Indepth Analysis: Nuno Espirito Santo

Indepth Analysis: Nuno Espirito Santo

Nuno Herlander Simoes Espirito Santo was born in Sao Tome in 1974, during his professional career he played as a goalkeeper playing for clubs such as; Vitoria, Deportivo, Porto and Dynamo Moscow. He spent quite a bit of time on the bench, this allowed him to gain knowledge and insight into the management side of the game. His main influencer and mentor was Jesualdo Ferreira, he followed him to Malaga and Panathinaikos as part of his technical staff. Nuno speaks of him in very high regard once saying "With him I understood that it isn't just about the relationship between eleven players but, about triangle connections both in defence and attack. Everything in the game is based on triangles and how positionally balanced they are".

Nuno doesn't have a set tactic but keeps basic principles that he uses at each club. He does however change and adapt his tactics to suit the players he has. For example at Rio Ave he led the team to its first Europa League campaign and to two cup finals the following season. He did this by using a counter-attacking style that benefited his fast wingers that he had at his disposal, he also had a young Jan Oblak in goal.

Then he moved onto Valencia, experimenting with different formations but favouring a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3, he also used a 3-5-2 at times most notably in a 2-1 home win over Real Madrid. One of the things that his team did against teams like Real was man-mark, disrupting the oppositions play and making it hard to get into their flow. His team kept the ball but he tried to avoid what he called 'fruitless possession' making sure that his team was always moving the ball quickly and that they were 'intense and penetrative'. He got his team moving the ball quickly, mostly through wide play using wing-backs Jose Gaya and Antonio Barragan and their combinations with the wingers. This was their key way of creating chances during his reign. The midfield was mainly used for recycling the ball back out to the wings with one of the midfielders always dropping deeper to link up with the defence. After leading Valencia to a fourth place finish in the 14/15 season, Nuno's contract was terminated after a shaky start to the following campaign.

Next Nuno moved onto Porto where he was under even more pressure to succeed, he was also forced to create a game plan to break down the deep blocks that the other teams in the division deployed against his team. His first plan was to use a single forward and possession play although, this led to many draws despite creating a high volume of chances. He then decided to develop a more simplified 4-4-2 tactic that focused on the striking partnership of Andre Silva and Soares, the team became slightly boring to watch as they focused more on long balls forward although this made them dangerous from crosses. They were the highest scoring team from crosses in the league.

At Wolves Nuno has returned to his style of fast, quick passing football, developing a 3-4-3 system that is similar to what he used at Valencia except the deep-lying midfielder is now an actual defender although he serves that same purpose on the ball. The striker is also the main outlet for hold up play as seen during his time at Porto. Instead of playing 3 central midfielders as he did at Valencia he now only plays two and allows them to sit deeper, this gives his wingers or 'inside forwards' more freedom in possession as the know that they have protection from the two central players.

Constantly evolving his style and receptive to new ideas, Nuno and his team will definitely be the ones to watch this season as the make the step up into the Premier League

Written By Stefan Wray.