Football Season Guide

Liga
Portugal
Liga
2016/2017
Vitoria de Setubal
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Vitoria de Setubal

In


Mikel Agu (mid)(FC Porto, on loan), Vasco Fernandes (def)(Pandurii), João Amaral (att)(FC Pedras Rubras), Nenê Bonilha (mid)(Nacional), Thiago Santana (att)(São Carlos), André Geraldes (def)(Sporting CP, on loan), Bruno Varela (gk)(Benfica), Nuno Santos (att)(Benfica, on loan), Fábio Cardoso (def)(Benfica), Pedro Trigueira (gk)(Académica), Pedro Pinto (def)(Leixões), Ryan Gauld (mid)(Sporting CP, on loan), Zé Manel (att)(Boavista)

Out


André Horta (k)(mid)(Benfica), Tiago Valente (r)(def)(Desp. Aves), Miguel Lázaro (sp)(gk)(Benfica C. Branco), Miguel Lourenço (sp)(def)(Zira FK, on loan), Dani Soares (sp)(mid)(Vizela), Shaher Mansour (sp)(mid)(Marítimo), Yann Rollim (sp)(mid)(Karlsruhe SC).

Last season from Setúbal should be considered a case study as they went from heaven to hell in less than half of a season. They started as one of the big sensations of the league collecting points for fun and showing some interesting performances as well, with youngster Ruben Semedo at the back and creative André Horta shining very brightly. But all of a sudden, after Ruben Semedo’s departure and some rumours of financial problems in the club, performances started to drastically drop and the team accumulated defeat after defeat to the point that they only managed to survive in the very last round. Manager Quim Machado couldn’t survive after such an event, and José Couceiro will be back at the helm of Setúbal twelve years after having a short yet successful spell at Bonfim. After Ruben’s Semedo departure to Sporting, in January, it was André Horta that left Setúbal to go cross the river and join Benfica. Certainly they won’t be able to replace those two gems, but young players arriving on loan from Big-3 –like Olympic National goalkeeper Bruno Varela, defenders André Geraldes and Fábio Cardoso and skillful winger Nuno Santos – might be giving Setúbal the sufficient quality to keep them above relegation line once again.

Target


As one of the most traditional Portuguese sides in the league, Setúbal will always carry on the weight of not being allowed to be relegated. So they should start to take care of reverting the last third of the past season and keep collecting important points to give them enough to stay out of trouble as early as possible. Reaching a top ten position should be considered an affordable bonus.