Carlos Vicens Tactics At SC Braga 2025/2026: A Manchester City-Moulded Pep Guardiola Disciple In Portugal – Tactical Analysis
The 2025/2026 campaign was SC Braga's first under Pep Guardiola disciple Carlos Vicens, who spent eight years making his way through the Manchester City system at various levels, from youth team coach to Guardiola's assistant manager with the first team.
From a results perspective, SC Braga experienced a season of both strong performances and disappointing setbacks.
They reached the Taça da Liga Final, where they were defeated by Vitória SC, and were eliminated in the Taça de Portugal quarter-finals by Fafe.
In European competition, Braga's journey ended in the UEFA Europa League semi-finals against SC Freiburg.
Domestically, they finished fourth in Liga Portugal, while also standing out statistically as the team with the highest average ball possession in the competition.
In this tactical analysis, we will break down Carlos Vicens tactics in the 2025/2026 campaign.
Braga Attacking Tactics 2025/2026
Low Build-Up Tactics
From goal-kicks, Braga build in an asymmetrical structure.
The left centre-back moves wider to occupy the left full-back zone, allowing the left wing-back to position himself higher up the pitch.
On the opposite side, the right wing-back remains deeper, operating more like a traditional right full-back during the initial phase of build-up.
Further forward, Carlos Vicens organises the team into a square-shaped midfield structure, with the two deeper midfielders forming the base and two advanced attacking players positioned between the lines at the top.
At the same time, one attacker stays higher alongside the advanced wing-back, stretching the opposition’s defensive line vertically and creating more space between units.
Against Betis, Braga showed a different variant.
Austrian midfielder Florian Grillitsch dropped deeper and became a key figure in the build-up.
In this phase, Braga showed clear positional rotations while maintaining the same principles: two attackers dropping to connect play, one staying higher to provide depth, and the wing-backs positioned high and wide to stretch the opposition.
In this phase, the goalkeeper often positions himself as an additional centre-back, allowing the defensive line to shift and adjust accordingly to create better angles and numerical superiority.
