Frango Fest vs Valencia and Pre-season Evaluation

Well another poor result, but the most important thing is to analise the result within the totality of contextual circumstances:
1. The team played its 4th game in 5 days, plus travelling from Portugal to Switzerland, travelling within Switzerland, then flying to England.  Over fatigue.
2. Artur is unfortunately still on the team and at least 2 of the goals were infantile save attempts and totally his fault.
3. Luisao, Lisandro - our two starting central defenders did not play at all and are recovering from injury; same goes for Pizzi; Enzo Perez has yet to debut for the squad.
4. Its preseason and the objectives are not to win, but to train and evaluate new talent.

Its becoming clearer that Benfica must not allow Enzo or Gaitan to be sold.  It seems JJ is giving more playing time to Candeias - a far inferior player to Ivan Cavaleiro - which suggests Ivan is on his way out.  Luis Felipe is a disaster, he has been training for a month and played in most of the games and if he had any quality at all, he would have showed some of it by now.  He needs to go. Not the best game for Teixeira but I don't think JJ should give up on him.  He has talent and works hard and will improve over the year despite getting little playing time.  More positive signs from Derley and Bebe.

After the game JJ stated that the team is waiting for 3 more signings - a keeper, a forward and a defensive midfielder.  It is somewhat baffling why these signings have not yet occurred one week from the start of the official season.  This President is deserving of harsh criticism for not knowing how to plan a preseason.  The moment the previous season ended they should have defined who would or could be sold, who would be brought in for sure and who would be brought in as contingency to replace unforeseen exits.  A simple conversation one on one with each of the players that they knew would be subject to inviting offers would have shed much light on the situation.

The club continues to engage in a practice of spending more money on 2 or 3 mediocre players for a position as opposed to spending less for a proven one.  I think Benfica needs to sell 5 to 8 of their marginal players instead of repeating the game of loaning musical chairs every year.  They have too many athletes on the payroll and constantly being loaned out.  The Djavan fiasco is an embarrassment.

I believe the Coach is doing the best he can with the hand he has been dealt.  And make no mistake, I think the squad is still extremely strong and will kickoff the next two official games with resounding wins.  The starting lineup that Benfica promises to present will be exceptional.  Yes it will be missing Siqueira, Garay, Rodrigo and Markovic.  But it will include Eliseu, Lisandro, Derley and Salvio.  The keeper position remains unresolved but I expect that our new keeper will be signed in the next day or two and will start against Rio Ave.  The starting lineup that Benfica will present at this point should have as much quality as the one last year.  The bench may not be as strong at this point but more signings are expected.

Supporters are overreacting to the importance of pre-season results.  This pre-season has been productive.  It has shown us a few things:

A) there is a group of players that clearly have no legitimate place on this roster - to name a few: Bernardo Silva, Nelson Oliveira, Candeias, Luis Felipe, Sidnei, Artur

B) there are some that have shown good potential and will clearly improve with time and daily work: Benito, Cancelo, Teixeira, Derley, Bebe, Talisca

C) That retaining Luisao, Maxi, Salvio, Ruben, Andre Almeida, Ola John, Jardel, Lima, Sulejmani, Gaitan, Enzo - has now become imperative to assist the transition of the new players into the system without calamity.  Keeping this base is now fundamental because of the number of players that left.  Keeping this stable core group will elevate the baseline performance of the team and make it easier for new players to substitute in when needed without having a total collapse.

D) There are still unknowns but those unknowns are likely to be very positive.  For example - Pizzi had a great season in La Liga.  He is a versatile player who can strengthen the team at various positions.  The identity of the new Keeper is unknown but he can only be better than Artur - a player I have long claimed responsible for the disaster at the end of the season in 2013.  The attacker and midfielder that will be signed will be of top quality.  The club made a lot of money with sales this offseason, it had a good look at the players they signed, promoted and returned off loan and knows what its needs are.  Now that they had a good look, the diagnosis is complete and they know what they need and have the money they need to sign them.  The exit of Cardozo and expected sale of several marginal players this week will only bolster the money available to make such signings.  It should be emphasized that the sale of Cardozo not only brings in 6 million euros, but also relieves the club of his large salary.  So while these two players at this point are unknown (as to their identity), we can be sure they will not be Luis Felipe type of bums.  They will be excellent players.  That means the team will only be strengthened.

E) That the club seemingly engaged in strategic signings.  That is, while the signings of Djavan and Candeias don't seem to make sense, I think they were signed so that Sporting could not sign them.  This way the club controls who and where they will play.  If that is the case, they were probably smart moves. This info was suggested by a source close to lawyer David Dasilva but no club confirmation of it yet.