 0,34 84,00 3,78 22,00 1,37 6,96 2,40 4,46 6,86 I was surprised by Nicolatti. Didn't expect him to give this much of a fight, but Karamoko is a beast and he'll start. Youth Team Staff I’m not responsible for the staff of Sertanense’s youth teams, but there have been quite some changes. I hope this can translate to better players. One Performance Analyst, one Sports Scientist, one GK Coach, one Fitness Coach, one Assistant Manager and one Physio. It was quite a needed overhaul. Player Reports – Injury Proneness, Consistency and Big Matches I've asked my assistant to give me reports for every player regarding their injury proneness, their consistency and the effect of big matches Name Pos Injuries Consistency Big Matches Pedro Simões GK 0 2 1 Daniel Júnior GK 0 1 1 Lucas Sousa GK -1 -1 0 Alexandre Lavrador D (R) 0 1 0 Miguel Silva D (R) 0 1 0 Daniel Novais D (L) 0 1 -2 Daniel Andrade D (L) 0 -1 1 Rúben Moura D (L) 0 1 -1 Deyvison D (C) -1 1 1 João Cesco D (C) -1 0 -2 Bastian D (C) 0 0 -1 Luís Ferreira D (C) 0 1 1 João Guerra D (C) 0 0 1 Name Best Pos Injuries Consistency Big Matches João Castro M (C) 0 1 1 Luís Madeira M (C) 0 2 0 Pedro Mendes M (C) -1 1 1 Miccoli M (C) 0 1 2 André Luiz M (C) -1 -1 0 Gonçalo Cabral AM (R) 0 -2 1 Kisley AM (R) 0 0 1 Denilson AM (L) 0 0 0 Ruster AM (L) 0 1 -1 Victor Nicolatti ST (C) -1 -1 -1 Mohamed Karamoko ST (C) -1 -1 0

It's a shame you are out of the Continental Competitions, but gives you more time to train and recover. It'll help in the coming season (although the money would've been nice). Pierozzi and Quarta were a let-down or do you think they add more than the stats say?

This won't be an update on my journey but a study I made on my team's last season statistics and its comparison with the rest of the league. So, I took the weight for each position and each stat (I already published it before) and multiplied it by the relative difference to the 80th percentile of the league's most used players. I wanted to understand what I should expect as a difference in each position. Don't know if this is mathematically correct, but moving on... Here are the results: SHOOTING Pos Gls Gls/90 Shot/90 ShT/90 NP-xG/90 Conv % Shot % SK-A 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% RWB-S 0% 0% -1% -1% 0% 0% -4% LWB-A 0% 0% -1% 1% -1% 0% 9% RCB-D -1% -1% 0% -1% 0% -4% -6% LCB-D -1% -1% 0% -1% 0% -6% -5% RCM-S -2% 0% 0% 0% -1% -5% -3% DLP-S 0% 0% 0% 0% -2% -1% -2% LMEZ-S -1% 0% 0% 0% -2% -3% -3% RIF-A 30% 31% 50% 47% 31% 0% 0% LIW-S 5% 5% -1% 1% -1% 21% 2% AF-A 57% 56% 16% 21% 53% 2% -1% The importance of the front 3 on my goals scored is quite relevant. They've also played a level above the rest of the league. PASSING Pos Ast Asts/90 xA/90 Ps C/90 Pas % Pr passes/90 K Ps/90 OP-KP/90 Ch C/90 Cr C/90 Cr C/A SK-A 0% 0% 0% 2% 1% -1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% RWB-S -3% 0% -2% -2% -1% 6% -1% -1% -2% 1% 0% LWB-A 1% 16% 4% -2% -1% 2% 15% 19% -2% 24% -1% RCB-D -1% 0% -1% 0% 0% -1% -1% -1% -1% -1% -8% LCB-D -1% 0% 0% 0% 0% -2% 0% 0% -1% 0% 0% RCM-S -1% 3% 1% -1% -1% 1% 2% 2% 1% 1% 0% DLP-S 0% 1% 2% -2% -1% 1% 4% 3% 4% 12% 0% LMEZ-S -1% 4% 1% -1% -1% 1% 3% 3% 2% 4% 0% RIF-A 8% 16% 15% -2% -1% 0% -1% 6% 4% -4% 2% LIW-S 8% 17% -2% -2% -1% -1% -3% 1% -4% -5% 2% AF-A 0% 0% 0% -1% -1% 0% 3% 3% 2% 0% -1% Left wing-back and both wingers are very important in creating chances. Also, all three of the central midfielders are very involved offensively. DEFENDING Pos Pres A/90 Pres C Tck/90 Tck R Int/90 Fls Blk/90 Clr/90 Hdrs W/90 Hdr % Gl Mst Poss Won/90 SK-A 0% 0% 0% 0% -1% 0% -4% -15% 0% 0% 0% -1% RWB-S -1% -1% -1% -2% 1% -4% 2% -3% -2% -3% -8% 1% LWB-A -1% -2% -1% 0% -3% -5% -2% -6% -1% -1% 0% -1% RCB-D 0% 0% -1% -1% -2% -2% -1% -9% -2% -1% -6% 1% LCB-D 0% 0% 0% -1% -1% -3% -2% -4% -2% -1% -6% 1% RCM-S -3% -2% -2% -1% -2% -2% -1% -2% -1% -2% 0% -1% DLP-S -4% -2% -4% -1% -2% -4% -1% -3% -1% -3% 0% -1% LMEZ-S -4% -3% -4% -1% -1% -3% -2% -4% -1% -3% 0% -1% RIF-A -4% -2% -2% 0% -2% -1% -2% -2% 11% 4% 0% -1% LIW-S -3% -2% -4% -1% -2% -4% -1% -1% -1% -1% 0% -1% AF-A -4% -3% -3% -1% -1% 17% -1% -2% -3% -2% 0% -1% Clearly, we are a very attacking team and all defensive stats suffer. Exception on the right wing-back. Also the evidence of the focus on our right winger's aerial dominance. MOVEMENT AND MISC. Pos Drb/90 FA Poss Lost/90 Sprints/90 Av Rat FA/90 Fls/90 Gl Mst/90 SK-A 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 41% RWB-S 0% -3% 5% 1% 0% -2% 10% 0% LWB-A 57% -4% 8% 7% 0% 0% 11% 0% RCB-D 0% -2% 0% 0% 0% -1% 4% 0% LCB-D 0% -1% 0% -1% 0% -1% 5% 0% RCM-S -1% -5% 4% 0% 0% -2% 1% 0% DLP-S -1% -4% 5% 1% 0% -2% 2% 0% LMEZ-S -1% -2% 4% 0% 0% -2% 2% 0% RIF-A -7% -5% 1% 1% 1% -1% 29% 0% LIW-S -7% -4% 0% -1% 0% 4% 5% 0% AF-A 0% 1% 1% -1% 0% 1% 52% 0% Our left wing-back is once again in evidence, this time it's the dribbling. I can also notice a high intensity all across the team with big numbers in sprints. Our possession lost values are also quite high, something I must follow closely this season. I have no detailed statistics on this, but from the footage review, I believe it's mostly down to inaccurate passes, inaccurate headers and uncompleted dribbles (it's a shame I have no access to dribble success ratio). Looking at my most used players, I have: Name Pos Shot Lost/90 Pass Lost/90 Cross Lost/90 Headers Lost/90 Poss Lost/90 * Daniel Júnior GK 0,00 2,77 0,00 0,00 2,77 Alexandre Lavrador D (R) 0,05 9,87 3,12 2,08 15,13 Rúben Moura D (L) 0,13 12,75 7,31 4,13 24,32 Luís Ferreira D (C) 0,30 7,57 0,05 3,45 11,37 Deyvison D (C) 0,17 16,98 0,00 3,87 21,02 Bernardo Fortunato M (C) 0,86 10,12 1,26 2,86 15,10 Pedro Mendes M (C) 0,46 11,32 4,96 1,61 18,35 Figueiredo M (C) 0,75 13,04 0,85 2,81 17,45 Kisley AM (R) 1,90 6,50 2,91 3,54 14,84 Gonçalo Gomes AM (L) 0,71 5,95 2,27 4,75 13,67 Mohamed Karamoko ST (C) 2,63 2,86 1,53 16,34 23,36 Here, the possession lost is calculated and the numbers are a bit higher than the data I retrieved from the system. Rúben Moura is missing many crosses. Deyvison is missing many passes for no particular reason (his "partner" misses less than half). Pedro Mendes's figures are higher due to crosses from set pieces. Karamoko loses many headers, but that's something I can leave with taking into account everything else he offers the team.

Second Season – 2023/2024 Season Preview Just on the first few days of the new season, I took a look at the predictions for this year and found our team placed 11th out of the 20 teams in Liga 3 with 25-1 odds. Not bad for a promoted team. Let’s see how it evolves during the transfer window. Board Expectations My board asked me to avoid finishing bottom of the league, which in light of the media expectation seems very doable. On the cup run, they expect us to reach the second round. They were willing to raise the budget should we aim for the third round. It’s a lot down to luck, so I decided to keep the aim on the second round. Signings Update and First Review GK Pedro Simões, 23, contract extension. Trialed some goalkeepers but none of them were that much better, so I’m keeping Pedro as a backup. CB Bastian, 27, Nigerian, end of contract. I was a bit worried about his passing completion and the first preseason games didn’t help much with that: 70%, 63%, 56% and 68% against weaker opposition than we’ll be facing. I’ll keep track of this. Possession Won is very similar to Luís Ferreira, Defensive Rating isn't too far off and better Attacking Rating. I’ve also added João Cesco (22, Brazilian) on loan. No wages but only until January. He’s left-footed and we only had one left-footed center-back, so I’m happy with this addition. Don’t have many stats on him, but my recruitment team recommended him, so I’ll trust them. On a curious note: he’s also Portuguese. LB I’m not sure about my options in this position. Rúben Moura and Daniel Novais are decent, but not top-level and this is quite an important position for the way we play. I’ve trialed Iuri Alves who played alongside Bastian at Benfica e Castelo Branco. I’m also not happy that all these options are not comfortable playing the big matches. My youth player Isidro Correia has been getting some contacts for trials. We haven’t allowed him to leave. I want to see how he does on the youth team. CM Luís Madeira, 20, end of contract. A good option for both DPL and Mezzala roles. He was signed as an impact sub, which takes away some pressure to play him, but surely he’ll have his minutes. João Castro, 21, end of contract. Has been impressing me. Hope he keeps playing like this when games get tougher. He’ll be the Mezzala. Some stats comparing both to Pedro Mendes: noteworthy the defensive rating for Luís Madeira. Edgar Moura, 20, contract extension. Still have to play him a bit more, but I’m not too confident about him. He doesn’t add much with the ball on his feet. André Luiz, 19, contract extension. He has some decent stats. Of the 3 young central midfielders, he has been the best so far. André Marques, 19, contract extension. Hasn’t been particularly impressive, and probably won’t make the team. RW Luís Rascão, 16, promoted. A bit far from being ready for the first team. Will be training with this team, but he’ll play with the U19. I have a player on trial I’m very interested in keeping. Tiago Leite, 22. Had 6 assists last season on the same level we played. He’s also very good in the air. LW Ruster, 26, end of contract. 9 goals last season. Higher open-play key passes and more open-play crosses completed, more pressures and more dribbles than Gonçalo Gomes. Higher in both Defensive and Attacking Rating. ST Hélder Barros, 16, promoted. Same as Luís Rascão, he’s still far from the expected level. Nicolatti, 23, return from loan. Has been quite good: scoring some goals, winning aerial duels and playing some key passes. I’m happy with him. He’s good enough for a backup. I’ll update this again when the preseason ends.

Staff Update I’ve started working on my Coaching Licence. Hope to have the Continental B Licence in 6 months. I have two members of my staff also on course to have higher licences. Although, one might leave as there are some people interested in working for Sertanense. Right now, I have my Assistant on contract, and my 3 other coaches (GK, Fitness and General) are on month-to-month agreements and will probably leave. One major change about turning pro is the availability of the board on letting me expand the non-playing team. Recruitment Analyst, Head of Sports Science and Head Performance Analyst are the first 3 to join. I eventually find a new GK Coach in Miguel Paiva, 38, and a new Fitness Coach in Rui Salgado, 30. Later I added Paulo Ferreira (former Chelsea player). He’ll be a great example for the players, having a great personality (Model Citizen). End-of-Season Awards Quite a season culminated in some awards for Sertanense. I won Manager of the Year; Karamoko won Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year; Luís Ferreira, Kisley and Karamoko were selected for the Team of the Year.

Contracts Since we turned pro, every contract that has been renewed over the last months will have to be renegotiated turning my players from semi-pro to pro. The first one was Karamoko. The DOF, Hélder Borges, signed him on a 2,9k€/month contract going through 2026. And he’s the first player to have a release clause (76k for teams in higher divisions). Luís Ferreira was second. 2,4k – 2026 – 56k release clause. Analyzing top teams from Liga 3 (third tier) I took a look at the top 3 teams from Liga 3. Group North 1st – Fafe – Control Possession 4-3-3 DM Wide 2nd – Varzim - Control Possession 4-3-3 DM Wide 3rd – Montalegre - Control Possession 4-3-3 DM Wide Group South 1st – Vitória de Setúbal – Vertical Tiki-Taka 4-4-2 2nd – Alverca – Fluid Counter Attack 4-3-3 DM Wide 3rd – Oliveira do Hospital - Control Possession 4-3-3 DM Wide Control Possession and 4-3-3 seem to be dominant. However, Vitória de Setúbal was the champion playing a different formation and a different style. Something to consider and study a bit more. Liga 3 The league is composed of 2 10-team groups. 4 top teams from each group go to a promotion stage (divided into two groups of 4), and all the others go to a relegation stage (divided into 4 groups of 3). There’s more to it, but it’s quite a mess. When we get there, I’ll explain what’s going to happen. Contract Renewal! I’ve been offered a new contract. I was on a 1000 €/month contract, due to promotion has increased to 1300 €/month. Their first offer was 3900 €/month, a promotion wage rise of 15% and a relegation wage drop of 35% for 2 years. I’ve asked for 4200 €/month, a 20% promotion wage rise and a 30% relegation wage drop. They accepted it. Let the good times roll! [Note: Some attributes have increased before getting the new Licence – Attacking 8 (+1); Technical 11 (+1); Youngster Knowledge 5 (+1); Motivating 6 (+1)] B Team We had the option to create a B team. The board asked for my opinion, I declined it. We don’t have a great youth team and also don’t have that many players on the first-team squad, so I thought there was no reason to have another team.

At least I'll be fighting for it!

Around the world Liverpool won the Premier League, Real Madrid were champions in Spain, Juventus won the Serie A, Bayern won once again, Paris SG also won. Only surprise was in Portugal where Braga won, even after selling Ricardo Horta to Newcastle in January. In the Champions League, Liverpool beat Milan 4-0 with a hat-trick from Salah. Man Utd have beaten Arsenal to claim the Europa League and West Ham won the Conference League by beating PSV 2-1. Full Premier League domination in Europe. First signings for the next season GK – Eventually extended Pedro Simões’ contract. CB – Made an offer for Bastian, 27, Nigerian. He played in my group. Statistically: 94% header won ratio in 21 headers won/90; 6,90 progressive passes / 90; 29,92 possessions won / 90. He accepted my offer. He’s right-footed, which isn’t ideal (I was missing a left-footed CB), but his stats were too good to pass on him. CM (x3) – Luís Madeira, 20. Had great stats across the board. He was the first I got into negotiations with. João Castro, 21 was the second player I negotiated. Doesn’t have great stats, but my scout rated him as A+ and his contract was ending, so I trusted my staff and asked the DOF to offer him a contract. Luís Madeira accepted. Bernardo Fortunato was on loan this season and ends his contract both with us and Estoril, so I instructed the DOF to try and sign him. Luís Madeira accepted, and so did João Castro. The DOF didn’t accept my wish to sign Bernardo as we already had signed 2 players for the same position. I have some youngsters who were on loan. I’ll use them in the off-season and if they don’t prove themselves to be able then I’ll try and go for someone on loan. RW – 16-year-old Luís Rascão will be promoted and be with the first team, but we’ll likely still try and get another player. Tried Pedro Silva, who had good stats although in a League below ours, but he signed for Penafiel (2nd tier). LW – Wallace had been on trial during the season. I really liked him. Technically there’s no one like him on my team (maybe Quaresma, but on a different phase of his career). But my DOF couldn’t sign him. ST – 16-year-old Hélder Barros will be trained to play in this position but he’ll be the third choice. Iaquinta, whom we played against on the promotion stage. Scored 19 goals; won 10 headers/90 on 60%. He decided to join S.J. de Ver (3rd tier). I had Nicolatti on loan and decided to offer him a renewal. He’s 23 and a link-up striker. He’s cheap, so I’ll give him another chance. End of Season [IRL comment: Imagine a fourth-tier team having shirts for sale from Quaresma, Denilson and Miccoli. Pretty sure they’d be a success] Karamoko, Kisley and Luís Ferreira were the standout performers. Pedro Mendes is now a team leader. Quaresma is the other one but he will retire. Next season we’ll be playing in Abrantes as our stadium will be enlarged by 600 seats (it’ll have 1800 seats). It’s about 45 minutes and 50 km away and has a capacity for 1500 seats. Season Year Club League Position Cup Stage PPG Win % GF GA 01 2022/2023 Sertanense PT4 1st TdP First Round 2,27 69% 70 32 Most Goals Most Assists Most POM Highest AvR Karamoko – 31 Quaresma – 9 Karamoko – 8 Kisley – 7,42 Income Expenditure Profit Avg Attendance 1.353.447,00 € 1.411.118,00 € -57.671,00 € 662

Thanks!

I've been a silent reader, but I love this series. Good luck for the remainder of the season!

Final Match Preparation To prepare for the final match, I opted to change my training a little bit. We had 14 days before the game, so I opted for more focus on match preparation. Comparing both teams, we have: Sertanense – Vila Meã 57 – 57 Possession % 59 – 60 Headers Won Ratio 84 – 45 Goals Scored 9 – 6 Penalties Scored 18 – 17 Cross Completion Ratio 83 – 85 Pass completion Ratio 121 – 66 Chances Created 205 – 131 Shots on Target 39 – 27 Goals Conceded 425 – 579 Fouls Made We were quite similar on the ratios, but we managed to make the most out of our possession and passing with many more chances created that turned into many more shots on target and goals. We also conceded more (although from a similar xGA). Corners seem to be a problem for my team, something I hadn’t picked up yet. Made me change my training schedule and my setup. It was also noticeable they made a lot more fouls. The biggest offenders are their left winger and striker (they play a 4-3-3). Regarding player stats: Djoussé (ST) and Zé Lopes (DM) are the scoring threats (14 in 28 and 8 in 32 matches). Zé Lopes mostly from set-pieces. On the creative part, their wingers seem dangerous (Adílio Varela and Beghdadi) with many key passes, dribbles and crosses (also 15 assists between them). On defence, their full-backs are the most active, with a very decent header-won ratio for their left-back (Elízio). Both center-backs seem comfortable on the ball and good in the air. Their RCM (Pedro Martins) is a good dribbler and scores some goals, the LCM (Mica) is the more creative midfielder. I have faith in my usual tactic. Don’t think I have to adapt too much. The match It was played in Águeda, a neutral venue. Great start for us with a goal by Kisley in the 7th minute. Not many chances by either side, but a through ball puts Karamoko 1-on-1 with their keeper and he scores. 2-0. Then they score 1 by Seidi, their left-winger (Beghdadi was on the bench). Time for a break. We started the second half very slowly and they took control of the match. After 15 minutes of pressure they eventually scored through Djoussé. Then I replaced my wingers (Kisley and Gomes for Quaresma and Denilson) and we turned it around. Quaresma won a penalty and converted it. Then Fortunato scored from range to make it 4-2. We fell asleep once again and they got a penalty and scored (Zé Lopes). And on the 90+1, Karamoko scored his second of the game. 5-3. Let’s hear the Queen: “We are the champions!” What a start to my career! I’m loving it!