It was a summer of squad overhaul. I didn’t plan on losing Branco and García so it’ll be interesting to see how we get on without them and how the young players making the step up from the B team cope with Primeira Liga football.
With the 2022 World Cup to navigate around it’s a busy start to the 2022/23 season. Read on as I serve up the first portion.
Continue reading
If you need a short summary of my fourth season at Vitória, we finished 3rd in the Primeira Liga and won the Taca de Portugal, Taca da Liga and Supertaca. Our first foray into the Champions League was a story of almost but not good enough. We picked up a couple of wins but ultimately crashed out in 4th place in a group that contained PSG, Spurs and Schalke.
If you want a bit more of a detailed look at season four, here’s the story of the season in stats. Get yourself caught up and then read on to see how we’re shaping up ahead of season five.
Regression isn’t usually a positive. It is for me though in the context of my fourth season in charge of Vitória on FM19.
We slipped a league position to 3rd and were three points away from our total from the previous season too. We could have won a domestic quadruple, taking home the Primeira Liga, Taca de Portugal, Taca da Liga and Supertaca. It was only a domestic cup treble we had to settle for in the end. Coming up short in the league once again.
The league remains elusive and I’m fine with that. The challenge that Benfica and Porto pose along with Sporting and Braga, coupled with some of the incredibly promising young talent that we’ve got coming through at the club, keeps me coming back to the game.
Continue reading
At the end of January we were sitting 2nd in the league and in a title battle with Benfica and Porto, os novos Três Grandes. A poor run had seen a resurgent Sporting fall away while AVB’s Braga are still plugging away and are never too far behind. We slipped up in the final weeks of the season last time out, could we go one better than our 2nd place finish and win the league?
Continue reading
As I move into the business end of my fourth season in charge of Vitória, I had a thought that I’ve been pretty lax at sharing and showing off some of the promising young players at the club.
A few were mentioned in the Vitória development pathway post but I’ve usually waited until they’ve made it to the first team as in my head this is when they’ve merited their chance to be shown off. However, I’m now throwing that out of the window and would like to introduce you to a selection of Os Pequenos Conquistadores, the little conquerors.
Continue reading
We’ve reached the point of the season where the games come thick and fast. There’s eight to play in December and then a potential seven in January. Recovery days will be essential for the squad.
There’s only one pre-arranged piece of first team transfer business to go through and right now I’ve no firm plans to dive in and spend our, just topped up by the board, £18m transfer budget. That could change though if the right player became available.
Continue reading
Football Manager 2018 saw the Mezzala role introduced to the game. It had gained some traction in the non-FM world due to the performances of Ángel di María for Real Madrid in what was dubbed as the central winger role but when researching I found that it’s been part of the Italian football vernacular for years.
When the role appeared alongside the Carrilero and Segundo Volante I vowed never to use them. Never heard of them. Far too hipster for me. FM doesn’t really need them. Fast forward to FM19 and I’ve now crossed two of them off the list. The Carrilero appeared in my first tactical attempt and now the Mezzala is key to how we play. So important that it’s merited it’s own blog post analysing the role in my system.
Continue reading
That felt like the longest break between seasons. It’s time to finally get competitive match action underway for my fourth season in charge of Vitória.
How would we cope juggling the Champions League group stage with trying to start well in the league and progressing in the domestic cups? Read on to find out.
Continue reading
Season three turned out to be our best one yet. We challenged for the Primeira Liga title, but ultimately fell short as Benfica picked up their first league win of the save so far. I did manage to win the first two trophies of my time at the club though, bringing the Taca da Liga and Taca de Portugal to Guimarães.
Continue reading
A few weeks back, we did an episode of the OneMoreGame podcast on how we utilised the other squads available to us at our clubs. My chat was specifically focused around the B team that Vitória has and how I use that squad in the player pathway to the first team. This post will be going through that plus obviously some mentions for a few of the young players coming through in our intakes too.
Continue reading