The main reasons behind Pedro Caixinha’s success with RB Bragantino in 2023 – tactical analysis

In their fourth season in the Brasileirão, RB Bragantino has the chance to make history by overcoming their best-ever position in the table (sixth place). As a matter of fact, under Pedro Caixinha, they are placed in the extraordinary second place with 17 victories, 10 draws and only four defeats.

Although with 12 games left to play, the Bragantino side and the first-placed Botafogo, who recently fired their head coach Bruno Lage, are distanced by nine points, their main priority will undoubtedly be to secure top-four, which gives direct access to the Copa Libertadores 2024.

The Portuguese coach has vast experience in leading football clubs in every corner of the globe and has had the opportunity to command the Scottish Premiership side Glasgow Rangers, the Argentinian Talleres more recently and other adventures around Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Mexico.

As were going to detail further, theyre a team that likes to build from the back with some interesting positional features, which allows them to create spaces to play. Throughout this scout report, well also reveal some of their off-possession methods, which follow an intense and aggressive approach so that they can re-establish their possession as soon as possible.

In this tactical analysis, well try to understand the main reasons for Bargantinos sixth-best attack (36 goals scored) and fifth-best defence (23 goals conceded). For that, we will segregate our analysis into two parts: firstly, the offensive process, which includes the build-up and last-third actions, and then the defensive approach, which will show Caixinhas off-the-ball strategy as some defensive transitions.

Offensive philosophy

Pedro Caixinha follows a general 4-3-3 model during most games, with some variances during the offensive and defensive process. As we can see above, if RB Bragantino decides to face the opponent with two pivots, then they are playing in a 4-2-3-1, yet if they decide to perform with one single defensive midfielder, then were looking to a 4-1-4-1 system.

They are an objective type of team, and according to Wyscout, 27% of their positional attacks end up with a shot, while the opposition are approximately 4% less straightforward in their game. Besides that, they shoot about 15 times per game and nearly 36% in efficiency (hit the target), which is quite good considering their opponents average (10 shots and 33% on target).

RB Bragantino likes to build from the back,