While many of Europe’s big leagues kicked off their 2024/25 campaigns in recent days, Brazil’s Série A is heading into the latter months of its 2024 season, and the title race is seriously heating up.
At the time of writing, just five points separate the top four teams after 22 & 23 games — Botafogo are the current league leaders.
While Botafogo’s defensive record is not highly desirable, their potent attack is the reason they are in search of their third Brazilian title and their first since 1995.
Head coach Artur Jorge deserves credit for transforming Botafogo’s attacking output and, with it, their title prospects.
Jorge joined the Brazilian club in time for the beginning of the 2024 campaign after leaving Braga – a club he has a long history with as both a player and a coach; last year, Total Football Analysis analysed Artur Jorge tactics at Sporting Braga.
Attacking prowess was a huge part of his philosophy at Braga, and so far, that has carried over to Brazil — Botafogo are currently Série A’s top goalscorers, which is why we are bringing an analysis of their attacking tactics.
This Botafogo scout report will provide a tactical analysis of that strong attack, highlighting some of the key principles in Jorge’s tactics at Botafogo.
It is noteworthy that, while Botafogo have been dominant from set plays this season, scoring from nine corners, we will not be dissecting their approach in these moments as we released a set-piece analysis around their corner routines just last year.
While there may be some new elements this season, the core of their corner domination does not yet warrant a fresh analysis.
Intentionally Triggering The Opposition Press
Building from the back is something that was discussed in the aforementioned analysis of Artur Jorge’s Braga team, and some of those principles followed him to Brazil.
While Botafogo does have games where they dominate possession, generally speaking, their games are more even (in terms of possession percentage).
They have averaged 51% possession so far this season.
But they have shown real strength in playing out from the back into midfield by luring the opposition into triggering the press in certain areas.
The aim with that is to exploit the space left by the opposition player(s) who execute the press, as seen below.
With the ball at the RB spot, many players and teams would’ve taken the safer option in playing a chance pass down the flank and into the channel for the striker to chase, but Botafogo already had the opponent where they wanted them.
With these tactics, timing is everything, so in certain scenarios, Fogo will look to take their time in between passes, which is more likely to encourage the opponent to trigger that press.
