Football Season Guide

Palmeiras achieved major success last season, but only thanks to the extraordinary work made by Felipão, who picked Verdão 8 points behind the top of the table. An amazing run of 22 undefeated games saw Palmeiras grab the title with considerable margin while reaching semi-finals on Cup and Libertadores. The impressive financial capacity of the club made it possible for the squad not to lose a single player while adding some exciting new names to an already strong squad. Of those new players, Ricardo Goulart is the one expected to have a quicker and more significant impact. Having more than two highly competent players for each position (squad has 31 “first team” players) the biggest weapon of the team is their ability to rest players for fun. The big number of players can also bring some problems: some high pedigree players may feel they should be playing more (Lucas Lima, Hyoran and Moisés, for example); togetherness and routine-plays may be weakened with so much rotation going on. Scolari has been accused of setting up the team to play in a very conservative style, which can bring problems against tactically astute teams. The quality of the strikers may not match that of the rest of the team.