Marked for Laércio
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 26. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match28 Nov 2026
No end in sight to Moreirense's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Moreirense has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Kiko Bondoso and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Moreirense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexandre Duville-Parsemain is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to André Ferreira, and the manager let it.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
No place in the plan for Laércio
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
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Player ratings
Benny changes it off the bench
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Squad
The room hears from Maracás
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Player ratings
The whistle followed João Veloso around
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Nov 2026
Kiko Bondoso in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Moreirense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Maracás gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Match7 Nov 2026
0‑2 to Braga, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Juan Teles and Moreirense agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Moreirense are still strangers to each other
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The plan did not have a place for Laércio
Nobody at Moreirense is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Oct 2026
7 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Match24 Oct 2026
5 matches without a win for Moreirense
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Moreirense are no longer polite ones.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Kiko Bondoso and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match24 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Moreirense
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Moreirense can tell you which week it ends in.
Match24 Oct 2026
Porto left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Álvaro Martínez
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Pedro Reis left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match17 Oct 2026
4 matches without a win for Moreirense
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Moreirense are no longer polite ones.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Kiko Bondoso was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match17 Oct 2026
Alverca left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Dodô signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Dodô commits to Moreirense for another 3 years.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Nile John
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad19 Oct 2026
No place for Dodô in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Moreirense are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Kiko Bondoso and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to João Veloso
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Marked 7.11 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Moreirense had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Half-satisfied: Pedro Reis on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Arouca will be the happier side with the point.
Market28 Sep 2026
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Alexandre Duville-Parsemain’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match19 Sep 2026
Moreirense strike at the death to beat AVS
There were 89 minutes on the clock and AVS had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Moreirense did not stop to explain themselves.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 30. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Kiko Bondoso was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Grasshopper have kept their man, and Moreirense go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match19 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win, and then this, against AVS. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Match19 Sep 2026
Three points for Moreirense, 1‑0 the final word against AVS in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Francisco Domingues was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.21. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
No hiding place for Laércio
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Laércio, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Pedro Reis could afford to be generous.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The clubs have shaken hands with San Jose Earthquakes; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Rio Ave wanted more than $2.2M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Kiko Bondoso and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad31 Aug 2026
The formation has left Laércio behind
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Moreirense will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
A loan move for Lee Young-Jun is in the works
Moreirense have made the call to Grasshopper. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Nobody on the pitch touched Dinis Pinto
7.05, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Moreirense had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.