The São Paulo team hasn't had good results in recent years, so how can Santos improve and become one of the greats again in 2023?

With the team's worst season in the decade, the group needs, above all, restructuring, to have a better position next year.

With an unstable performance in recent campaigns, the Santos team faces a difficult phase. 

So check out what the team needs to do to return to the top, and how the latest campaign will affect the club.

In 2022, the Santos team had the worst place in the Brasileirão after 13 years. The Paulista team hadn't been so low in the table since 2009, when they still had the talents Neymar and Ganso, the club was in 12th.

Even in 2021, when they fought a few rounds to stay out of the relegation zone, the club recovered and came in 10th.

The team's position in the Brasileirão only guarantees a prize pool of approximately R$ 18 million. 

If the team had achieved at least the position achieved in the previous year, it would have received a much higher amount.

In other words, the team's current performance directly influences the financial part.

Furthermore, the team will not compete in the Libertadores, another competition with high prizes that will be left out of the club's plans.

The bad phase will consequently impact the team's coffers, and something needs to be done to avoid creating a snowball!

At least, the team will be able to compete in the Copa Sudamericana to try to mitigate the losses.

Check out the list of Peixe's placements in the Brazilian championship in recent years:

As we can see, Santos was maintaining good positions and having good campaigns.

In 2019, they almost won the Brazilian Championship, second only to Flamengo.

In the 2020 Libertadores, he had an incredible trajectory in the competition, reaching the final, even though he lost, it was a positive campaign.

The team wasn't winning titles, but it was always close. So what happened to Peixe to make its performance drop so much?

Since the beginning of the Campeonato Paulista, the team demonstrated fragility in the squad, starting with the fight to not be relegated in this competition.

After that, in the Brasileirão the team also presented tactical difficulties from the first rounds. 

As if life wasn't already difficult for the fish, the elimination of the Sul-Americana was the last straw that led to one of the club's biggest problems, the incessant change of coaches.

Starting the 2022 season, Fábio Carille arrives, who played 27 games in charge of the club before being released. He managed to win 37 of the 81 possible points in the Brasileirão.

After him, Fabián Bustos was hired, who also lasted a few games, 29. Afterwards, Marcelo Fernandes was hired as an interim, until the arrival of coach Lisca, who was in charge for just 8 games.

The last coach of the season was Orlando Ribeiro, but Santos no longer had many chances of recovering. And it was more to help the team meet the schedule than to try to make a big splash.

Furthermore, the signing of expensive players, who gave little performance like Bryan Angulo, made it difficult for the club to try to reestablish itself.

There were other signings, such as Maicon, Luan, Carabajal, Soteldo, Jhojan Julio, Nathan, Rodrigo Fernández, Auro and Eduardo Bauermann.

But few of the reinforcements were effective, as the team continued to perform poorly.

Therefore, the problem is not in the football department. Several changes were made, coaches, players. 

So what does Santos need to do to return to the elite?

Hiring an experienced coach capable of handling pressure. This would be an extremely important measure for the team to get off to a good start for the 2023 season.

It's not normal for a team to have to go through five coaches in the same season.

One of the club president's targets is former RB Bragantino coach, Maurício Barbieri.

In addition to the coach, the Santos team needs to be more careful in their signings, and target players who achieve good performance.

The previous year, one of the highest salaries was for the player, Bryan Angulo, who only played 24 times, and scored just five goals.

Remembering that, due to last year's bad campaign, the club will have to operate with a reduced budget.

In other words, you will have to make fewer mistakes when hiring to maintain good financial health.

So, getting the contractions right will be another necessary measure for Santos to be able to re-establish himself among the greats of Brazilian football.

Many players will leave Vila this year, Luan will return to Corinthians, Jhojan Julio returns to LDU, Auro will go to Toronto and Madson, whose contract is at the end, will also not be renewed and is leaving, finally, Bruno Oliveira should also return to the team where went out on loan.

With this stampede, the path is to reformulate the team. Santos needs to take advantage of this moment to clean up the house. 

Make good hires and restructure the team to be able to return to being a competitive team.

With these measures, it is possible that the fish will return to the elite of Brazilian football, who knows, next year it will be able to qualify again for the Libertadores and alleviate the pressure due to the team's bad phase.

Now that you know the path for the club to return to being one of the greats in Brazilian football. Check out Felipão's secret in command of Athletico Paranaense, and how he is looking to win the Libertadores da América cup.