U-19 Alcobaça Tournament

Apparently the Back-4 had David Santos and Tiago Pinto on the Defensive flanks (Pinto on the left IMO) and the Centre-Back pairing of Daniel Carriço and Marco Lança.

A midfield trio (of a 4-3-3) with João Martins possibly as DM and João Gonçalves and André Pires as "Insides".

3 forwards with Paim and Alisson flanking Ricardo Nogueira in the middle.

That sounds like a strong team, most of them 2nd year Juniors. Sebastião (Nogueira?), Adrien (Silva?), Bruno Matias and André Santos also came on as subs.

Anyway, with that initial XI Luis Martins seems certain to maintain a 4-3-3 (4-1-2-3) structure this season as well although as RMP has speculated they don't seem to have a pure Defensive Midfielder and have to adapt João Martins or André Pires to that position.
In 05/06 in the closing rounds of the Championship the midfield trio had Zezinando as DM and João Martins and Pedro Celestino as "Insides" with Martins clearly more worried about assisting Zezinando in defensive duties and Celestino more of a withdrawn playmaker trying to build passing lines for the forward trio (Pereirinha, Caiado, Diogo Tavares) so defensive duties aren't new to João Martins altough he's not really a DM, he's more of a Maniche/Raul Meireles type 2nd DM than a positional DM like Costinha or Custódio.

It seems Chelsea (and Atlético Madrid) will be present at next year's tournament so maybe Ricardo Fernandes and Fábio Ferreira will pay us a little visit.



André