Braga had some moments of very strong level, but failed to be consistent over the season and ended up in the “usual” 4th place.
When Carlos Carvalhal was appointed and a couple of promising new signings were made, there were hopes that Braga could be doing some real damages on the traditional hierarchy of the league. For some moments that was even the case, but not always.
After two initial defeats, ‘Arsenalistas’ went on to a very decent first part of season, ending it on the 3rd place, with just 3 defeats from round 3 to 17.
However, a couple of bad results between March and April sent Braga away from the top 3, and the team seemed conformed with their condition to a point that they were less than competitive in the final weeks, giving away too many cheap points.
The team seemed to have handled very badly with the busy schedule of the last couple of months. Musrati’s Ramadan period was also damaging, right when the Libyan midfielder was at his best moment of form. Paulinho’s departure was also damaging, as a few major injuries like that of Gaitan, Iuri Medeiros or Raúl Silva were.
As usual Ricardo Horta and Ricardo Esgaio were highly influential, while Galeno raised his importance on the left wing as the season went on. Fransérgio was unstable, but particularly good when at his best. However, Musrati was the most important unit of the squad, during the season.
There are good expectations on what will Braga do with Carvalhal on his second year at the helm.
