So I thought since this is a new blog I have to introduce new things! This time I think it would be great to grade the players this year on their overall performance, and write a little bit about who they are, how they played, so fourth and so on. I will start with the GK and work my way up to the striker! Hopefully I don’t miss any players! Cheers!

Goal Keeper’s:

Bruno Varela: Where to start with this kid, you know it actually hurts being so tough on him cause you know he is a Benfica kid from his heart, had a great spell at Setubal last year and see him play the way he did was bad. His situation really showed the power of playing for Benfica, it is a lot of pressure, I feel for him, none the less, let’s get to it. Slow Reactions time, Poor IQ, no voice as a GK, iffy with his feet, hesitant, folds under pressure. Countless times we saw BV going out to punch a cross or catch an over head ball with no confidence and with buttery fingers, he was disaster coming out and it costed us in games and made a our defense lose its confidence in him. He is very hesitant coming out on one-ones, noticeably against Tondela vs Cardoso goal, he needs the tomatoes to make split decisions. Poor GK, cost as a lot of Points. My over all grade is 3/10. Harsh or not it is my opinion and he is a big part of a rutting season we had.

Mile Svilar: The next Preud’homme in looks or skill? I am only joking we know he has the potential, the kid is great he is, a little to young, regardless he needs playing time, curious to see what SLB do, loan perhaps? Shaky, shaky, shaky, he is to young to be playing for Benfica in a starting role, noticeable against Man Utd, although bad call on RV to throw him in in his first CL outing. 10 goals conceded in 9 games is tough. Kid has flashes of skill reaction times and what not, but to young. Needs to develop! 5/10.

Ruben Dias: This years big revelation has got to be RD! Wow! Look we all saw this video last year of him using his voice as a captain at 18 or 19 years old. He looked and sounded like a veteran! Amazing performances for a promoted player in his position. Strong in the air, mind you 4 goals in 31 apps, amazing for the kid. Very mature and man does he look like a futures Bruno Alves/ Pepe! Fodas ele e duro! Tactically off the balls he cuts a lot of potential passing plays and on the 1-1s he is almost unbeaten, a real stopper. Love the kid, hope he stays. 8.5/10.

Jardel: Jardel had a decent season, nothing standout, but decent. He played his part in our success with his experience and maturity. Solid base not someone you want to go head to head with in the air with he will come out on top. Great on the 1-1s not the greatest in space although his speed surprisingly covers for that. Implements authority in his size, look if he stays another season or two, I might not complain. 34 starts 2 goals and 4 assists I mean you can’t ask anything more, very good. Greatful for him on Benfica. 7/10.

Luisao: Being 24 years old I look at the old guy and think shit this is my Idol, this is the name I remember as a kid and today as an adult. 15 years 20 trophies 2 runner’s up in Europa League. He has had a fantastic career, I understand this season was clearly not his at all. 24 games in total 16 in the liga his numbers are down, he is slowing down (literally, no legs!) It’s time for him to take the back seat for good. He can’t jump he cant run he can’t be physical. I understand his mind and IQ are there but age does catch up. His last two feats have been horrendous, but it is what it is. Would like for him to play one more year as a bench coach, paulo lopes style.. But after next year it’s time he takes a break. Love him, forever will. Pitty season but maybe next year he will go out on a high as a champion! 6.5/10.

Alex Grimaldo: You know what him Zivko and Cervi all looked amazing on the left side. rimaldo is great crosser and passer. He can definitely link up amazing with the midfield and with the attack, very good at 1,2’s as he is a sneaky quick guy. His defending aspect seem to drop a bit this year at least the second half of the season, I guess when you play with a bad GK you tend to over think things,seemed quite poor on return back to D (no motivations). None the less played his role, would like to see him leave and prosper else where, an injury liability to note. 37 games 1 goal and 5 assists to his name, would like a little more, but I won’t complain. 7.3/10.

Eliseu: Well I’m sure most Benfiquista’s will say thanks but your time is up. He has always been sound but age is also catching up to him, amazing he got a chance to play for his Portuguese team. He has brought us lots of joy with his thunderous goals and moped riding celebrations, but Eliseu like the rest needs to give his spot to younger players to prosper. Played only 12 games this season, it hurts to see him disappear, but it is time, barely saw him on the pitch. 4/10.

Andre Almeida: Average at best as a right back on the plus side in my opinion though. Look defending he is just average he isn’t garbage but isn’t great he does just enough and actually this year many would argue at the beginning of the season he was most consistent player. He gets up the field but it is like he plays with two left feet, just a disaster on the 1 on 1’s. Mind you he does get back when he loses it and always hustles his heart for 90mins. Versatile player due to be able to use both feet (Ruben Amorim type). Nothing special though, great bench player for next year. What stands out to me is he scored a thunderous goal by accident for sure and had 7 out of 8 assists in the liga. Great number for a right back. Shows who he is, and of course 40 games for him which is a huge number for AA. Solid season this year. 7/10.

Douglas: Why did we pick him up, he had no future at Barca why would we take him. DEFENSIVE LIABILITY to the max, always out of posistion, can’t cover in space nor 1-1’s , bad defender. Getting up the pitch however is a different story you can clearly tell this guy was meant for a winger. Loves dribbling up can deliver decent crosses and can get off shots, dude is not a RB best of success in the future if he is to continue as a RB he needs to watch a lot of Right Back film. 4/10

Fejsa: What a piece most teams would take, as a Benfiquista you know the absolute value Fejsa brings to the squad. Recovering balls, stand up tackles, aerial positioning, passing, IQ, maturity, defensive capabilities, everything you could ask for in your number 6. A glorified Javi Garcia with much more to offer. Humble as can be and hard worker. Another stand out performance this year, the only down to his game is doesn’t shoot. He isn’t at all the kind of player. He is however how the Portuguese would say “Um Bicho”, on top of looking like a thug he is every always all over the pitch and on top of player putting preasure to get the ball or cause a mistake. It’s like they say “O passa a bola, O passa O jogador, mas nunca os dois!” and this statement is so true about him, deserves more love from the fans. 35 games just over 3000 minutes, 4th per goal point in disarms p90m with 3.8, 1st in possession recovery with 8.96 p90m. Just a great player this year. 9/10.

Andreas Samaris: To be honest a liability at the position he is asked to play to much of risk to recover the ball, he will almost every time cause a foul and it is almost a guaranteed yellow or dangerous free kick for the apposing team. Look he has a great long ball and is very physical a great enforcer. Not tactically there at least not for Benfica, disappointing. As an 8 he has most freedom to run around make runs and passing plays, but nothing spectacular, needs to be sold. 5.5/10.

Pizzi: Ugh this was a tough season for Pizzi, it seemed him being asked to play in a three person midfield was a tough task. Then again last season was stand out for him. This year he just seemed a little bit lost in terms of how to construct a proper attacking play, I saw no confidence of him dribbling into the 18yard box to create danger no deadly 1-2’s that he does so well, nothing. He was more coasting in the middle making safe passes running around to open space but never went more than that. He played 45 games this year 6 goals and 12 assists, I mean he had a meh season and was one of the most played guys, but this year was a disappointment. 6.5/10.

Zivkovic: This guy right here has got to have the most potential out of Benfica’s current squad, something about him you can feel he thinks and plays with a certain confidence the team lacks. Zivkovic is a start player, this year he was asked to play in a number 8/10 roles and he succeeded. He has great passing, shooting, crossing, technical ability and is very pacey. 21 years old with so much in front of him. To put things in perspective he was Partizan’s youngest captain at 17 (an honor) and Serbia’s U-20 World Cup champion as well as the captain! He is very mature for his age and is someone Benfica must give a starting spot to either in the middle or on the wing. Great player this year, 30 games, 3 goals, & 6 assists sounds like a great season from someone being asked to play a whole new position. Goal Point had him ranked 4th in effective passing at midfield p90m with 30.3 & ranked 2nd behind Pizzi in effective passing in the oppositions third with 16.8 passes p90m, an incredible stat! Defensively if he plays the position he needs to tract back some more and cut out passing lanes, also he does have tendency’s to be a ball hog, but then again aren’t all natural wingers ball hogs? Look he got great ratings at GoalPoint and with reason an amazing year for him. 8.75/10.

Krovinovic: Next year he is a starting midfielder without question, I’m almost positive he was our best player for like a month straight, he was able to string about 5 or 8 games there where we saw brilliance. Vision, passing, tenacity, creativeness, stop on a dime, turning around players. Krovinovic this year really showed us fans what we can expect from him next year, hope he is healthy! We were able to get 19 games from him as well as 2 goals and an assists but left the fans thirsty for me, curious to see more from him next year! 7/10.

Franco Cervi: What a stand out year for him throughout the first 25 games or so, we really saw a much versatile version of him than we did last year. This year he got 10 assists in which 9 where in the liga, those are numbers I like along with 3 out of 4 goals in the liga he scored, great stat line. He is also a workhorse and runs up and down the field to help on defense, probably tires himself out too much as you can always see around the 65′ mark he slows down quite a bit, none the less he comes with sprints when needed. Towards the end he really started to slow down, he gave his all a lot through out the beginning. Great player this year, fantastic passing, technically advanced, great one on one skill. Vision is awesome, would like for him to be a bit more greedy in front of goal and touch up his finishing. 8./10

Diogo Goncalves: Played 13 games in total for us, clearly has much to learn as a player. Solid passing, pace, & shooting. Perhaps a future Guedes? Anything is Possible! Scored a couple as well this year, you could argue he actually played well individually in the champions league. Hope to see more from him in the future “next year” he has a lot to offer. 5/10.

Eduardo Salvio: Hey guys look 26 gp with 9 goals and 6 assists, you couldnt ask for more from Salvio. Most teams would take him as a starting winger. Fantastic technical ability, great crossing and passing, experienced, tracks back. Complete winger, had a solid season, but then again he is injury prone. Regardless I would like to offload him this year while we can still get value for him, not that I don’t like him it is time for new, pull a Gaitan and make some mulah else where! 8/10.

Rafa Silva: Hey many doubted him, but he came through, I been a Rafa enforcer since the day he got here. He had a fantastic season when playing this year the first couple games were shaky but he pulled through was arguably a star player for a few weeks in a row. Listen Rafa is pure pace he has a way of getting in behind defenders chasing the ball in space, one – on – one technical ability, passing. He has been great, most noticeable game was against Sporting in the sense he hit the post twice and caused nothing but major headaches to Picinni and Co, what an assest to have. Let him work on finishing this summer and you better believe we have ourselves a starter (wishful thinking). Some stats for you, in 20 liga games he came out with 3 goals and 5 assists, some ok numbers, will be looking for more next year. 8.5/10.

Raul Jimenez: The Mexican did not disappoint this year, until he started playing as a starter… This year he played a total of 43 games 33 coming from the liga with 6 goals and 7 assists to add to his name. As a striker scoring only 6 goals is very disappointing and we wanted more as he was only coming off the bench, he got his chance as soon as Jonas went out Injured and failed to perform. We works hard is a workhorse but nothing comes out of that all 90 minutes. Very disappointing. He loves to track back and pick up play, solid in the air, but you often see him playing as a winger and that is definitely where he should not be, in any case. Benfica should off load him this summer I would prefer to get something out of him so we can splash toward a better striker. Solid season for the most part. 7/10.

Haris Seferovic: Look man why did we pick up a player who has never asserted him self on a team and can’t score consistently, hell last year he didn’t even score. This guy was supposed to be the next big thing, ffs he was useless all year. I don’t care if he scored a couple important goals (CHAVES) but fuck this guy. He comes in starts playing as a winger, RV fault? We got rid of a sound striker who could give you 12-20 goals in a season for this mofo, who was useless. Damn man. Look he has a decent power kicking, long balls, and aerial ability, but no, I didn’t like his effort on the pitch. Much more he has to prove to be considered good. Featured in 20 liga games 4 goals and 2 assist. Poor, poor, poor. As a player he has to go and we have to find someone else. Sorry for the rant. 5.5/10.

Jonas: Was it just me or was he the only reason we even got to second place? I feel bad for his back. Look for real Jonas once again in a Benfica shirt had a standout season, in 41 games he had 37 goals (34 in the liga) and 6 assists (all in liga), this guy was a dream for us. He is pure class even for the sweet tender age of 34. He comes back to play in the midfield and distribute play, great game IQ, vision, passing, long palls, through balls, attack positioning, he has it all. On top of that he is a classy and a member of the boys friendliest guy in the squad. Appreciate all he does for Benfica, will be someone Benfica will talk about for years to come. Great season, deserved more. Problem..? Why is he injured and no one ever know what it is…ugh. 9/10.

Season round up: Look we tried and failed simple as that, need to splash the cash. This year we were not champions, but I believe next year will be very different with that being said positions we need:

Goal Keeper, Centre Back, Left & Right back, Defensive mid, Winger? , & a Striker.

With that being said Benfica in my opinion needs to off load the following; Varela, Eliseu, Grimaldo, Samaris, Pizzi, Salvio, Jimenez, & Seferovic. Harsh perhaps, yes, will it happen definitely not. The reason I say Pizzi is because he had a poor season never showed up, we can give Krovinovic his place who is a lot more hungry to play and brings something different to the game. I prefer to see Rafa start over Salvio seems a lot more dangerous and let him work on his finishing, also Salvio can help bring some Euros alongside Pizzi to the club. Grimaldo is too injury prone and I would rather see a Portuguese player given the opportunity to shine (Yuri Ribeiro) and someone else to compete with him. Andre Almeida got to comfortable playing at RB and his form dropped we need someone to give him real competition. Luisao is old and Jardel has another year or two left in the tank, Ruben Dias is a great fit and shall we look at Ferro this year? Loads of Potential (and Portuguese). Look Fejsa won’t last forever and I am sure he would like to end his career else where earning some more cash, we will need a replacement in the next year or two for him is Pele worth a shot? Look we also need someone to fill in for Samaris or do we give B team guys a go? Martin Chrien? J. Carvalho? Gedson? Lots of names in the B team . Seferovic was a disaster experiment, someone new stronger more will power. Lots of names been talked about over the media, can’t wait to see what comes about! Bruno Varela man was a shock disappointment I think most Benfiquistas would say, the poor guy couldnt handle the pressure…13 clean sheets only? For Benfica that is not acceptable. We picked up a guy named Odisseas Vlachodimos, let us see what he brings to the table. Hopefully more than BV, still need one more to occupy bench as Svilar has to be loaned out for game time experience. Jimenez as much as most might disagree I just havent been a huge fan of his,he has come through at times but this season played as a starter a few times and disappointed. Think we can bring in more efficient guys.

Looks guys just a shhhpiel on the season, hope you enjoy feel free to comment and argue, love a good conversation! Will be back soon talking about some new transfers and what not! Vive o Benfica!

“Benfica Till Death”