High production does not guarantee victory and Botafogo suffers a draw at home

In a busy game on Wednesday night (18), Botafogo drew with São Paulo, despite being dominant mainly in the first half. They did not convert the chances they had into goals, and raised a big question about their performance on the field.

Since Artur Jorge arrived in April, Botafogo's attack has improved. The coach already attracted attention when he coached Braga, from Portugal, for his team's high intensity and constant search for goals. This was one of the factors that led the owner of SAF Botafogo, John Textor, to hire him, and since then, in 39 games, he has won 23, drawn 9 and lost 7.

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_{Botafogo in celebration (Photo: reproduction/GettyImages/Ruano Carneiro)}

Arrival of Artur Jorge

The team had been playing terrible football on the field and was psychologically shaken by the abrupt decline last season. Led by Tiago Nunes, the team's performance was very low, and the coach was criticized for his tactics and lack of goals, and was fired. In his place was the interim coach Fábio Matias, who managed to regain the players' confidence and qualification for the group stage of the Libertadores. Under his command, there were 10 games, 8 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. Shortly after the defeat to Junior Barranquilla, he was fired and the Portuguese coach arrived at the club.

His debut was in the defeat to LDU, in the second round of the Libertadores. There, it was already clear how his work would progress, in theory playing in a 4-4-2. With four attacking players up front, the impression was that the team would be left without a midfielder. However, during the game, the wingers often drop to the middle to help the midfield, and when they come out, the first defensive midfielder becomes a third defender to help rebuild. Thus, the full-backs also have a lot of freedom to help out with the defensive midfielders.

In addition to the formation changing to a 4-3-3, Almada's arrival helps this formation, creating good combinations with the players up front. With the freedom to play as a number 10 and playing wide on the left, he often swaps positions with Savarino, who played in this role before the Argentine's arrival. Due to the injury of the season's top scorer, Junior Santos, the coach readapted his system.

_{Thiago Almada playing for Botafogo (Photo:reproduction/Jorge Rodrigues/AGIF)}

High intensity in attack

The team offers many chances to score goals offensively. Since he took over, the attack has created the most chances by finishing of all the teams in Série A this year. Botafogo needs 7.67 to reach the goal, so much so that it is currently the best attack with 45 goals in the Brasileirão, not just in the national competition. In the Libertadores, for example, during the group stage at home, they won 6-0 against Aurora, and already showed an attack with great potential.

The collective also draws attention. Even players who come on in the second half come on and help the team. One standout is Igor Jesus, who arrived in the middle of the year and quickly became a starter, with 6 goal contributions. Luis Henrique, recently called up to the Brazilian National Team, and Savarino, who plays for Venezuela, are other standouts in the black and white attack.

One criticism that some have been making is the high productivity, but without actually converting it into goals. This was evident in the last three games, in which against São Paulo, Corinthians and Fortaleza, there were 64 shots, four goals scored, with an average of one goal for every 16 attempts. In an interview after the game, Artur Jorge was emphatic. “Today the problem we had was because we had a team that came looking for just that, to defend the result, to play with 11 men behind”, he stated.

Botafogo's next duel will be next Saturday (21) against Fluminense, at Maracanã, for the Brazilian Championship, and the focus is to maintain the leadership of the competition.

Featured photo: Luis Henrique in action (Photo: reproduction/Vitor Silva/Botafogo)