Vasco Matos Tactics At Santa Clara 2024/25: Tactical Lessons In Efficiency

While relegation is a very hard sentence for most clubs, it offers an opportunity for change in an otherwise very fast-paced environment.

C.D. Santa Clara were in deep trouble when the club finished their 2022/23 campaign with three manager sackings and only 22 points from 34 games.

As with most relegated clubs, many players went on to find new opportunities in the top flight, meaning that C.D Santa Clara had to build a new team.

They did so by hiring Vasco Matos, a new manager who had been an assistant coach at Casa Pia for the previous three campaigns.

It was a change that would shape the clubs near future.

In just the first season after relegation, Santa Clara managed to become Champions of Liga Portugal 2 and got promoted back to the first division of Portuguese football.

Their biggest strength is their defence.

Matos‘ men only conceded 19 goals in 34 matches, which was 10 goals fewer than the second-best defence in the league conceded that season.

After promotion, most experts and even the club predicted another tough season.

With not much money to spend on reinforcements, Santa Clara were forecasted to face another relegation battle.

After six games, the team is in fourth place, however, only trailing Sporting CP, Porto, and Benfica in Liga Portugal so far.

In this tactical analysis and team analysis, we will examine why Santa Clara are having so much success under Vasco Matos, what tactics they are using, and what to expect from the club moving forward this season.

Vasco Matos Preferred Formation: 4-2-3-1 Press & A Deep Block Work Wonders

What’s interesting about Vasco Matos Santa Clara is that they are pretty much playing football according to very basic principles, and we will take a look at what that means throughout this analysis.

As previously mentioned, Santa Clara got promoted because of their elite defence last season.

While it may look like that has changed at first glance this season, it has not.

Yes, Santa Clara has conceded eight goals in six games so far this season.

Six of those goals came in the two games against giants — Benfica and Porto — meaning Matos‘ men only conceded two goals in the other four games.

Even with the two games in which they conceded many goals, Santa Clara still rank above average in almost every defensive category.

Vasco Matos use two tactical measures to help his team achieve this stability: their press and their defending in a deep block.

The most basic principle Matos gives his men at hand is also one of the most basic principles in football: condense the space to minimise the effective playing space for the opposing team, which Santa Clara use in the press and while defending in more static situations.

Here, we can see Santa Clara’s defensive territory this season so far.

We can see that the team takes many defensive actions in the final third, but with little success, and in its own defensive third, with great success.

It’s rather interesting that Santa Clara barely have any defensive actions in the midfield, which is where most smaller clubs usually start their press.

Another thin