Leading Vitória to Victory

Meet the Club

Club name: Vitória Sport Clube
Founded: 1922
Stadium: Estádio D. Afonso Henriques
Best league finish: 3rd (4 times, most recently in 2007/08)
Best European finish: UEFA Cup Quarter Finals (1986/87)

2020/21 Season
Liga NOS: 7th (missed out on Conference League qualification)
Taça de Portugal: Eliminated in the 4th round by Santa Clara
Taça da Liga: Eliminated in the Quarter Finals by Benfica

Current squad
Captain: André André (POR, 31 y/o, MC)
Highest payed: Ricardo Quaresma (360k USD/year, POR, 37 y/o, AML)
Top prospect: Herculano Nabian (POR, 17 y/o, ST)

Board Expectations
Liga NOS: Qualify for the Europa Conference League
Taça de Portugal: 6th Round

Objective: Win the league for the first time in club history; develop a club based around a core of Portuguese players; be competitive in European competition

July Review

We finished our preparation month and played our first official game in the Allianz Cup, the Portuguese league cup.

1-1 vs KAS Eupen
Marcus Edwards

0-4 vs Cape Town City
Oscar Estupiñán, André Almeida, Bruno Duarte, Alfa Semedo

0-3 vs Cape Town Spurs
Oscar Estupiñán, Jorge Fernandes, Tomás Händel

Following our trip to South Africa, which was cut short due to needing preparation for the cup game, we received second division side Leixões in the Allianz Cup 1st round. A 30-minute hat trick from Estupiñán put us up before half-time and a 81st minute penalty taken by Marcus Edwards sealed the deal.



We will begin august by facing Académico de Viseu in the second round of the Allianz Cup as well as Paços Ferreira in the first week of the Liga NOS.

In terms of transfers, we didn't bring anyone in but we did loan out a bunch of players who didn't fit into our plans for this season in the B team or the U23 team.

Great start, Estupinan is banging in the goals. Will follow your save mate, all the best!

Ah, Ricardo Quaresma. Just one of those odd players for me who, back in his peak years, he was always a go-to man for transfers, fit the bill in every way... but never performed. I remember signing him in so many saves around 2006-2014 in FM games, and he just never did the business, even when I put him along superstars in teams like Barcelona and Manchester United. Never understood what it was about this player that made him so ineffectual for me!

suddenly everyone is called Estupiñán lol

and what happened to Leixões? never heard of them again

share the tactic please!!!!!

August Review

0-0 @ Académico de Viseu (4-3 on PKs)
We played another second division side, this time with a different result. Viseu defended very well against us, surviving the 90 minutes of regular time and going all the way to penalties. A miss from Rafa Soares put us on edge, but two saves from our third string goalkeeper Celton Biai sealed the deal.
We’ve now reached our goal of making the third round in the Allianz Cup. Our group for this round includes Rio Ave and Sporting, and with only one team qualifying to the semi finals I think we’ve gone as far as we can.

0-2 @ Paços Ferreira
Rochinha, Oscar Estupiñán
A strong start to our league games, we managed a dominant win away to Paços Ferreira who are in the Conference League this season. Rochinha opened scoring after a through pass by Sacko and Estupiñán continues his hot streak, scoring his 4th of the season.

2-0 vs Estoril Praia
Ricardo Quaresma, Oscar Estupiñán
With 6 points from 2 games, we continue our dominant run. This time Quaresma scored a golazo, cutting inside from the left wing and curling it in from 25 yards. Estupiñán headed in his second goal of the league season to seal the deal.

0-2 @ Arouca
Oscar Estupiñán x2
This man can’t be stopped! A masterful performance by Estupiñán pushes us to yet another 2-0 win. Shoutout to our defense as well, they allowed only one shot and none on target.

1-0 vs Tondela
Nélson da Luz
Nélson da Luz scored his first ever goal for Vitória as we finish off a perfect month.


We finish August with 12 points out of 12 possible and in 4th place. I’m very glad with our performance so far, with Estupiñán as one of the top scorers in the league and the fact that we have yet to allow a goal. Hopefully we can continue winning these “easy” games for them to carry us when we face the harder games against Sporting, Benfica and Porto.

Let’s talk about Estupiñán!

Oscar has started all 4 games for us, playing 330 minutes. He’s bagged 4 goals for us so far along with one assist for a 7.5 average rating. According to our analysts, he’s head and shoulders above the league average strikers:
1.09 goals/90
7.64 shots/90 with 39.29% of them on target
A conversion rate of 14.29%
The Colombian is also very different from the norm as he's considered an aggressive shooter with low quality shots, as he averages 3 shots on target/90 albeit with a low xG per shot. All things considered, Estupiñán has been an absolute stud for us and hopefully he continues being so the rest of the season.

We signed USA wonderkid Ricardo Pepi, who was a free agent for some reason. He’ll play second fiddle for now but has potential to be a superstar in this league. We also signed 18-year-old attacking mid Wikelman Carmona and 21-year-old striker Patrick, both for free. We ended up selling attacking mid Nicolas Janvier to Hellas Verona for 1.5 million, Carmona will cover for him on the bench.



Ricardo Pepi (USA), Abdul Mumin (Ghana), Alfa Semedo (Guinea-Bissau) and Falaye Sacko (Mali) were called up by their national teams for the upcoming September break.

We start September by facing Famalicão, so hopefully we’re 5-0-0 before we face Benfica at home, Braga away and Porto at home.

Thanks for reading!

Comments

FMBlake - Estupiñán is great lol Thanks for the support!
Harleygator - Truly one of the great prospects that never reached their full potential. He's been solid for us so far, but at 37 I'm not sure there's a lot left in the tank
Tango - I only knew of Pervis before this save haha, I'm not sure if it's a common last name. I'm not sure about Leixões, they haven't played in the first division since 2010.
jwell - It's a Control Possession 4-2-3-1 that I've customized a bit.

What a start to the season, you are flying! Long may it continue. Also Pepi is a great signing, he could develop into a real world class talent

September Review

We start off the month by being recognized as the manager of the month! I’m glad our hard work has payed off but I’ll be even more glad if we’re in a similar position after the tough games we have this month. The board is also pleased with our performance so far, giving us a C+ grade overall and a B- for our performance on the pitch.

1-2 @ Famalicão
Oscar Estupiñán, Marcus Edwards

Estupiñán scored on a long ball from our goalkeeper Varela to give us the lead before Marcus Edwards scored the second just as we went into half time. They got one back as we struggled to defend a free kick. We managed to hold on to our win to continue our perfect step through 5 games.

0-1 vs Benfica

We changed our tactic to a 5-4-1 for this stretch of games, with the idea to try and absorb the opponent’s attack and hopefully score on a counter. We were off to a rough start against Benfica after a header from Seferovic. A sending off in the 50th minute led to us changing back to the 4-2-3-1 to be more offensive, however we couldn’t finish any chances as we were handed our first loss.

0-0 @ Braga

Really an uneventful derby, we only managed two shots on target against their one. However, every point counts so I’m glad to come away with at least one.

1-1 vs Porto
Marcus Edwards

Porto scored on a penalty right before half-time. We also got one in the 88th minute, which Marcus Edwards put in to tie us the game.



Despite not winning any of our last 3 games, we finish September in a good position.

Our schedule next month isn’t too complicated, as we face Moreirense, Marítimo and Vizela as well as Terceira Liga side Real in the third round of the Portuguese cup. As long as we keep winning the games we should be winning our objectives should be met, perhaps we can get a couple draws against top sides and surpass them.

Wikelman Carmona injured himself while playing with the U23 squad. He’ll be out probably until the end of October with sprained knee ligaments in his left knee.

Ricardo Pepi (USA) has been called up for the October break.

Comments

@FMBlake: We’re definitely performing better than expected. Hopefully we can help Pepi reach his full potential so that he can in turn help us reach new horizons.

Thanks for reading!

October Review

We were graded a B by the board so far, with a C+ for our performance on the pitch. The highlights are our free transfers of Patrick and Carmona as well as our 1-1 draw with Porto.

0-0 @ Moreirense

A tough start to the month as we draw a game we dominated (2.81 xG!). Estupiñán has now played 383 minutes without scoring a goal.

Abdul Mumin (Ghana), Alfa Semedo (Guinea-Bissau) and Vitória U23’s Abel Joshua (Mozambique) were called up for the October break.

0-4 @ Real
Rochinha, Nélson da Luz, Sílvio, Tiago Silva

We played a completely rotated squad against the third division side. The result was as expected. Unfortunately, the next round draw sees us face Porto away.

2-2 @ Marítimo
Marcus Edwards, Oscar Estupiñán

We started off well, however they managed to turn it around just before half time. Estupiñán scored his 6th of the season to tie the game for us. Another disappointing result as we fail to win against lower half opponents.

1-0 vs Rio Ave
Jorge Fernandes

We didn’t really play well, with them getting the majority of the possession. Still, we got the win in the Allianz Cup third phase with the remaining game against Sporting coming up in December.

5-0 vs Vizela
Oscar Estupiñán x2, Falaye Sacko, Herculano Nabian

We ended the month with a home game against newly promoted Vizela. We managed to find our best form as Estupiñán scores twice and 17-year-old Nabian scores his first ever goal for us.



We finish October in 5th place, although looking at the results we got we should be higher. Glad to see Estupiñán find himself and get to 8 goals in 11 games, hopefully this lifts the team as well and we can continue fighting for that Europa League spot and, with a bit of luck, even a Champions League spot.

This month we got BWM Mikel Agu back, though it might be a while until he can play consistently. We also lost Ruben Lameiras to a groin strain until at least mid November.

November should be a good month in the league, with our focus being on Porto for the Taça de Portugal 4th round game.

Thanks for reading!

November Update

We were graded a B- by the board so far, with a B- for our performance on the pitch. The highlights are our wins against Real and Vizale with the defeat against Benfica being the only negative spot so far.

To start off the month, Oscar Estupiñán was crowned player of the Month! His 7.87 average rating with 3 goals and one assist made him the best performer in October.

Abel Joshua (Mozambique), Abdul Mumin (Ghana), Ricardo Pepi (USA), Alfa Seemed (Guinea-Bissau) and Falaye Sacko (Mali) were called up for the November break.

0-3 @ Portimonense
Oscar Estupiñán x2, Rochinha

Estupiñán got us on the board early with a great shot from just inside the box. Rochinha added another before half time following a great team play from a throw in. Oscar got a second goal in the second half, and in the end we ended up getting our first win of the month.

Marcus Edwards was injured in training, meaning he’ll miss the rest of the month and probably the first week of December.

2-0 @ Porto

We faced Porto once more, this time for the 4th round of the cup. They went 2-0 up before half time against our rotated squad. The second half played out in a similar way, minus the goals, and we are out of the cup after that tough draw.

3-0 vs Gil Vicente
Rochinha, Oscar Estupiñán, Herculano Nabian

Rochinha gave us an early lead. In the second half, Estupiñán capitalized on a defensive mistake and Nabian scored again to secure us a midweek win.

0-2 @ Santa Clara
Oscar Estupiñán x2

Once again, Estupiñán and Rochinha give us the lead. However, a red card shown to Quaresma saw us change our tactic to be more cautious before the first half ended. Not 15 minutes later, they got a red card of their own, making it a 10 vs 10 game. Another Estupiñán goal, and another Rochinha assist, gave us a larger lead in the 46th minute.



We end the month riding a 8-game unbeaten run in the league and securely in 4th place. Estupiñán is the top scorer with 13 goals so far.

December begins with a visit to 5th place Boavista. It’s a busy month as we play 6 games, including twice against Sporting.

Thanks for reading!

December Review

We were graded a B by the board so far, with a B- for our performance on the pitch. The highlights are our wins against Real, Vizela and Portimonense with our cup performance the only negative spot so far.

Estupiñán suffered an injury, which means he’ll be out for the first three games of the month.

0-3 @ Boavista
Ricardo Pepi, Rochinha, Nélson da Luz

The team pulled together in Estupiñán’s absence to get an important win against our local rivals. Pepi scores his first ever Vitória goal.

1-1 vs Belenenses
Rochinha

We couldn’t hang on to an early Rochinha goal, leading to a very disappointing result against the 16th place team. At least we used the game to rotate a couple players for the game against Sporting.

3-1 @ Sporting
Luís Esteves

We couldn’t contain the best team in Portugal, keeping it close before a 92nd goal sealed our fate. Now knocked out of both cups, we can put 100% of our focus on securing European football for next season.

2-0 vs Paços de Ferreira
João Ferreira, Ricardo Quaresma

Ferreira got us an early goal on a great shot from just inside the area. Carmona got his second assist of the game after Quaresma slotted in a moving penalty. Another dominant league performance gives us 11 games in a row without losing,

1-2 @ Estoril Praia
Rochinha, Oscar Estupiñán

Rochinha and Estupiñán continue to be on fire as they gave us a lead going into half time. Estoril got one back near the end but we still managed to extend our run to 12 matches without a loss.

2-2 vs Sporting
Oscar Estupiñán, Marcus Edwards

We end 2021 with our biggest challenge so far as we face Sporting, who have yet to lose a game. A 39th minute goal from Estupiñán gave us hope, but Bragança smashed them just a minute later. A 50th minute penalty smashed in by Marcus Edwards put us back on top. At this point we parked the bus to try and hold on to the lead. Cabral got an equalizer for them 20 minutes later, with not much happening before the final whistle. Overall one of the best matches we’ve played as we threatened to end with the leader’s unbeaten run and we manage to extend our own.



The end of December sees us sitting in 3rd place with 12 wins, 6 draws and only one loss. Although, Porto’s 2 games in hand could see them overtake us as long as they add at least 4 points. Overall, I’m very happy with the way the team is playing and hopefully we can continue our unbeaten run for a longer while.

We start off the new year with a home game against Arouca. It’ll be a challenging month that will see us play 6 games, including tough ones against Benfica, Braga and Porto.

Thanks for reading and Merry Christmas to all!

January Review

1-0 vs Arouca
Ricardo Pepi

A Pepi wonder goal gets us a win in our 14th game unbeaten.

We signed Peruvian left winger Fernando Pacheco on loan for the rest of the season. The loan from Fluminense includes a 4.7 million dollar option that’s probably too expensive for us right now.

We also sold Denis-Will Poha to Marítimo for 500k. We have a lot of good players in midfield so he was never going to break into the team.

1-2 @ Tondela
Oscar Estupiñán, Rubén Lameiras

Estupiñán scored his 18th goal of the season, giving us the lead before half time. However, a Borevkovic error just 3 minutes into the second half gave them the equalizer. Lameiras chose the best moment to score his first goal of the season, in the 91st minute of a tied game we should be comfortably winning.

We were then dealt two hard blows. Oscar Estupiñán would be leaving for Bayer Leverkusen for 6.5 million + another 5.5 in future fees as well as 15% of a future sale. It is rough to lose our best player but at least we get some money in the bank, besides we have capable young strikers in Ricardo Pepi, Herculano Nabian and even Bruno Duarte.

Alongside Oscar, Bruno Varela will be heading to Wolves for 2 million + another 2 million in fees as well as 20% of a future sale. I’ll be immediately searching for a new goalkeeper.

We also managed to sell Quaresma before he left on a free. He’s not getting any better at 38 and 37k is better than nothing.

Colombia international Álvaro Montero managed to arrive in Portugal the day before the Benfica match. Just in time for our third-string goalkeeper Celton Biai to go down with a sports hernia.

1-1 @ Benfica
Rochinha

A red card to Vertonghen meant we could attack a 10-man Benfica squad rather than waiting for the counter. VAR allowed them a goal 5 minutes into the second half. However, Pacheco would get his first assist on a through ball to Rochinha to put us level again. In the end we managed to extend our unbeaten run against 2nd place Benfica.

0-0 vs Braga

Our second match of the season against Braga is another 0-0 draw with not much happening in the game.

0-1 vs Famalicao

A very disappointing result as we are handed our second loss of the season. Our unbeaten run ends at 17 games.

3-2 @ Porto
Ricardo Pepi, Rubén Lameiras

We end the month with another loss, this one looks closer than it was. Though overall a decent result for our rotated squad.

On deadline day, we sold Mikel Agu who only made 8 appearances (1 start) and played to a 6.57 average. He leaves for Columbus for 140 thousand dollars. Overall it’s a loss but he’s injury prone and doesn’t really have a role on the team.

We also got Luis Binks on loan from Genoa, he’ll add some depth at center back with Mumin participating in AFCON and Pedro Henrique injured.

With 8 hours to go, we sent Sílvio on loan to Chaves, he was on an expiring contract and we have no intentions of resigning him.

Replacing Sílvio in the squad is 22-year-old Hulk, coming from Porto for 24 thousand dollars. He’ll be the backup for Soares and hopefully he can fulfill his potential and challenge for the starting spot in the future.

With one hour to go, Wolves have unsettled André Almeida. I considered their offer of 3 million (potentially 9) totally inappropriate for a player of Almeida’s age and quality. It doesn’t feel too good to potentially stand in the way of a player’s career, but it is also my job to look after the club’s finances and I will not be letting him go for less than 20 million, especially with his contract running out in 2024.



This month we dropped positions, however this was expected as we had played more games than Porto. Our tough run of games is over though, so I expect us to regain form in time to face Sporting, the only top opponent remaining. It was tough missing key players such as Mumin, Alfa and Montero as they left to play international games, but we’re still in a good position to try and qualify for the Champions League. Anyway, it looks like we’re definitely fulfilling our preseason goal of qualifying to the Conference League.

Thanks for reading!

February Review

Before even playing a game, André Almeida dislocated his shoulder and will be out until early April at minimum. We might end up regretting letting go of 3 midfielders last month.

2-0 vs Moreirense
Herculano Nabian, Rochinha

No better way to get back to winning than against Moreirense in the Guimarães derby! Also glad to see the now 18-year-old Nabian getting his first goal since the end of November against Gil Vicente.

0-0 @ Gil Vicente

We couldn’t capitalize on our chances (1.75 xG!) which means a disappointing draw against bottom half of the table opposition.

Falaye Sacko, who had asked for a transfer after an offer from Wolves, has left to Al-Jazira for two million dollars. We have agreed to sign Andreas Vindheim from Sparta Prague in July as his replacement.

3-1 vs Marítimo
Herculano Nabian, Marcus Edwards x2

We took the lead going into half time, although weak defending for a Marítimo goal and a missed penalty by Edwards didn’t help us out much. Marcus redeemed himself for the missed penalty and scored his second of the game to secure the win.



After a short month we find ourselves in 4th place still. Overall a good month despite that draw to Gil Vicente, very nice to see Nabian stepping up to the plate. The youngster is now on 4 goals after 9 games (382 minutes). The next months have two games a piece, which means we can prepare better and be more fit for games. This will be key as Braga creep up on us and we still have to face Sporting in April.

March’s matches: @ Vizela, vs Portimonense

Thanks for reading!

RIP Ricardo Quaresma. Sorry to see him go, but he only has himself to blame; he should know that you can't be over 30 and expect to remain in a Football Manager squad.