Amorim should be fired . What has he done for us lately? He brought in esgaio and Paulinho at high costs. His tactics don’t work anymore and have been figured out
I mean we finished with 85 points last season, which would’ve been good enough to win 4 of the previous 7 seasons (since the league expanded). I’m not a fan of Esgaio or Paulinho either, and I think the Esgaio sub cost the win today but I think this is premature.
Well worst part is going up by 1 with 5 min left and letting that result get away… I believe both Porto and Benfica lost at Braga last year…. So let’s get at least a draw next week at Porto then stack some wins
Ummm lol. Have you seen any game that Esgaio plays? Because if you did, then you’d know that he alone costs us multiple points in multiple games. Porro getting hurt last season led to Esgaio starting multiple games and costing us multiple points. Case in point: the away loss to Santa Clara. He's literally an atrocious player that brings absolutely nothing to this team. Can't defend, can't attack, can't mark, can't shoot, can't cross. Then you've got the cone up top doing shit like this: 1556337690504830977 is not a valid tweet id $22 million combined for these two useless assholes and they keep getting minutes over and over again. Amorim doesn't learn and it's going to cost him his job and us a title.
This ain't the same Braga. Plus, they just sold their best player to Benfica today, so neither Porto or Benfica will be playing the same Braga team.
I’m not really sure how you read my post and took at as a defence of Esgaio? He’s been awful, and has had several costly mistakes. I can’t think of a single moment that he’s done something well. I can’t even think of a particular thing he does well. He’s just kind of here. However, 85 points the last two seasons is still successful. Like I said, that’s a championship in most years, except when Porto sets a record lol. So I just feel like the whole sky is falling, we’re garbage mentality, after one game, is too soon. I would’ve preferred to have kept Esteves around. I understand he’ll get development minutes at Estoril, but if we’re going to limit Porro (and Porro will miss time anyway) then he would’ve got lots of play time here still.
Here's an honest question for everyone. Do you actually think we have a chance at winning the title this year? I get the feeling we didn't do enough to improve this team. The one glaring hole is a striker. We do not have a true striker. Our midfield took a hit with the losses of Sarabia and Braganca. When I look at what other teams did and the investment they put in their clubs, I can't help but wonder how we can compete for a title. Man I hope I'm wrong and just over thinking this.
Sarabia was great for us last season, and I was bummed to see him go, but with hopeful health and return to form from Pote, Edwards having more time to settle in with the club and the addition of Rochinha, I’m not sure if the loss of Sarabia is enough to take us out of contention. I think there’s also the expectation of players like Matheus and Ugarte taking the next step in the mid field + Morita and Trincão. Defensively is where my questions come in. Which has been our bread and butter the last 2 years. Inacio seems to have stagnated and his arc is starting to remind me of Ruben Semedo (minus the off field stuff obviously). LB is obviously a hole and then RB is always a question mark with Porro’s health. We let up 3 on the weekend which is extremely uncharacteristic. We’ve been crying for a true striker since all through the season we won the championship. We win without one, and it’s obviously not part of the game plan. We probably should let it go. And again, we scored 3, hopefully we’re not anemic on attack this year. If we can get back to form defensively, there’s no question in my mind that we should be in the thick of it. St. Juste really needs to pan out.
We don’t. Like you said we haven’t done shit to improve our squad, our squad has gotten worse if anything. Amorim has been figured out everyone knows how we are going to play. What is happening now reminds me of the late Paulo bento era with lack of investment, committed to the same stale tactics and coach. It wasn’t pretty what ended up happening.
You are being overly optimistic. St Juste has shown nothing other than being injury plagued his whole career. Coates had a career season in 2020/21 and reverted to mediocrity since. Matheus Reis also blows hot or cold. Now our midfield Struggles to defend . We rely on our wingers to score most our goals . Adan has also lost form.
This is exactly how I feel. Didn’t do enough at striker, too reliant on an injury prone area Porro and aging Coates at the back. Just no real momentum this summer and our opponents got stronger.
I read your post as: "Yea Esgaio & Paulinho aren't very good but it's premature to assume they will cost us games or the season". I also interpreted your post as sort of an excuse or an apologist approach to last season, candidly. Not trying to be a dick here but let's keep it real: Esgaio has been costing us points and contributing to losses/draws since he was re-signed. So, it's actually not premature because he's been choking for over a year, and his play has single-handedly cost us points. It's a predictable outcome at this point. It's been proven time and time again that the margin of error in this league is slim. Dropping points at any point during the season can prove to be detrimental because teams like Porto score goals at will and rarely drop points. Draws are losses in this league. Period. It doesn't matter whether finishing with 85 points would've won us the league in 4 out oft he last 5 years. We didn't win the league. That's it. Analyzing the "could've" & "would've" aspects doesn't matter because it didn't happen. We didn't win. So you have to look at why we didn't win: crumbling at home to Braga in the last minute of the game, Esgaio vs Santa Clara in Sao Miguel, getting shit on by Benfica, Porro getting hurt and having no adequate back-up, constantly playing Paullinho despite the fact that he's Sporar 2.0, etc. THESE are the things that we should focus on.
I think we have a chance, but Amorim's stubbornness will cost us for these reasons: He keeps subbing in Esgaio in close games. This turns into guaranteed negative outcomes. Loaning Esteves when he is a better option than Esgaio. Porro is going to get hurt. He gets hurt all the time. They should know better than to rely on Esgaio, let alone continue playing him. Playing Paulinho every game when he should just cut his losses and bench the dude. Not signing a back-up striker. We're literally going into the season competing in 4 competitions with 1 strikers. Mind-boggling Spent $10 million for 50% Vinagre only to loan him out Inacio is not a good defender, crumbles under pressure, can't play on the right side. He hasn't improved. We will miss Pahlinha's presence in the midfield for sure. The dude was a menace in 2020 covering lots of ground with the ability to win the ball and defend well. Ugarte is not him.
You know, I don’t even necessarily disagree with what’s being said. I believe we have a lot of questions, holes and areas of concerns. I agree that the margin for error in this league is pretty slim. Do I feel like the margin of area is so slim that these holes/concerns will cost us? That’s not the sentiment I have. Considering we’ve been competitive the last two seasons in spite of these issues, I fully expect to be competitive again. Will we win the league? I don’t know, I do believe we will be in the running. I feel like we’re all saying similar things and have the same concerns, it’s just a difference in mentality. It’s week 1. We’ll see what happens. That’s why we watch the games, right
valid statement. I just feel like we'll be competitive for 2nd or 3rd place. Our rivals got stronger and invested. We didn't replace the quality we lost.
I don't think Porto got stronger. They lost Vitinha and Vieira, two huge contributors last season. They let go of their best goalkeeper, for some reason. Veron looks like he's gonna be a stud, but I'm not so sure about Carmo. Dude was out for over a year with a serious injury. They were able to hold on to Taremi & Evanilson though, so that was important. Benfica undoubtedly got stronger and invested a shit ton in their team. No inept JJ to screw things over. I think we improved in our defense and midfield a bit, but Amorim, Viana & Varandas continue to ignore the importance of a legitimate goal scorer in this league. Goals will be hard to come by when we replace a legitimate goal scorer who can finish with Trincao, who can't finish to save his life.
I agree with all of your posts completely except one thing: Porto did not sell their best keeper. Their best keeper is Diogo Costa who is a stud. Did you see his game against Maritimo? He was excellent again
Thank god. Virtually any warm body you throw out there can do what he does. But this is really exposing how terribly put together this squad is from Amorim's perspective. Dude did nothing to add depth in the forward position over the last 3 years and it appears he still doesn't learn from his mistakes. Also, somebody within that club needs to explain the Vinagre business.
Game against Rip Ave about to start. Looking forward to it I wasnt able to watch the Braga game live.