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 dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Vinícius Viana was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Vitória dressing room was either.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Erick is on it.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Atlético Mineiro? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Luan Cândido’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Vitória needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Caíque Gonçalves has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vitória is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Vinícius Viana, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Zé Marcos is on it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vitória this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
6 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Bahia were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Emanuel Brítez has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
17 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Vitória can tell you which week it ends in.
Emmanuel Martínez 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.
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Vinícius Viana after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Bragantino? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Nobody at Vitória will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
The dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Francisco
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Cruzeiro left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout24 Aug 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 0‑1 Vinícius Viana left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Erick is on it.
Bragantino next, and one man in the Vitória dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Andrei has agreed terms with ABC for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Vitória they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Marinho 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Cristiano Pacheco has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Cristiano Machado has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vinícius Tavares has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Márcio Carvalho has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vitória this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
12 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“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.
Still no offer on the table, and Pedro Henrique’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Vitória have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.