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It's only been ten days since the first Benfica pre-season camp under Roger Schmidt and his staff came underway, but fans should be excited by their competency displayed thus far.
Constructing a squad for pre-season camp is rarely easy for a new manager, but it was a particularly tall task for Schmidt this year for three main reasons.
1. He inherited a bloated roster that was in need of improvements at nearly every position.
2. In the early days, he'd also be missing a handful of key players who were still on holiday after international duty in early June -- not to mention core midfield recruit Enzo Fernandez, who won't be reporting to Seixal until River Plate is knocked out of the Copa Libertadores, which could happen as soon as tonight or drag on to later rounds, forcing a January arrival.
3. If that wasn't enough, this group of players is still wrestling with a major identity crisis that contributed to Benfica's second consecutive season of no titles and a third place Liga finish.
Thankfully, Roger Schmidt hasn't come to play games.
He's come in and immediately hit the ground working with his staff. This collaboration isn't limited to the first team, but also includes working with B team manager Luís Castro, who was promoted to the position after guiding Benfica's U19 side to a commanding 6-0 win over Red Bull Salzburg in the UEFA Youth League final as they were crowned champions of Europe.
To the typical football fan, seeing the first-team and second-team managers work together to construct a shared vision and strategy that develops academy talent properly must sound like common sense...because it is.
But for Benfiquistas, that comes as a breath of fresh air and a sign of competence from the president's box down to the pitch -- something we haven't seen for quite some time.
Roger Schmidt's system and continued shaping of his squad should allow Benfica to truly begin 'a new era', as the club has constantly mentioned on its social channels.
Here's a breakdown of the pre-season squad from their first ten days of work.
Goalkeepers (3): Helton Leite, Samuel Soares, and André Gomes.
The obvious absence from this is last season's starter, Odysseas Vlachodimas, who is still on holiday after international duty. The additions of Soares (20 years old) and Gomes (17 years old) come as a pleasant surprise, as both have shown much promise in their time in Seixal.
The keeper position is one that many Benfica fans hope to see reinforced by a new signing soon, but one must wonder if Schmidt gained confidence in Helton Leite after his impressive performance on Matchday 34 against Paços de Ferreira. Leite has much to learn though, and a club like Benfica needs a top quality keeper if they'll be successful at home and in Europe.
Defenders (9): Gilberto, Alexander Bah, Morato, André Almeida, António Silva, Tomás Araújo, Alex Grimaldo, Mihailo Ristic, Lucas Veríssimo (medical recovery).
With last season's starting center back combinations unavailable due to holidays (Otamendi + Vertonghen) and injury, Roger Schmidt has called in some young guns on the back line. While Tomás Araújo did debut for the senior team last season under interim manager Nelson Veríssimo, 18-year old center back António Silva has yet to debut for the B team or the first team. However, both young men are incredibly composed with the ball at their feet.
During the end of last season, I had many questions on who the outside backs would be coming in camp. Would Grimaldo be sold? I thought it likely. Who would be brought in to play ahead of Gilberto at right back? Would Sandro Cruz get a shot at the first team?
Here we are, months later, and Benfica fans have answers, but only time will tell to see if Bah and Ristic have the quality that we expect them to have.
Midfielders (9): Julian Weigl, Paulo Bernardo, Florentino Luís, Soualiho Meïté, Martim Neto, Pizzi, Chiquinho, Gil Dias, Diogo Gonçalves.
The midfield is an area where Benfica squads have lacked identity over the last couple of seasons. Julian Weigl has been an obvious choice as a starter, but the rest of the center midfield partnership was, and still is, a major question mark that has prompted Schmidt to call in familiar faces that were out on loan, like Pizzi, Chiquinho, and Florentino.
After making their debuts with the first team last season, youngsters Paulo Bernardo and Martim Neto will also look to impress Schmidt and earn a starting spot by the season's end.
There are several obvious absences from this midfield group, with recent signing Enzo Fernandez, Adel Taarabt, and Gabriel Pires being the most obvious. While Gabriel is rumored to be sold to a Brazilian club any day now, Taarabt's future is less speculated, but many assume that he doesn't have the stamina required to play in Schmidt's Gegenpress-style system. Also missing is former Paços de Ferreira loanee, Nuno Santos, who had a great season on loan again, but didn't receive an invite to camp.
Looking back at this midfield over and over again, it's clear that Roger Schmidt and Rui Costa plan to make more changes before the season starts. The latest rumors have linked SC Braga superstar Ricardo Horta back to his boyhood club, although Braga's president António Salvador won't make negotiations simple for Rui Costa. Be it Horta or not, expect the club to bring in another winger or someone to play the #10 playmaker role.
Attackers (7): Henrique Araújo, Petar Musa, Rodrigo Pinho, Rafa Silva, David Neres, Tiago Gouveia, Diego Moreira.
If you asked me at this time last season, I wouldn't have guessed many of these players would be at the start of pre-season camp except for maybe Rafa Silva, depending on his holidays. The writing was on the wall for Darwin Núñez's blockbuster deal with Liverpool, but the striker position certainly doesn't lack depth at the moment with this team.
With Gonçalo Ramos and Roman Yaremchuk still on holiday and rumors of Haris Seferovic being sold, there are lots of options at the striker position. New addition Petar Musa made the most of his chances with Primeira Liga side Boavista, but there is still a sense of mystery around what fans across the Primeira Liga should be expecting from Schmidt's next number 9. Could Henrique Araújo steal the spot from under their noses? I think (and hope) he will.
On the wings, there has been cause for concern since realizing the lack of quality depth at that position over the course of the last year. However, Seixal products Tiago Gouveia and Diego Moreira stepped up when it mattered most on the lower levels, both earning their debuts with the first team during the final few weeks of last season. Alongside former Ajax winger David Neres, I think that a feisty group of youthful, hungry wingers like these could be a perfect fit for Schmidt's high intensity, pressing style of football.
That being said, the roster is far from settled yet so it'll be interesting to see how all of the players mesh together and who Roger Schmidt thinks is worthy to fight with him this year.
Open Training Match Breakdown
Sunday, July 3rd, 2022 - Estádio da Luz, Lisbon
Goal Scorers: Henrique Araújo, João Mário (2), António Silva.
Notable Performers: David Neres, Tomás Araújo, and Gilberto.
Chouriço of the Match (Worst Performer): André Almeida.
Before I comment with my thoughts on the open training held by Roger Schmidt this past Sunday, might I just say...WHAT AN INCREDIBLE FAN BASE. Sunday's training was attending by nearly 24,000 fans. Did I mention this was only a training session? It was lovely to see newcomers like Alexander Bah and Mihailo Ristic posting about it on social media afterwards, as well. Showing them how massive our club is -- that's what it's all about.
The training began with some classic warmups and small-sided drills, like roundo or 5v1, however you refer to it. However, Schmidt broke up the squad into two sides (yellow versus black) and decided to play a 50-minute scrimmage, broken down into 4 quarters.
Like most fans, I was incredibly curious to see how Schmidt would split up the squad. He did end up creating a noticeably stronger side before having some players switch teams after the second quarter. Here were the teams to start though:
Starting XI for the black team - GK: Samuel Soares; D: Bah, Tomás Araújo, Gil Dias, André Almeida; M: Paulo Bernardo, Meite, Chiquinho; F: Musa, D. Gonçalves, Tiago Gouveia.
Starting XI for the yellow team - GK: Helton Leite; D: Grimaldo, Morato, António Silva, Gilberto; M: Florentino, Weigl, João Mário; F: Henrique Araújo, David Neres, Rafa Silva.
While the yellow squad clearly looks like the 'A team' in this matchup, an interesting detail was that Schmidt played with Florentino and Weigl playing alongside each other as deep lying midfielders, with João Mário playing far ahead of them in an attacking midfielder role. On the black team, Chiquinho filled that CAM role with Paulo Bernardo playing as the 8 with Meïté protecting the center backs as a defensive midfielder.
The first goal of the game started when André Almeida foolishly held on to the ball until he was disarmed past the midfield line and was unsurprisingly dribbled past by Rafa Silva, who then touched the ball over to Henrique Araújo for a calm and collected finish.
During the match itself, I was incredibly impressed with the poise on the ball that Tomás Araújo and António Silva showed in spite of their age -- Tomás especially. Gilberto certainly showed that last season was not just a fluke and gave fans confidence that he'll be a key backup player and an important source of energy and raça this season.
Gilberto even had the assist on a beautiful team goal that was started from a Morato pass in his own half that saw one-touch contributions from Florentino, João Mário, Henrique Araújo then Gilberto before the Brazilian's through ball pass was intelligently touched past a diving André Gomes and finished by João Mário. João also had scored a penalty minutes earlier.
I was worried for a minute, as a poor pass from Morato across Samuel Soares' goal forced the B team keeper to make a sliding tackle on opposing forward Petar Musa to avoid conceding. Musa was attended to by the medical team for a small knock, but it doesn't seem like anything serious.
The fourth and final goal of the match came from a set piece taken short that ended in a slotted cross from Chiquinho slots the ball across the box, and António Silva tapped it in. However, I was surprised that Diego Moreira didn't put the black team on the scoresheet after his sliding effort wasn't enough to convert a beautifully slotted cross from Gil Dias.
In terms of the new arrivals, only David Neres truly stuck out during the training. He showed that his skill from that magical 2018/19 Ajax run is very much still alive. While Ristic did look comfortable on the ball, Bah and Musa didn't see many touches or do anything notable.
Overall, Schmidt's fingerprint on the squad after less than a week of training was visible during the training. There was seldom a moment where two or three players were pressing the same ball together. It did seem like the center midfielders, especially João Mário were able to find space consistently, as well.
Looking forward to seeing what Schmidt does with the international players arriving from holiday later this week!
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