Hello there, readers, and welcome to the official start of my new Football Manager 2020 blog story! I have taken over the reins of Sporting CP, with the aim of returning them to the top of Portuguese football – and hopefully making them competitive in Europe again.
In case you missed my introduction to this story, in which I went through Sporting’s history and explained my goals for this story, you can read it right here.
Today’s opening chapter will begin with a squad report, where I’ll go through each first-team player and then look at my tactics. I’ll also summarise our pre-season results before finishing off with our first competitive match – the season-opening Supertaça against league champions Benfica.
Are you ready for this new adventure? If so, let’s begin…
SQUAD REPORT
You know, I was beginning to wonder why our team cohesion was very poor when I arrived at Sporting. Well… there’s why. Our first-team squad is quite bloated, to say the least!
As I mentioned last time, I have turned off budgets for the first transfer window, so I cannot start trimming this squad down until January. In the meantime, it’ll be quite the battle to keep everyone fit and happy.
As usual in my squad reports, I’ll now write a bit about each first-team player, while also posting screenshots of those who are likely to be most prominent over the coming season.
First headache: we don’t have one first-choice goalkeeper – we have two. Renan Ribeiro was our regular shotstopper last season, but 20-year-old youth graduate Luís Maximiano is developing into a fine sweeper keeper and will surely usurp him soon. Pre-season performances will probably determine which one I start with.
Our third goalie is another young prospect in Diogo Sousa. Though his potential isn’t quite as high as Maximiano’s, Sousa has great aerial reach. He’ll probably go out on loan in the second half of the season for some extra senior experience.
We now come to our defence, which our Uruguayan captain Sebastián Coates is right at the heart of. The former Liverpool and Sunderland stopper has been a commanding, strong and consistent presence for Sporting since arriving in 2016. Less encouraging, he has a tendency to dive into tackles, which is a big minus for me when it comes to centre-backs.
Coates’ regular defensive partner will likely be either Jérémy Mathieu or Luís Neto. Vice-captain Mathieu is a brave Frenchman in the twilight of a long top-flight career spent with the likes of Valencia and Barcelona. Meanwhile, Neto is a quick-thinking Portugal international who recently returned home after six years with Zenit.
We also have the very exciting Eduardo Quaresma available to us. Even at 17, he has the resilience and tactical smarts to do a decent job in the Primeira Liga. Some of the top English clubs are already keeping tabs on him, though, so we’ll need to stave them off.
Wing-back is a problem area for us right now. We have two fine right-backs in Valentin Rosier and Stefan Ristovski, but both are currently out with broken feet. The more athletic Rosier should be back by late August to make his debut after signing from Dijon. However, the hard-working and resolute Ristovski faces a longer spell on the sidelines and might not appear before November.
Though primarily a centre-half, London-born Tiago Ilori (another erstwhile Liverpool flop) can provide right-back cover for the time being. Considering that Ilori was playing for Reading last season, he probably wouldn’t be starting regularly in normal circumstances. We also have Mathieu available to provide cover for our two left-backs.
Argentinian Marcos Acuña is our main man on the left flank. Though perhaps more at home on the wing, where he can put his flair and crossing abilities to great use, he’s tough enough to hold his own in defence, which is where I’ll mainly deploy him. Acuña’s deputy is Cristián Borja – a 26-year-old Colombian who shows great endeavour out wide.
Rodrigo Battaglia might hail from the Argentine city of Morón, though he is anything but. Battaglia is focussed, aggressive and would do anything for his team… and he’s a very talented box-to-box midfielder too. Unfortunately, he tore his ACL last November and still has some way to go before he can return to the pitch.
Rising star Idrissa Doumbia will likely be our most regular starter in the defensive midfield position. The 21-year-old Ivorian, who arrived from Russian side Akhmat Grozny in January, is another aggressive character who has stamina for days.
We also have a quartet of Brazilian central midfielders. The flamboyant Wendel (also aged 21) is perhaps the most talented, though the technically-skilled Mattheus Oliveira has great pedigree (his father is Seleção icon Bebeto, who famously celebrated his birth at USA 1994). Recent signing Eduardo Henrique is a capable playmaker, and Bruno Paulista is versatile but rather injury-prone.
And while Bruno Fernandes might have gone, that doesn’t mean we lack depth in attacking midfield. At 24, this is perhaps Francisco Geraldes‘ last chance to prove that he can become Sporting’s new playmaker extraordinaire. If he blows it, I’ll instead focus more on developing either 20-year-old Miguel Luís or 19-year-old Tomás Silva into the new Bruno.
One of our main men for this campaign is the on-loan PSG inside-forward Jesé. Yes, that’s the same Jesé who flopped at Stoke two years ago. Though the enigmatic Spaniard has not reached the heights once expected of this former wonderkid, he is still only 26, and a strong season with us could do him the world of good.
Jesé’s main rival on the left wing will be another right-footed loanee in Yannick Bolasie. Frankly, I’m not sure how the DR Congo international ended up here on loan from Everton. Bolasie has come a long way since he was playing non-league football for Hillingdon in 2007, but is Portugal the right move for him at this stage in his career?
Prodigious right-winger Jovane Cabral broke into the Sporting side last season, thrilling fans with his trickery and dribbling skills. The Cape Verdean faces stiff competition from two other up-and-comers in Rafael Camacho (once of Manchester City and Liverpool) and Matheus Nunes. Meanwhile, the spirited Dimitar Mitrovski offers a left-footed option out wide.
You might know about Luciano Vietto from his failed loan spell with my Fiorentina team on FM19 and/or an equally disastrous stay at Fulham in real-life. That hasn’t stopped the club forking out €7.5million for the pacey Argentine, who will need to deliver wildly – whether that’s on the right wing or up front.
If Vietto doesn’t perform, then I’m hopeful that Andraz Sporar will do at least. Sure, he’s only bagged one goal in 14 caps for Slovenia, but he got 29 in 30 league games for Slovakian champions Slovan Bratislava last term. It’ll be interesting to see how the ambitious 25-year-old handles the step up to a bigger league.
Another candidate to lead our attack is Luiz Phellype, who enjoyed an encouraging start to his Sporting career with eight goals in 14 outings late last season. The Brazilian is a strong and energetic pressing forward who takes no prisoners, much like 19-year-old perfectionist Pedro Mendes.
Tactically, I will be mainly be using a 4-3-3 throughout this season. We’ll consistently counter-press our opponents pretty hard – without quite going to Jürgen Klopp-esque extremes – when we haven’t got the ball, and then counter-attack with pace after winning it.
The tactic above is the one I’ll mainly be using at home, where we can expect to enjoy more possession and can take the game to our visitors. It’s still early days, of course, so don’t be surprised if I make a few tweaks here and there during the season – and even during matches. If we’re struggling to break down defensive opposition, for example, I might try to stretch play out a bit wider or up the tempo a notch.
I also trialled a 3-5-2 counter-attacking tactic during pre-season, with mixed results. That allows us to really solidify the defence and push our wing-backs further forward, though it sacrifices our wide attackers. If the 4-3-3 options don’t work, I might switch to that ‘Plan C’… but don’t expect me to bring it out very often, if at all.
PRE-SEASON
With such a large squad, including several new arrivals, squad harmony would inevitably be an issue in the early stages of my reign. My first pre-season campaign would be as much about building team cohesion as it would be about building match fitness. With that in mind, I was quietly satisfied about how we fared in our six friendlies:
Starting things off was a nice, simple 4-1 win over third-tier Pinhalnovense, who made it even easier for us by having a midfielder sent off after just 16 minutes. Cabral and Sporar each helped themselves to braces, though our defence dozed off and gifted the hosts a goal.
It was more of a struggle against non-league Tires, as we failed to put several chances away before Mattheus Oliveira’s 53rd-minute penalty finally broke our opponents’ resistance. We eventually won 3-0 before going one better against Cinfães, helped in part by a stunning late first-half performance from Geraldes.
I then headed back home for a meeting with Brighton. Acuña crossed a stunning opener into the net after just 15 minutes, but the second half saw the Seagulls do… well, what seagulls typically do. Leandro Trossard’s long-range stunner and Adam Webster’s header gave Albion a 2-1 win which could’ve been worse had they not had a couple more goals disallowed.
We then moved on to Italy, where Sporar’s hat-trick and his subsequent assist for Nunes wiped Empoli out within half an hour. It was a little disappointing that we didn’t add to our 4-0 lead, nor did we find the net in our only home friendly – a dire draw with Betis.
And that completed our warm-up for the new campaign. We would kick our first ball in anger on 4 August at the Estádio do Algarve, in the Supertaça against Benfica.
That was the state of our dynamics as we headed for the Algarve. Cohesion was still poor, and it would likely stay that way while the players adjusted to my tactics – and to each other. In the meantime, I would need to keep the dressing room atmosphere at a decent level. Winning over team leaders Coates and Mathieu (who were both ‘opposed’ to me, possibly because of my inexperience) would be a start.
So, without further ado, let’s get into our first competitive match…
BENFICA vs SPORTING (Supertaça)
What a game to kick off with! We showed no fear against the league champions early on, with Mattheus Oliveira giving us the lead after just two minutes. Bolasie flicked a header into the box for Bebeto’s bebê, who squeezed it between keeper Mile Svilar and his near post!
The Águias took offence to this and countered midway through the first half. Ribeiro stopped an angled shot from Rafa and then caught the follow-up from Dyego Sousa… but alas, our goalie had accidentally stepped behind his line. One of the strangest own goals I can remember seeing on FM had drawn Benfica level…
…for about eight minutes. Then Ilori played an excellent weighted ball into the Benfica box for Vietto, who cut inside and had a pop from just inside the box. Svilar saved, but the young Belgian could only push the ball against his defender Ferro, whose deflection led to a second own goal which restored our lead!
We remained ahead at the break, though our counter-pressing was tiring us out against the fitter Eagles. We eased off a bit early in the second half, which gave our opponents more time to launch some attacks. Fortunately, neither Sousa nor Haris Seferovic was in particularly prolific form, letting us off the hook.
Benfica’s most glaring miss came in the 63rd minute. Seferovic’s flick-on from Julian Weigl’s long ball had played substitute striker Carlos Vinicius through on goal, but he shot far too early, and we breathed another sigh of relief.
More chances came and went for the champions, while the impressive Svilar denied Sporar a late opportunity to double our lead. The full-time whistle came as a huge relief for us, as we celebrated a ninth Supertaça win for Sporting.
Start as you mean to go on, lads! That was our first trophy in the cabinet straight away – and at the expense of our eternal city rivals too! I imagine our supporters must be pretty chuffed about that, and perhaps excited about what their new manager has in store.
Oof. Tough crowd.
A new era is underway at Sporting CP, and I hope you’re as excited about it as I am!
The next update will go live on Friday evening, when I’ll summarise our first few matches in August and September. Can we follow up our Supertaça victory with strong starts in the Primeira Liga and the Europa League?
Don’t forget that, if you’d like to stay updated whenever a new post goes live, you can hit the ‘Follow Fuller FM’ button above. You can also follow me on Twitter @Fuller_FM.
Fuller FM 
You must be logged in to post a comment.