Football Season Guide

Just about survived last season. Not safe until the final round. Finished 2 points above the bottom 3. Had the weakest attack in the entire top flight, only 24 goals scored in 34 matches. Things were difficult from early in the season. Coach Filipe Martins resigned at the end of September. At that point Estrela were sitting in 17th place. Jose Faria took over. He failed to improve the forward actions but in the end vital home wins against direct rivals for survival proved precious. It has been busy summer for Estrela. Changed the entire GKs room, have 3 new players in that position. Also, added 5 new CBs, multiple forwards and several CMs too. So far the new arrivals, excluding players back from loans elsewhere, are 19 so Estrela will have a very different look heading into the new campaign. Veteran Pinho (34) is the only experienced striker. Despite bringing in 3 new CFs they are all young players, so are the 3 new wingers that have arrived. All 6 of them are age 22 or younger so developing at least 1-2 into reliable goalscorers is the priority task for the manager. The big issues last season were on the road. Estrela scored just 6 away goals in 17 matches. Improving on the transition attack has been the main focus of the pre-season. Adding fast players like Marcus and Stoica should help for that. Cabral also must remain healthy. The main playmaker missed more than half of last season. When he played Estrela accumulated nearly 65% of their points.