It’s time for another chapter in the tale of mediocrity that is Shama Deadman’s managerial career.
Last time out, we previewed the 2024/2025 season – Shama’s third in charge of Espinho in Portugal’s third tier. He has made several additions to a side that missed out on promotion by just six points… but has he changed too much too soon?
This chapter will take us through Espinho’s results in the first four months of the new Terceira Liga campaign. Can the Tigres make a strong start in their quest to reach the Segunda Liga?
AUGUST 2024
After another busy transfer window, I was ready to begin my second full season at Espinho – and hopefully launch another challenge for promotion from the Terceira Liga. Could a revamped Tigres squad build on last season’s impressive finish?
Not if THAT was a sign of things to come.
In our opening two matches, we recorded a combined xG of 3.57, but came away with no points and just one Miguel Pereira goal. As if watching us squander several chances against Sporting CP B wasn’t galling enough, our usually watertight defence collapsed at Berço, where we suffered our third loss in as many seasons.
Our woeful start continued at home to newly-promoted Salgueiros, who scored after just 44 seconds. Two well-worked set-pieces with a couple of clever flick-ons from defender Tiago Palancha turned it around and moved us 2-1 ahead after a madcap opening seven minutes. After his assists, though, Palancha gave away a late penalty to cost us victory.
After conceding another early goal at Braga B, attacking midfielder Rodrigo Gui restored parity with an excellent through-ball for Paulo Agostinho to tap home. That was as good as it got for us, because mistakes by our captain and vice-captain saw us fall to a 3-1 defeat.
New skipper Kadú had such a poor game in goal that I subbed him off for 17-year-old Cláudio Lascarim early in the second half. And as for Ben Davis…
…he wasn’t our vice-captain for long. When Estrela Amadora offered to buy our Thai playmaker for £37,500, I decided to cash in. Frankly, we needed any money we could get to repay some of our debt and keep the administrators at bay.
Another reason why I wasn’t desperate to keep Davis was that he was playing second fiddle to Rodrigo Gui in terms of midfield playmakers. Incidentally, the flamboyant 23-year-old would take over the vice-captaincy, but now he needed a new deputy… and the transfer window was about to close.
SEPTEMBER 2024
For my 12th signing of the summer, I raided the free agency market again and brought in Filipe Marques. The intelligent 26-year-old midfielder – who was comfortable in either a defensive or attacking role – had recently been released by Segunda Liga side Covilhã.
While goalscoring was still a bit of a problem, I wanted us to at least find some defensive consistency. To that end, I stuck rigidly with a 4-4-2 formation throughout September… with mixed results.
The home game against Vizela was another frustrating match where we again failed to convert a high xG into goals. Thankfully, some fine goalkeeping by Lascarim at least kept the early pacesetters at bay and earned us just our second point.
Cláudio followed that up with another clean sheet at Marinhense, where we upped the tempo and finally got our first win – at the sixth attempt. This was the match-winner from right-winger Franculino Djú, whose pacey if fragile legs were troubling defenders for once instead of physios!
Of course, any optimism we took from that victory disappeared just four days later. A dire game at fellow strugglers Viseu was settled by some rather lax defending from loanee Tiago Aguiar, and a couple of long-range strikes that exposed Lascarim’s lack of experience. Agostinho attempted a one-man comeback, scoring from one late defensive mistake before nearly equalising from another, but it wasn’t enough.
After this latest set-back, I took my anger out on the players with another full-time dressing-down. This fired up many of the lads, who vowed to make amends… but there was one dissenting voice.
Suffice to say, Simão Rocha was no fan of my team talks! Our new left-back complained to me about my heavy-handedness, but I refused to back down, and neither would he. As I didn’t want an unhappy player souring the mood any further, I would leave Simão to simmer on the sidelines until he cooled down.
So… seven games, four defeats, fourth-from-bottom. Not the early-season form we were looking for!
I hoped we would end September on a brighter note, with a routine Taça de Portugal victory against fourth-division minnows Tourizense. Naturally, we were so bereft of confidence that we only found the net once – a tidy low finish by inverted winger André Raposo – but that did give us a Round 3 tie against top-flight Portimonense.
OCTOBER & NOVEMBER 2024
For our next game at home to mid-table Trofense, I dropped the 4-4-2 and reverted to an aggressive 4-2-3-1. It wasn’t quite the intense counter-pressing game that had got us out of a few tricky situations before, but perhaps going for a more positive approach was the way forward?
Perhaps it was! Left-back Álvaro Milhazes had a game to remember, scoring direct from a free-kick (just his second goal under my management) before he supplied a couple of killer crosses for Rodrigo Gui and Sylvestre Costa to head home. An unexpected 3-0 win, and surely we were back in business.
Of course, as it was the international break, we wouldn’t play again for another two-and-a-half weeks. You know that Sod’s law is when anything that can go wrong will go wrong – at the worst possible moment?
Well… Deadman’s law is when one of your in-form players gets injured shortly after a particularly impressive performance. Bloody typical.
When we did return to action in mid-October, the little momentum we had was gone, and Portimonense took us to the cleaners in the Taça de Portugal. We could hardly get our high-tempo game going at on as the Alvinegros completely outclassed us, with Honduras forward Jonathan Toro scoring the first four goals in a 5-0 whitewash.
I tried to find at least some positives in that match, and the same went for our subsequent loss at Varzim. This was very much a case of what could’ve been, as Pereira hit the woodwork twice and Lamine Fernandes missed a few other chances for us. Varzim scored from a scrappy corner just before half-time, but we could take heart from only conceding once against a former Primeira Liga side.
So… how do you naturally respond to losing back-to-back matches without scoring?
You thrash the 2nd-placed team by 5 goals to nil, of course! Alverca might have been one of the most entertaining teams in the division (they even had last season’s top scorer on their books), but they just couldn’t cope with our high-intensity pressing game.
After netting just twice in his previous nine matches, Agostinho helped himself to FOUR goals – with the equally outstanding Rodrigo also getting on the scoresheet! What else do you want?
Ain’t no pleasing you, Fernanda…
But after turning into prime Cristiano Ronaldo in that game, Agostinho was more like Swansea-era Éder when we faced Gondomar just four days later. He and Tiago Gouveia were so profligate that it took us 93 minutes to breach their defence. By the time Ibrahima Guirassy finally headed home from Gouveia’s corner, the hosts were already 2-0 up and well on their way to another win.
The pressure was mounting on my shoulders as we entered November – so much so that even rival managers were suggesting that I should be sacked!
At least Agostinho was showing me support – with words, anyway. You know what would have been even more helpful, Paulo? Scoring any of the THREE clear chances you had at home to Felgueiras!
That match was truly awful to watch, but it looked like we would come away with a barely-deserved point until the visitors launched a 94th-minute counter-attack that broke our hearts. That was our first home league defeat since the opening day, and I was FURIOUS.
And boy, you KNOW I’m furious when I sack a player post-match! 21-year-old right-back Martim Ferreira had been utterly dreadful whenever I’d called on his services, posting an average rating of 6.45 in six matches. After Felgueiras, I was so fed up with Martim that I just wanted him out, so we cancelled his contract.
I was also losing faith in Kadú, so I gave Lascarim another chance when we went to Olhanense. The 17-year-old produced another impressive performance, making several vital saves en route to his third clean sheet in four starts. Unfortunately, our attackers continued to let us down, so we had to settle for a 0-0 draw.
So, we’re more than a quarter into the season, and it’s fair to say the promotion challenge hasn’t materialised. I think it’s time to take a pause and look at exactly why we’ve started so poorly…
WHAT’S GONE WRONG?
I’m pretty sure I know what the main reason for our struggles: over the past six months or so, team cohesion has gone down the pan.
I made 18 signings last season, but that didn’t seem to hurt team spirit as many of the new faces complemented what we already had and revitalised the side. A late-season surge saw us finish 3rd, and by the time we broke up for the summer, our Team Cohesion was at a ‘Good’ level.
From there, I should’ve made only a few signings, focussing on retaining the core of the team while bolstering our weakest areas. Instead, I signed 12 players – two returning loanees, and 10 brand new faces. In barely 18 months, this squad has changed almost beyond recognition, and it would’ve been even less recognisable if I hadn’t renewed Miguel Pereira’s and left-back Gonçalo Cardoso‘s contracts at the last minute.
My first regret was selling Daouda Guèye, who scored 10 goals last season but lacked consistency. I wanted to make room for a ‘better’ striker, only to miss out on my main targets and instead rush in a loan signing who didn’t suit the team. Fernandes has been a square peg in a round hole, with the target man providing no goals and just one assist in his seven games so far.
Also, for the second season in a row, I ripped our defence up – our league-best defence, I must add – and started again. Only Palancha and Costa were retained at centre-half. Admittedly, our former captain Abel Pereira retired, and Rúben Sousa decided not to join us permanently after his loan, but it’s no coincidence that we’ve looked shakier at the back.
Then there’s my decision to sell teenage right-winger Nélson Martins and loan in teenage right-winger João Pereira, who’s hardly played like an obvious upgrade on Nélson. And what about making Davis vice-captain, only to flog him to Amadora within a few weeks? It’s like I’ve been making changes for the sake of making changes!
Meanwhile, our away form has completely tanked. While only champions Oliveirense had a better record on the road than us last term, we’ve taken just four points from seven away games this season (beating Marinhense, drawing with Olhanense, and losing the other five).
Why’s this happened? I reckon it’s partly because opponents have become more wary of our counter-attacking threat, and also because we’ve adopted a more expansive, higher-pressing game that leaves our defence more exposed. Perhaps we should go back to playing more pragmatically in away matches, steadily grinding out results to instill some confidence into the team?
My main reasoning for playing more positively was to improve our average home record (we were 11th on that front last season) and our even more average attacking record. Of course, those changes worked out so well that we’ve since recorded two wins, two draws and two defeats on home soil. Don’t even get me started on our shooting stats…
So now we’re not getting consistent results anywhere, mainly because I’ve handled the transfer market like a Portuguese Harry Redknapp, only without the sensible financial planning. Is it any wonder we’re in such a mess?!
Worrying signs for Shama, then, as he suddenly finds himself battling against relegation instead of challenging for promotion.
Can Shama save his team – and his job – or is the Portuguese leg of his journeyman adventure coming to an end? Please come back on Monday for Part 20, where our manager faces a do-or-die winter period.
Thanks for reading!
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