Club Info and Expectations
For those who don't know Vitória SC, this is a club that celebrated their 100th anniversary last season and has been a Portuguese top tier club for most of it's existence. In fact, we were only relegated twice in 100 years. The first time was in 1955 and more recently in 2006, but we got right back to the first division and have been a top half team ever since.
Being a top half team is'nt enough though. Our supporters are really ferverous and really want to be on the top 5 every season.
The biggest rivalry we have is with Braga and let me tell you one thing: everyone knows about the Porto-Benfica rivalry but this one is different. It can't be explained, you need to live it to understand it.
In terms of trophies, we have a Supertaça de Portugal, won in 1988, and a Taça de Portugal, won in 2013 against Benfica.
There are some known players that passed through Vitória in the recent years. Some people may know Moussa Marega, Bernard Mensah, Ghislain Konan, Dalbert, Otávio, Edmond Tapsoba, the new Inter Milan's player Yann Bisseck or, more recently, Ibrahima Bamba who left to Al-Duhail this summer.
Finances
The clubs finances are not great as I said before. This season we were able to get some money in with the sales of our 2 best CB's to Qatar. Ibrahima Bamba left to Al-Duhail for a fee around 9M + 3M in objectives and André Amaro left to Al-Rayyan for around 8M + a % of a future sale (the full details of both deals will only be announced in the end of the transfer window).
We also saw other players leaving like Anderson Silva and Nicolas Janvier, who both joined Antalyaspor for a conjunt fee of around 3M€ (according to the media). Ruben Lameiras was let go for free with a % of future transfer to Desportivo de Chaves.
So all things considered we were able to get around 20M€ in sales this season. But we also saw some players joining the team, who I will introduce in a bit.
For this reason, the finances in game are a bit higher than the original ones but it's nothing much. It's only 5M in balance and 1.5M in transfer budget, which considering the value of the sales is not much.
Supporter Expectations
I would say the expectations here are fairly realistic as this is quite literally the way most our supporters think. Basically they want us to play high-tempo entertaining football (which if you followed my last few saves it's the only way I play). Developing players using the youth academy is very suitable because Vitória has one of the best academies in the country.
Like I said, being competitive against Braga is a requirement and also finishing above Boavista who are also our fierced rivals.
Board expectations
Our board expectations are quite straight forward and as long as we are in Europe they will be happy.
Staff
With the main manager leaving the club I thought it was just fitting to send everyone with him.
Earlier in the summer the physio department was all fired IRL as well so off they go.
The Squad
Goalkeeper
Our main keeper is Bruno Varela and he is very good. In my opinion, one of the best GK's Vitória has had in the last decade.
As for his backups, we have Charles, who joined the club this season from Olympia Nicosia for an undisclosed fee (at least until Septbember). We also have Celton Biai, a younger option but when we played last season he clearly showed he needs to develop more before getting the chance to be in the squad.
Central Defenders
This is a very delicate position. Our 2 best CB's left and we only had one new signing for now.
This are our 2 main guys in my opinion. Both of them are good and even though Villanueva is not the fastest, Borevkovic compensates on that matter a bit. Borevkovic was loaned to Hadjuk Split last season and this year was close to leave to the MLS before Amaro left. He's now reintegrated in the squad so we should be using him no doubt.
The only signing for the CB position was Tomás Ribeiro and he looks good as well. He will be Villanueva's backup.
As for the right spor we have Jorge Fernandes and Mamadou Tounkara. For this season I think I will send Tounkara on loan to enhance his development and keep Jorge for Borevkovic's spot.
Right Back
Two options here and obviously we will play mainly Miguel Maga and have Bruno Gaspar as his backup for the season. I don't think we really need to replace Gaspar unless we have a very good offer for him.
Left Back
On the left side we have a new signing on Ricardo Mangas who joined us from Boavista for a fee of 1M€ (according to the media) and Afonso Freitas. They are very similar in quality so we will have a good rotation here, Unfortunately for Vitória, Mangas picked up an injury on the preseason and won't be available for a while, but we can use him in the game at least.
Deep Lying Playmaker
He was on loan last year and was signed this season because he was just too good not to sign. Zé Carlos will be our main guy for this role and can even play in other positions as well.
As for his backups, we will stick with Tomás Handel and try to loan Matheus Indio.
Box-to-Box
The heart and soul of our midfield for a couple of seasons now and will still have his spot on the first 11. André André is the captain and is one of our best players so we will keep him here.
As for his backups, keep one loan one here. Still unsure who we should loan out but probably Manu.
Advanced Playmaker
Two options here too, the first is Tiago Silva who is a very good creative midfielder. His backup is also a new signing who joined from Chaves for free. João Mendes also has very good creative traits and will be Tiago's backup.
Right Wing
Very 50-50 here. I think we will start mostly André Silva but Nelson da Luz offers us some things André just can't, mainly his dribbling capabilities and more speed.
Left Wing
Two new signings for this spot and probably two of the best we've had this year. Nuno Santos joined from the MLS and is easily our main guy here. Telmo Arcanjo joined on a free from Tondela and even though he is left footed I think he weill do good here. Like Mangas, he is also injured but Arcanjo won't be back until January... Talk about luck.
Striker
Moreno was using Jota Silva as a striker and to be honest I'm happy to do the same. He is very fast and is good at shooting so why not? There's just one thing I don't agree here and is his jumping reach. I think out of all our strikers he is the one who jumps the most but the game analysts don't think the same.
We have Safira and Butzke as his backups. Butzke is also a new signing and, for now, is the only player who I'm not convinced. He's probably a good target forward but I don't usually use them so he will be our 3rd option.
Youth Prospects
Just a quick glampse at our youth academy here...
The Tactic
I decided that on this save we won't be using the 4-3-3 DM anymore and instead we will be going for a 4-5-1. Just a little change of pace here.
