After the good previous season, Chaves called the former Rio Ave gaffer Luís Castro in order to give the team a pleasant, attacking football identity. It took a while for Chaves to settle in into the new ideas. By the time the league reached its fifth round, Chaves had only collected one point out of possible fifteen. The promise for an attracting football became a threat of being a complete failure of a choice, and by the tenth round Chaves was struggling in the near relegation position.
However, ‘Flavienses’ would then went into a great series of resuts: eight consecutive games without losing, 18 points out of a possible 24. That moment was in complete contrast to the one that Chaves would be passing thorugh during the rounds 25 and 30: only two points collected in 18 possible. The place on the first 7 was in dangerous. But a god final part of the season allowed Flavienses to establish themselves as the 6th best team of the season, much thanks to a very inconsistent Marítimo side during most of the second half of the season.
Luís Castro took then some time to get his ideas absorbed by the squad. But when the players started to understand the new approach Castro had brought to Chaves, things started to roll.
Matheus Pereira arrived on loan from Sporting and after a quiet start the flamboyant left-footed winger started to be absolutely decisive, as most of the relevant attacking plays from ‘Flavienses’ starred Matheus somehow. The centre-halves duo played also an important part on Chaves success, and particularly the debutant in Portuguese league Nikola Maras whose performances caught the attention of the big teams on the country. Pedro Tiba and Bressan formed an interesting duo in the centre of the pitch, with ones energy and intensity of Tiba complemented the more cerebral and technical Byelorussian. Youngster Stephan Eustáquio arrived in January and didn’t find a place on the first team at first, as Jefferson was doing well as chaves anchorman. With time, and particularly during this last rounds of the season, Eustáquio got his place on the starting lineup. It was not a long time, but it was certainly time enough to see how talented the Portuguese U-21 international is.
