Throughout its existence, Portuguese football has been dominated by three teams.
Sporting CP, Benfica, and FC Porto are the most dominant teams in the country, with no other team coming even close to their level of success.
In recent years, a fourth team has emerged from the depths of the league, establishing itself as a fourth power in Portugal: SC Braga.
In the last 15 full seasons in Liga Portugal, Braga have finished inside the top five 14 times, with the 2013/14 season being a notable exception, resulting in a ninth-place finish.
Many great players and coaches have been part of the club’s ranks during these years.
For example, newly appointed Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim was a coach for Braga’s B-team and had a very short but successful stint at the first team before joining Sporting.
Other players, such as Francisco Trincão, David Carmo, Vitinha, Rafa Silva, and Galeno, also played for the club.
Braga are one of the teams with the most earnings from selling its players, and they incorporate young players well.
However, this summer was very turbulent for Braga.
Once again, the club saw many talented players depart the team.
Top goalscorer Simon Banza and midfield motor Al-Musrati left for the Turkish Süper Lig, Alvaro Djaló left for Athletic Bilbao, top talent Rodi Gomes left for Wolverhampton, and striker Abel Ruiz left for UEFA Champions League football at Girona.
However, the offseason was not just problematic in terms of player personnel.
Braga signed Daniel Sousa as their new head coach, but the former assistant coach of André Villas-Boas was fired after just five weeks and a draw on the first matchday.
Braga decided to sign a very familiar face, Carlos Carvalhal, to replace Sousa.
Carvalhal has been a professional manager for over 25 years and is now in his third stint at SC Braga.
Still, the team is sitting in a decent fifth place in the league again this year, but it is not good enough to challenge the top teams again.
In this tactical analysis and team analysis, we will examine what Braga does well and where the team still has the potential to break into the top three and return to Champions League football once again.
Braga’s New Press Struggles
Sporting Clube de Braga have struggled a lot in defending in key situations.
While most statistics would suggest that Braga are actually playing well against the ball, the team has still conceded 23 goals in the 20 games under Carvalhal this season, including four against Sporting, which saw them throw away a 2-0 halftime lead against the current league leader.
Braga have struggled with generating pressure on opposing teams’ build-up plays.
While decent against weaker teams, Braga struggles significantly against better teams in terms of generating pressure during the build-up.
Carvalhal usually has his team lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation.
Still, he changed his approach in the last couple of games, lining his team up in a 3-4-3 formation against Sporting and against Elfsborg in the UEFA Europa League.
While Braga are one of the better teams in the league, they usually are not playing with a very high line of press most of the time.
Carvalhal has his men play an attacking press, but the team usually does not press the goalkeeper; for example, instead, it waits for opposing teams to move forward slightly while still pressing them in their own third.
Here, we can see a very typical situation for Braga in their last couple of games.
The team is lined up in their new 3-4-3 formation, but with both full-backs dropping back into the defensive line, the team is in a 5-2-2-1 shape.
The striker is triggering the press by attacking Sporting’s middle centre-back, trying to cut off the play to one side.
The two wingers push inside to control Sporting’s two central midfielders, who control the passing lanes into the half-spaces.
Still, with both full-backs dropping deep, Braga have a disadvantage in terms of numbers in this situation; it is pretty much five against seven.
Sporting uses this and plays a ball into midfield, attracting the press of Braga.
Braga now have a 4v2 situation in the midfield, but with one of the holding midfielders stepping up and the right-winger pushing inwards, the team has given up control of most of the pitch here.
Sporting is a class team, and it shows in these situations, but Braga were still unable to apply pressure to the ball, allowing three easy passes and getting dragged out of their positions.
Sporting then has the opportunity to switch play against the direction of the press because Braga could not cut off that passing lane towards the right side of the pitch.
This enables the centre-back to dribble forward past the first line of press and at least three Braga players, maybe even more.
In this situation, Braga has no chance of recovering and can only drop back into a deeper block, as shown in the picture above.
Sporting was able to break out of Braga’s press with just three passes, but the team is now in a bad position to defend.
While Carvalhal was hoping for positive change with his new system, which he had implemented for the last three games, the team struggled even more with its high line of press, and opposing teams cut through it easily most of the time.
While many teams in Liga Portugal lack the individual class that Sporting possesses, their high press has not been effective in many games this season, often setting up Braga for failure against the ball.
Braga’s Attacking Prowess But Lack Of Execution
Braga have been a top team in Liga Portugal for quite some time, and most of that usually came from their very good attacking play.
Carlos Carvalhal has his team playing aggressively as well, showcasing that the team is capable of still attacking the opposing goal with great power.
Braga currently have the sixth most possession per game, at 53.2% on average, which isn’t a lot.
Still, Carvalhal always preferred possession as a tactical measure rather than something that insists on itself.
With 15.67 expected goals so far this season, the experienced Portuguese manager has his team in fourth place in creating scoring chances, a very decent value.
Braga creates most of their goal-scoring opportunities through their wings, with a high number of take-ons (third most in the league) and a very good success rate, as well as a significant number of crosses.
Overall, the team has created the third most shots from open play in Liga Portugal this season, showcasing their ability to get the ball into the box and create opportunities for their attackers.
A huge problem for Braga and Carvalhal has been their execution in the final third.
Considering the work and creativity the team brought to the table, not many goals were scored in the end.
While their 205 crosses rank first in Liga Portugal this season, their success rate of just 26.3% is dead last in the league.
This indicates that the team has a high volume of crosses but fails to capitalise on them effectively.
A typical situation for Carvalhal’s men looks like this: this was against Vitoria Guimarães when Braga were still lining up in their 4-2-3-1 formation.
The team is in a very narrow formation, with the wingers pushing into the half-spaces, while only the full-backs push up into the midfield in a very wide position near the sideline.
Both central midfielders stay relatively close to their centre-backs but are not the preferred passing option to trigger their attacking play.
In the attacking position, Braga uses many counter-rotating movements to force the opposing block to react.
Here, we can see their captain, Ricardo Horta, starting to make a run behind the defensive line from his number 10 position.
The left winger Bruma is dropping deep in the half-space to receive the ball while Horta is dragging the midfielder out of position.
Horta is then able to receive the ball with no immediate pressure due to the positional play with the wide full-back and the good run made by Horta.
Vitória SC then reacts to the pass, and Bruma is able to use his individual class to turn around towards the centre of the field and dribble past their opponent’s midfield.
He then can play a pass outwards to the left full-back Ribeiro, who was making a run down the line in this entire situation.
Ribeiro then received the ball and controlled it while the rest of the Braga players made runs into the box.
The zonal division is perfect for Braga here, with four players in the box and one outside of it.
One player can make a run towards the near post, two are in the centre of the box and can make complementary runs, and one player is wide open at the far post.
This should usually result in a good opportunity for Braga, but Ribeiro miscontrols the ball, and his cross is blocked here.
This highlights a significant issue for Braga.
While they can progress the ball quickly through the opposing team’s midfield and get a lot of numbers in the box, they are not able to execute their attacks meaningfully most of the time, costing them valuable points.
Braga Defensive Struggles
The first thing we examined in this article was Braga’s struggle with their attacking press, but Carlos Carvalhal tactics have had more problems against the ball this season.
His team struggles to defend in key moments in the box, which is costing them many points in otherwise decent games.
With football’s low-scoring nature, even the best performances can be ruined by one or two bad situations, and Braga has had these types of situations too many times this season.
Here we have a situation in the game against Vitória again.
We can clearly see the 4-2-3-1 formation for Carvalhal and his men, as well as their narrow shape.
Overall, the narrow shape is not bad because it helps them prioritise the centre of the field, which is the most important area to cover.
However, their opponents are using this as an invitation to put their wingers in very wide positions and play a lot of diagonal passes.
Once again, their press does not exert any real pressure on the ball in this situation, and the centre-back is able to play a long ball towards his left winger.
The entire Braga defensive line is looking towards the ball, with the attackers making runs behind them.
Nobody even realises the threat of the left-winger in open space.
Braga can’t defend the long pass, and the winger can play a cutback into the box here.
Once again, Braga struggles to recover from their bad position and is unable to grasp the attackers in the box.
Santos finds himself in acres of space, can control the ball, put it onto his right foot, and then score an easy goal, putting Vitória up 1:0.
These situations occur far too frequently for Braga, and they really need to improve their defensive awareness and defensive play in the box.
Conclusion
While Braga has established itself as the fourth-best team in Portugal over the last couple of years, this season has not been a blast for the northern team.
With much turmoil at the coaching position to start the season and Sousa’s firing just a month after his signing, the team is still struggling to find its footing in the league so far this season.
While the results have not been bad, the gap between the top three teams has increased, and a couple of other teams are now at the same level as Braga.
Carvalhal has struggled with his team’s performance against the ball.
Neither their attacking press nor their defence out of a deep block is working for them, and combined with a lack of awareness, the team struggles with conceding easy goals.
In the attack, Carvalhal and his men have shown a lot of promise and are having a decent season, but they still struggle with efficiently executing their attacks, which has cost them points this season.
With critical departures and a mediocre season so far, Carlos Carvalhal now has a lot of work to do to get Braga back to the level it had when he last left the club in the summer of 2022.
