Portuguese Football 2017/2018

[SCP]

He's really leaving.

Like I said, 90 - 95%, its a matter of time.

when he subbed podenço (?) and doumbia came in we were more dangerous why waiting so long?

Because playing as second forward he links better with Dost, problem is in that position we need a second forward who can create and finish, its impossible against the autobuses on marvellous Tugão.

We're still lacking creativity in midfield.

We don't have someone like Pizzi or Oliver, Adrien relies too much on physical condition, while the other 2 break the autobus with their decision making, but still the second competitive match of the season, and imo we were lucky with the penalty decision.

We're apparently 5th in the league.

You go to Braga on Sunday at 18:00.

Anyway lets see how they react away from home, 1 news of the squad is that 1 of the new players Rui Costa a young player was loaned to Famalicão because he didn't adapted to the south. When we listen to those stories we might think he was living on the Sahara desert.

Just to let you know fans were turned away from the Boavista game

After the conversation on the other day, out of curiosity to see how they play, on the second half there was confusion in the stadium with Boavista scum supporters trying to invade the side of the stadium where Portimonse fans were watching.

It's an 8pm kick off on the sunday, is that the main tv game that weekend in Portugal?

I know the match will be on SporTv the PayTv channel. If you don't want to pay, or you watch in a bar or there are streams, i speak for myself, stopped paying because doesn't make sense to pay when you don't have time to watch so many games.

 

[Peyroteo]

@SCP Xadas...

 

[Sly]

Great goal but i reckon Abel will be one of the first to get the sack

 

[SCP]

@SCP Xadas...

Like I said earlier, everybody laughs when I say from the generation of 97 on the long term between him, Sanches and Neves, my bet will be on him to be the best of the 3, while probably Neves will be closer to him.

And all this in a colective nightmare and under a coach who earned his job because won 1 match against us. By the way he has the same trajectory as Gil Dias, who I also like but for me Xadas has more potential in him.

Since I watched him at the last under 20 WC I said it was a question of time until he started playing for Braga.

And forget signing him, if this year he keeps developing I doubt even Benfica or Porto will sign him, 25 million release clause?

Great goal but i reckon Abel will be one of the first to get the sack

Salvador is not known for being very patient with coaches, lets see if they will not struggle with the team from Iceland in the Uefa playoffs, I suspect they are not so easy as a lot of people think, lets see.

 

[SCP]

Just to update the results of the second round:

Sporting 1-0 V. Setúbal
Moreirense 0-0 Feirense
Belenenses 1-0 Marítimo
Boavista 1-2 Rio Ave
Paços Ferreira 2-2 Desp. Aves
Braga 2-1 Portimonense
Tondela 0-1 FC Porto
Estoril Praia 3-0 V. Guimarães
Chaves 0-1 Benfica​

Only 4 teams with 6 points: Sporting, Benfica, Porto, Rio Ave. 1 player who looks ok until now is Haris Seferovic from Switzerland who plays at Benfica, lets see if he translates that to what it matters, the Champions League, where the quality of the players is better judged imo.

 

[Peyroteo]

Brunooooooooo! Que puta de bilhete

 

[Peyroteo]

Bas Deus with 2! 3-0 after 23 minutes, wtf is happening. Please don't let them come back from this like last year

 

[barros]

Bas Deus with 2! 3-0 after 23 minutes, wtf is happening. Please don't let them come back from this like last year

That bruno Fernandes looks good

 

[Peyroteo]

That bruno Fernandes looks good

If that chip that hit the crossbar had gone in that would have been one of the best hattricks I've ever seen

We looked much better today, hopefully this gives us confidence as we really need a positive result on Wednesday.

 

[SCP]

If that chip that hit the crossbar had gone in that would have been one of the best hattricks I've ever seen

We looked much better today, hopefully this gives us confidence as we really need a positive result on Wednesday.

Did not had the chance to watch on TV, but later I will try to watch the 90 minutes with the beautifull upload.

But from what I had the chance to read in some comments beside BF replacing Podence, other small detail was JJ inverted Acuna and Gelson positions, so we had more diagonal movements to cut inside, and also Guimarães was missing some players.

Fingers crossed Mathieu can play in Bucharest, because André Pinto is worse and didn't play much on pre season.

And time to solve the William question, because we need to sell someone, or wait after Steaua match to see what we do, very important match for our season, financially crucial for the rest of season imo.

 

[GledTheRed]

How did Gelson play?

 

[Peyroteo]

Did not had the chance to watch on TV, but later I will try to watch the 90 minutes with the beautifull upload.

But from what I had the chance to read in some comments beside BF replacing Podence, other small detail was JJ inverted Acuna and Gelson positions, so we had more diagonal movements to cut inside, and also Guimarães was missing some players.

Fingers crossed Mathieu can play in Bucharest, because André Pinto is worse and didn't play much on pre season.

And time to solve the William question, because we need to sell someone, or wait after Steaua match to see what we do, very important match for our season, financially crucial for the rest of season imo.

Acuña on the right and Gelson on the left worked very well and it pretty much solved the problem of that left wing we had last game where we couldn't create anything through there. Gelson linked up very well with Coentrão and Acuña started coming inside a bit more although he didn't have a great game.

How did Gelson play?

He was brilliant and made their defenders look silly but the end product is not quite there. He got past 2 or 3 players, created chaos in their defense and made me laugh at how good he is a few times but then when he got close to goal he made the wrong decision too often.

 

[GledTheRed]

Acuña on the right and Gelson on the left worked very well and it pretty much solved the problem of that left wing we had last game where we couldn't create anything through there. Gelson linked up very well with Coentrão and Acuña started coming inside a bit more although he didn't have a great game.



He was brilliant and made their defenders look silly but the end product is not quite there. He got past 2 or 3 players, created chaos in their defense and made me laugh at how good he is a few times but then when he got close to goal he made the wrong decision too often.

Got a lot of time for Gelson just needs some fine tuning, however he isn't exactly a baby anymore.

 

[Phil]

Just to say thanks for the updates guys. Very glad it's all Sporting themed, 5 today sounds nice.

 

[SCP]

Got a lot of time for Gelson just needs some fine tuning, however he isn't exactly a baby anymore.

22 years doesn't make him a veteran too, he just needs to be developed under his coach, who likes him but is a difficult person sometimes to like or understand. This and the pressure his agent is always making on the kid to perform so he can be sold.

Just to say thanks for the updates guys. Very glad it's all Sporting themed, 5 today sounds nice.

Sometimes we can talk about other clubs, must say I am Sporting biased, so my opinions about Benfica shouldn't be taken seriously.

 

[Peyroteo]

Just to say thanks for the updates guys. Very glad it's all Sporting themed, 5 today sounds nice.

Benfica won 5-0 today too. I would give updates on that but I stopped watching after the second goal

 

[SCP]

Just to update the results of the third round:

Rio Ave 2-0 Portimonense
Tondela 2-3 Estoril Praia
V. Guimarães 0-5 Sporting
Benfica 5-0 Belenenses
V. Setúbal 1-1 Chaves
FC Porto 3-0 Moreirense
Desp. Aves 0-2 Braga
Marítimo 1-0 Boavista
Feirense 2-1 Paços Ferreira

The comment I will make this week is that I agree with Manuel Machado comments about the inequality and lack of competetiveness between the bigger and smaller clubs, what I don't agree is that per example you see clubs like Feirense with the same resources as Moreirense and play better football, maybe the problem is also on the quality of coaching at those clubs.

 

[maniak]

The comment I will make this week is that I agree with Manuel Machado comments about the inequality and lack of competetiveness between the bigger and smaller clubs, what I don't agree is that per example you see clubs like Feirense with the same resources as Moreirense and play better football, maybe the problem is also on the quality of coaching at those clubs.

No matter how good of a coach you are, when you have a ridiculous budget which basically allows you to get free players and you go against teams worth almost 200 million euros, you are going to lose.

Machado is spot on and he has been for quite some time.

The math is simple.

The big 3 get around 40 million a season for tv rights. Most clubs get less than 3 million a year. League 2 teams get 0.5 million.

Compare that to collective deals in all top european leagues and not only you see the leagues as a whole get more money, the distribution at least has some fairness in there, with around 40-50% of the cash being equally distributed.

We have a mickey mouse league which only exists for the big 3 to entertain themselves, all other teams are just there to make number.

There was a consultant agency that was ordered a study about it and they conlcuded if the league negatiated the contract as a unity, we could get a increase of around 70% in total money, and even applying the 50% of the money equally distributed rule, the top 3 would still get more than they get now because of the results and history distribution. The big 3 would slightly increase their earnings and the small clubs would see their tv money go from 2 or 3 million to around 10 million. Imagine that, not having to lose players to the romanian and cypriot leagues, as happens now.

Why doesn't this happen? Because the big 3 enjoy being big fish in a small pond. It's the "my team and feck the rest" mentality.

Titles in Portugal:

Benfica 36
FC Porto 27
Sporting 18
Belenenses 1 (in the 40´s)
Boavista 1 (the flukiest season in the history of football)

And the big 3 won 3 out of 4 national cups (6 times since 1990 for the small teams)

If this doesn't tell you everything you need to now about portuguese football... just watch a match between a big 3 team and a small team and try not to fall asleep.

 

[SCP]

No matter how good of a coach you are, when you have a ridiculous budget which basically allows you to get free players and you go against teams worth almost 200 million euros, you are going to lose.

Agree with you, but compare Moreirense or Feirense approach to a match and you will see the difference it makes when you have a clear and proactive idea about your model, 1 is just pick a point, the other is independently who your opponent is, you will not lose your identity.

We have a mickey mouse league which only exists for the big 3 to entertain themselves, all other teams are just there to make number.

Also agree, the model of development on our league is totally wrong. Our first purpose should be centred on the development of youth players, also our youth football even at the best Academies misses the point on specific positions, like goalkeepers, strikers and lately even cannot produce top centerbacks like Ricardo Carvalho or Pepe.

The other problem is the mentality where at the main clubs the majority are labeled young enough, and even with the B teams instead of being promoted, they end on constant loans with mid table teams. This, and the fact those teams don't have resources to develop their players, some foreign players brought by agents and no money to buy.

If this doesn't tell you everything you need to now about portuguese football... just watch a match between a big 3 team and a small team and try not to fall asleep.

Lately even is hard to watch 90 minutes of my club, much more hard to watch 90 minutes of the other teams tbf.

 

[Peyroteo]

Gonçalo Paciencia just scored an own goal for Belenenses. His father is Belenenses' coach

 

[SCP]

Gonçalo Paciencia just scored an own goal for Belenenses. His father is Belenenses' coach

The only way his father can win a match.

 

[Peyroteo]

Rio Ave

They're my bet for 4th place. That was one fantastic performance and they deserved the point, maybe even deserved a bit more. Benfica were poor and it's the second away game in a row where they have problems, hopefuly they don't buy anyone else this summer.

 

[Peyroteo]

Sporting scored 2 early goals then controlled the rest of the game. Estoril made it 2-1 on the 85th minute. Nerves start kicking in. Ref gives 4 minutes of added time, Bas Dost makes it 3-1 on the 93rd minute, everyone celebrates, game over. Except it gets disallowed by VAR for offside. 30 seconds later Estoril score in the last second of the game. Estoril players, bench and fans go wild, Sporting fans want to commit suicide. 30 seconds later, disallowed by VAR. After the result had been 3-1 and 2-2 in the last minute of the game, Sporting win 2-1.

I need a heart transplant after that. Also, Bruno Fernandes scored another beauty.

 

[R'hllor]

Any Benfica fan here? Wanna track status/progress of Zivkovic from time to time

 

[Sly]

I think we have a couple here but they aren't very active. I haven't been following his career here closely but he has showed some potencial. Yesterday he was a sub and did alright according to the newspapers.

 

[Sly]

Sporting scored 2 early goals then controlled the rest of the game. Estoril made it 2-1 on the 85th minute. Nerves start kicking in. Ref gives 4 minutes of added time, Bas Dost makes it 3-1 on the 93rd minute, everyone celebrates, game over. Except it gets disallowed by VAR for offside. 30 seconds later Estoril score in the last second of the game. Estoril players, bench and fans go wild, Sporting fans want to commit suicide. 30 seconds later, disallowed by VAR. After the result had been 3-1 and 2-2 in the last minute of the game, Sporting win 2-1.

I need a heart transplant after that. Also, Bruno Fernandes scored another beauty.

This. I watched it at the stadium, thought i would have a heart attack. The game was more difficult than it should have been because Jesus is a stubborn bastard. The Estoril goal was a beauty as well. Some great goals this year in the league. Top of the league

 

[R'hllor]

I think we have a couple here but they aren't very active. I haven't been following his career here closely but he has showed some potencial. Yesterday he was a sub and did alright according to the newspapers.

I see, thanks a lot mate.

 

[barros]

This. I watched it at the stadium, thought i would have a heart attack. The game was more difficult than it should have been because Jesus is a stubborn bastard. The Estoril goal was a beauty as well. Some great goals this year in the league. Top of the league

They were spot on with that VAR and was kind of fast

 

[Sly]

They where spot on with that VAR and was kind of fast

Not fast enough on Estoril's goal. Also thought he was going to give Estoril a pen on that Mathieu play. The anxiety at the stadium is impossible to control.

 

[SCP]

Just to update the results of round 4:

Belenenses 1-1 V. Setúbal
Paços Ferreira 0-0 V. Guimarães
Moreirense 0-3 Tondela
Chaves 0-2 Feirense
Rio Ave 1-1 Benfica
Boavista 1-0 Desp. Aves
Sporting 2-1 Estoril Praia
Braga 0-1 FC Porto
Portimonense 1-2 Marítimo​

Just a comment about this week: Someone here might be unhappy with Portimonense defeat the third one in a row, but from what I read today they were a bit unlucky against Maritimo, suffering the defeat on the last minutes.

Regarding Maritimo, I must say Daniel Ramos is doing a great job if we take into account he has a average squad at best, won 3 out of 4 and on the Europa League qualifying round only lost at Dynamo Kyiv, much better than Abel from Braga who suffered to defeat FH from Iceland, and lost already 2 matches in the league.

Now without repeating much the same thing, I want to say I am quite impressed with Nuno Manta from Feirense, 1 of the lowest budgets of the league, already did a miracle last season finishing 8th, this in a small club that everytime they had be on top flight were always relegated at their first season.

The most impressive thing is that he has only 39, always worked at Feirense and worked in all group ages from youth football there and also as assistant coach at the first team, this in 20 years so he must be working there since he is 20 years old.

As crazy this may sound, if JJ leaves Sporting at the end of this season, I would hire him to Sporting, remembers some things from Leo Jardim, low profile, a bit shy, and without much he not only delivers on results but also on quality of football.

The only tricky factor would be that he only knows Feirense while Jardim when arrived at Sporting already worked at Braga and Olympiakos, already played at Europa League or Champions League, but I still would take this risk, because he also has a background with youth football, and we need someone who pays atention to our academy, because JJ only has wet dreams with South American players.

So next week will be Sporting hardest match of the season until now, as crazy it may sound.

Final note is that agreeing on last week comments from Manuel Machado about the inequalities on the distribution of money in the league, I always said the problem also has to do with coaching and mentality, so no surprise on the way Rio Ave played against Benfica, or the way Tondela defeated Moreirense, Miguel Cardoso or Pepa have nothing to do with the old school Machado belongs of the autobus and pick a point mentality.

 

[André Dominguez]

Great goal but i reckon Abel will be one of the first to get the sack

Have to agree. He's underachieving with a very good squad at his disposal. I think Pedro Martins might be in risk if results fail to show up. Guimarães made a massive investment and their squad is more than enough to be at 4th place. But i reckon Guimarães is a bit toothless up front.

 

[André Dominguez]

Just to update the results of round 4:

Belenenses 1-1 V. Setúbal
Paços Ferreira 0-0 V. Guimarães
Moreirense 0-3 Tondela
Chaves 0-2 Feirense
Rio Ave 1-1 Benfica
Boavista 1-0 Desp. Aves
Sporting 2-1 Estoril Praia
Braga 0-1 FC Porto
Portimonense 1-2 Marítimo​

Just a comment about this week: Someone here might be unhappy with Portimonense defeat the third one in a row, but from what I read today they were a bit unlucky against Maritimo, suffering the defeat on the last minutes.

Regarding Maritimo, I must say Daniel Ramos is doing a great job if we take into account he has a average squad at best, won 3 out of 4 and on the Europa League qualifying round only lost at Dynamo Kyiv, much better than Abel from Braga who suffered to defeat FH from Iceland, and lost already 2 matches in the league.

Now without repeating much the same thing, I want to say I am quite impressed with Nuno Manta from Feirense, 1 of the lowest budgets of the league, already did a miracle last season finishing 8th, this in a small club that everytime they had be on top flight were always relegated at their first season.

The most impressive thing is that he has only 39, always worked at Feirense and worked in all group ages from youth football there and also as assistant coach at the first team, this in 20 years so he must be working there since he is 20 years old.

As crazy this may sound, if JJ leaves Sporting at the end of this season, I would hire him to Sporting, remembers some things from Leo Jardim, low profile, a bit shy, and without much he not only delivers on results but also on quality of football.

The only tricky factor would be that he only knows Feirense while Jardim when arrived at Sporting already worked at Braga and Olympiakos, already played at Europa League or Champions League, but I still would take this risk, because he also has a background with youth football, and we need someone who pays atention to our academy, because JJ only has wet dreams with South American players.

So next week will be Sporting hardest match of the season until now, as crazy it may sound.

Final note is that agreeing on last week comments from Manuel Machado about the inequalities on the distribution of money in the league, I always said the problem also has to do with coaching and mentality, so no surprise on the way Rio Ave played against Benfica, or the way Tondela defeated Moreirense, Miguel Cardoso or Pepa have nothing to do with the old school Machado belongs of the autobus and pick a point mentality.

That was always the problem of Vitor Oliveira teams at Primeira Liga. They play good footbal, but they seem to drop several points.

Daniel Ramos is a very interesting coach and I think wont take too long for him to go to Braga. And people need to realise that the investment at Martimo is smaller season after season.

Feirense is a "romantic" club in my point of view. They represent the anti-investment football, because as we all see, irrealistic investments eventually lead all clubs to bankrupcy if the season doesn't go as expected. They represent the "good old school" management, with serious positions in the market and budget.

Manuel Machado is a very competent manager, who only got relegated once. Unfortunatelly for him, his time is passing by and he is getting demotivated, as everyone can see by his frustration.

Regarding the league title, IMHO you guys and Porto will be the favourites. We just lost 4 starting players who were very influential, and in football there are no miracles. Unless JJ craps himself once again.

 

[SCP]

That was always the problem of Vitor Oliveira teams at Primeira Liga. They play good footbal, but they seem to drop several points.

Actually they were very unlucky at Braga and with Maritimo, they played better imo.

Daniel Ramos is a very interesting coach and I think wont take too long for him to go to Braga. And people need to realise that the investment at Martimo is smaller season after season.

In terms of defensive organization yes, but the offensive organization of Maritimo looks more based in transitions and counters, not totally convinced if at a higher level he would change or not.

Must say for me the best coaches Portugal has atm is Jardim, Paulo Fonseca, Mou, Conceição, Jorge Jesus, then in a second line we have Rui Vitória, AVB, NES, Miguel Cardoso and Nuno Manta.

Feirense is a "romantic" club in my point of view. They represent the anti-investment football, because as we all see, irrealistic investments eventually lead all clubs to bankrupcy if the season doesn't go as expected. They represent the "good old school" management, with serious positions in the market and budget.

Yes they never have problems with payments, don't ask for loans to other clubs, and if it was dependent on me, I would keep an eye on Nuno Manta to replace JJ, worked in all age groups of youth football at Feirense, only problem would be to see how would he adapt to a different environment, since he only knows Feirense.

Regarding the league title, IMHO you guys and Porto will be the favourites. We just lost 4 starting players who were very influential, and in football there are no miracles.

No, not at all, we are always a injury of reaching chaos, out third option for center back is André Pinto and the fourth is Tobias, I cannot imagine them playing against Juve or Barça, it will be a nightmare, and then we have Coentrão, who is always a problem in terms of injuries, and his replacement Jonathan Silva or Bruno César, OMG.

Unless JJ craps himself once again.

He always has a meltdown, exclent in terms of methodology and knowledge about the game, awfull in terms of Human Relations and Egomania, but he is a carachter in our league.

 

[Sly]

Oh a Benfica fan. I hope you are active @André Dominguez and stick around to make it more plural in what concerns club representation. Let's keep the portuguese football thread going during all the season. Good work everyone.

 

[barros]

Oh a Benfica fan. I hope you are active @André Dominguez and stick around to make it more plural in what concerns club representation. Let's keep the portuguese football thread going during all the season. Good work everyone.

We used to have another benfica fan but was banned.

 

[Sly]

We used to have another benfica fan but was banned.

Yeah Ricardinho. A terrible poster who deserved the ban. It had nothing to do with clubism, he was just awful.

Just finished watching the U21 win 2-0 against Wales. A good performance in the first half, we missed about 4 to 5 clear chances. In the second half we were poor and Wales deserved a goal. Ruben Neves and Gonçalo Guedes were the best performers imo. Xadas was probably the worst (he has potencial but he needs to be less selfish and learn when to shoot).

 

[SCP]

Yeah Ricardinho. A terrible poster who deserved the ban. It had nothing to do with clubism, he was just awful.

Just finished watching the U21 win 2-0 against Wales. A good performance in the first half, we missed about 4 to 5 clear chances. In the second half we were poor and Wales deserved a goal. Ruben Neves and Gonçalo Guedes were the best performers imo. Xadas was probably the worst (he has potencial but he needs to be less selfish and learn when to shoot).

Yes, I praised a lot Xadas on recent months but today he was awfull, he doesn't play always like this. By the way do you know FIFA might not aprove Adrien registration?

 

[Sly]

By the way do you know FIFA might not aprove Adrien registration?

Yeah i read Damien's tweet but i'm waiting for more info. According to the rumors, Leicester will keep him till January nevertheless. If this happens, i don't care, it's not our problem anymore. Let's wait to see the clubs respective reactions.

 

[SCP]

Yeah i read Damien's tweet but i'm waiting for more info. According to the rumors, Leicester will keep him till January nevertheless. If this happens, i don't care, it's not our problem anymore. Let's wait to see the clubs respective reactions.

Shit, why there is always a soap opera involved with our club? The lamps are having wet dreams today, more ammunition to the red press.

 

[Sly]

Shit, why there is always a soap opera involved with our club? The lamps are having wet dreams today, more ammunition to the red press.

Yeah i wish we could avoid these "novelas" but like i said let's wait for the reactions. If Leicester do keep him, even without playing, it's like an assumption of guilt and that we bear no responsability in this affair. I'm going to be honest, i don't want him back. I really disliked his "O Jogo" interview last year and i want him gone. Time to move on with Bruno Fernandes.