Sporting Lisbon - Creating an all-Portuguese Club!

TheFM_Teacher

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So end of the first season with Sporting Lisbon. I was set the challenge by one of my Twitch viewers to build an all Portuguese club (excluding myself as an English manager). The first season has been a journey, from the threat of being sacked following what could be classified as a disaster in November when I failed to guide the team to a single win. Nevertheless, I promised the board that things would improve. So off-stream I went to work; tactical analysis, training schedules, watched a variety of YouTube by Football Manager tactical mastermind RDF as well as reading guides from Mr Strikerless to see if I could set up a tactical setup that would suit the player that I’ve got a club. Before I could do that though, I had the challenge of setting the groundwork for clearing out the non-Portuguese players.

The January transfer saw a total of twenty-five players leave the club and with it came a fair amount of revenue; on top of the twenty-five players that departed in January an additional four non-Portuguese players are set to leave when the summer transfer window opens. To replace the exodus six Portuguese players joined the club with two more set to join when the summer transfer window opens.

Incomings:
  • André Almeida from Vitória Sport Club for a fee of £2.1m
  • Bruno Jordão on loan from Wolves
  • Costinha from Rio Ave for a fee of £1.5m
  • Romain Correia from Vitória Sport Club for a fee of £5m
  • Leandro Cardoso from Clube Sport Marítimo for a fee of £1.4m
  • Diogo Clemente from União Desportiva Oliveirense for a fee of £300,000
  • Cláudio Ramos from Clube Desportivo de Tondela joining July 2020
  • Xadas from SC Braga for a fee of £3m joining July 2020
So, after the first stage of transfers and having taken tactical information from a variety of YouTube videos on guides I decided on a tiki-taka approach in an attempt to cause frustration for the opposition. I recently watched the fantastic documentary Take The Ball, Pass The Ball which looked at tactical and managerial marvel Pep Guardiola. In this documentary, players that have been managed by Pep spoke about his managerial style with specific detail about his tactical style and his philosophy of possession-based tactics. There was a lot of detail about his approach to training which allowed me to understand more about the use of training schedules on Football Manager when building and developing a tactical style. Once I had an idea, I created three possession-based tactics - one asymmetric, one strikerless and one counter possession-based style. Due to this taking a long time, this season hasn’t particularly gone to plan.

In the league, we finished 3rd behind both FC Porto and league champions SL Benfica. We lost the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira to SL Benfica early in the season when I didn’t really seem to have a grounded philosophy in terms of my managerial approach. In the Allianz Cup we lost to SP Braga in the 4th Round (this seemed to be a pattern with SP Braga who seem to have become the team of annoyance, something to hopefully rectify next season). In the UEFA Europa League we actually did quite well following an indifferent set of results in the group stages. After getting through to the knock beating Medipol Başakşehir Futbol Kulübü, Borussia Dortmund we got knocked out by Arsenal in the Quarter-Final.

On the developmental side of things and looking to the future. The youth team have done well, the U23s finished top of the Liga Revelação U23 and the U19s won the U19 1ª Divisão. Looking at the detailed stats across both youth leagues I’m happy to see the tactical philosophy being embedded in both youth teams. Hopefully, this will reap rewards for the first team in the future!
 
Pre-season, the time to relax… WRONG!!! Pre-season is the time to lay more bricks, add to the foundation. After what could be classified as an unsatisfactory first season, this second season is the time that I have to push the club forward. Sporting Lisbon has not won the Liga NOS since 2001/02, for years Sporting have found themselves in the top three but alas no title for 18 years.

I was given a mid-range budget of £45m raising to £60m with budget adjustment. In another turn of events, the club had the opportunity to reinstate the Sporting Lisbon B team. With the U23s and U19s winning their respective leagues in the 2019/2020 season, I thought why not set up a B team to allow for more development within the club.

For the 2020 pre-season tour, I decided on two games in China then a local tour of Portugal with the sole aim of setting the groundwork tactically and setting the dynamics of the club in terms of teamwork considering that the remaining non-Portuguese will have to be sold in this transfer window to be replaced either with players from the youth teams or players bought in the transfer window.

Before commencing the games in China, I asked for an additional affiliate club. We have joined up with Sport Clube União Torreense who played in the Campeonato de Portugal. Having looked at our current affiliates. I think it might be time to terminate some of the affiliates given the circumstances on this save.

So, in terms of how pre-season games went. It was a mixed bag with a plethora of players being bought and sold throughout the whole of pre-season. In China, we drew with Jiangsu Suning and then beat Guangzhou Evergrande. In the limited tour of Portugal, we beat Sporting Clube da Covilhã, Clube de Futebol União (Madeira), Futebol Clube de Vizela, Recreio Desportivo de Águeda and Sociedade União 1.º Dezembro. We did draw with Clube Desportivo da Cova da Piedade and Empoli F.C. Overall, I’ve been happy with the pre-season games. The players have adapted well to the tactics being used, the team has become a cohesive unit but, there is a reason for that which brings me to the transfers.

This has been a big transfer window in which big players have joined Sporting Lisbon. After many years, I feel that Sporting Lisbon have a team that put in a fight for the Liga NOS title this upcoming season. After a history of financial mismanagement, Sporting had amassed debts exceeding €300million. Following a trophyless season, on 15th May, days after finishing third in the league, several players and coaches were attacked by around 50 supporters of Sporting at the club's training ground. The group managed to gain access to the locker room, where they allegedly attacked several players including Bas Dost, Josip Misic and Rodrigo Battaglia. Five days later, Sporting lost the Portuguese Cup final to Aves. About a month later, nine players cancelled their contract with Sporting Lisbon

Certain players that have signed this season are very familiar with the surroundings of Sporting Lisbon. Thierry Correia joined for a fee of £4m from Valencia however was originally from Sporting Lisbon. Old-timer and midfielder general Adrien Silva joined for £4.4m. Silva is a Sporting Lisbon legend and is being paid a nice wage to rejoin the club but the decision was made for him to return to the club to become a mentor for younger players at the club. Defender João Queirós has rejoined Sporting Lisbon for a fee of £2m after joining Dutch team Willem II in 2019. Bruno Jordão made his loan from Wolves permanent for a fee of £8m. Finally (check out the other transfers in the images), a player I would not have thought that would return to Sporting Lisbon, it took some negotiation and the removal of a mandatory future fee. João Mário has joined Sporting Lisbon on loan from Inter Milan meaning that we have a central duo of former Sporting Lisbon players Adrien Silva and João Mário.

Coming away from pre-season the first game that we’ll play is the 3rd Round Qualifying Stage for the UEFA Europa League against Greek side AS Aris Salonika. After the pre-season that this Sporting Lisbon team have had with the additions of players that I believe will see a brand of football that the Sporting Lisbon fans will love.

I should note that the transfer window does not shut until 1st September, as such, I still have some transfer negotiations ongoing which I’ll update either via stream or in the next written update.

Going into the upcoming season, the board don’t seem to be expecting much when it comes to European competition with just the expectation of season the 1st Round Knockout in the UEFA Europa League. A better performance in the Taça de Portugal is expected compared to last season with the semi-final being this season’s target. Finally, and as I would expect and hope to do more of this season is a challenge for the Liga NOS title.
 

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Season 2 is finished and it has been a season in which the Sporting Lisbon team went through a complete change. In Season 1, things didn’t go so much to plan but I look upon that season as the season of transition. The club is now majority Portuguese.

So, how has season 2 gone? To put it in words without waffle as I’ve already been told that my updates are fairly long. Season 2 was much better in terms of the finish in Liga NOS and the Taça de Portugal. In my opinion, things could have gone better in the UEFA Europa League and much better in the Allianz Cup.

I’ll start with the worst. The Allianz Cup, we got knocked out in the Third Phase finishing second behind Estoril Praia Futebol. However, it went down to the wire with both Estoril Praia Futebol and Sporting Lisbon finishing on the same points and same goal difference. So I can only assume that Estoril Praia Futebol went through to the next round of the Allianz Cup based on head-to-head. Overall, a disappointing end to the Allianz Cup for my Sporting Lisbon save.

In UEFA Europa League it was a case of being knocked out by the same team as last season. Throughout the UEFA Europa league up until being knocked out, results looked strong. Before Sporting could play in the group stages, we had to play AS Aris Salonika and LOSC Lille in the Qualifying Rounds. The team breezed through those games winning 5-0 and drawing 0-0 against AS Aris Salonika and then beating LOSC Lille 5-1 and then 2-1 to secure passage to the UEFA Europa League Group Stages.

In the UEFA Europa League Group Stages, we drew Celtic, Rubin Kazan and Malmö FF. The going was steady in the Group Stages with Sporting Lisbon finishing top of their group. In the First Knockout Round, we drew Villarreal C.F. and was able to see them off with a 1-0 win and 1-1 draw to see use through to the Second Knockout Round against Arsenal. This is where the UEFA Europa League ended this season, knocked out by Arsenal again with a 1-1 draw and then a 0-3 loss.

Here is where things got better, we won the Taça de Portugal this season which saw a much better performance compared to last season’s result. On the way to the final we beat Sport Clube Praiense (third round), Clube Desportivo Trofense (fourth round), FC Porto (fifth round), Clube Desportivo Nacional (Madeira) [sixth round], Futebol Clube Paços de Ferreira (semi-final) and Futebol Clube Famalicão (final).

Liga NOS went down to the wire but after 19 years, Sporting Lisbon won the 2020/21 Liga NOS title! Not only did they win the title, but they also won the title in an undefeated season. As mentioned, the league did go down to the wire, so much so that S.L. Benfica could have stolen the title towards the end with a two-point difference going into the final game, them losing to Clube Sport Marítimo in the final game of the season saw Sporting Lisbon finish on 88 points, five points ahead of S.L. Benfica who finished on 83. Spare a thought for Gil Vicente Futebol Clube who couldn’t even get to double figures in points with only one win all season in Liga NOS. With the Liga NOS title confirmed, Sporting Lisbon can look forward to playing UEFA Champions League football next season!

I’ve already mentioned that this season saw big changes for Sporting Lisbon. Those changes have been well represented with rewards. Bruno Jordão picked up Fans’ Player of the Year, Signing of the Season and Young Player of the Season for Sporting Lisbon and topped the records for most Player of the Match trophies. Records have also been broken by the signings with Goalkeeper Cláudio Ramos keeping 27 clean sheets across the season and Adrien Silva picked up 15 assists, another record for Sporting Lisbon.

Developmentally, the club continues to impress. Both the U23s and U19s winning their respective leagues for the second season in a row. Next season, some of the U23s and U19s will have to have more game time for the first team. This will mean that some players will have to leave in the upcoming transfer window. Who will leave, I’m undecided. Where do I need to improve? I have a lot to ponder. Gaps may have to be filled with Rúben Vinagre, João Mário and Gonçalo Cardoso’s loans coming to an end. I would, however, like to sign them all on permanent deals but that could prove difficult having only been given a budget of £21m going into next season.
 

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