As I brushed through the nearly empty dugout, the Benfican fans began to sing. I've been at football matches before - I've been at Benfica matches before, but the new season has brought an abundance of new fans to the Estadio. Despite the loss of their understandably beloved Jorge Jesus, they will return week-in week-out to follow their team. And I am the man with which their hopes rest upon. But I can deliver.
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The pre-season flashed through quicker than I could have imagined. There were tough matches against some fairly confident sides such as Vitoria Sport Club and CFR 1909 Cluj who gave us some tough challenges. Pre-season is important because the mentality and spirit gained throughout the early Summer months are generally retained throughout the season, and can give an edge towards the Liga ZON Sagres title. And in football, you take every edge you can get.
Benfica vs Vitoria Sport Club 1-0 Carlos Martins 44'
Estrala da Amadora vs Benfica 0-3 Franco Jara 7' Nuno Gomes 39' (pen) Cafu 82'
CFR 1907 Cluj vs Benfica 1-1 Roberto de Zerbi 70' Nicolas Gaitan 76'
AJ Ajaccio vs Benfica 0-2 Eduardo Salvio 17' Yohann Teixera own goal 49'
CSKA Sofia vs Benfica 1-1 Oscar Cardozo 15' Cristian Tiboni 51'
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnHzgNfaEPs"]YouTube - AC Ajaccio 0 - 2 Benfica - Match Highlights[/ame] The goals from the 2-0 win over AJ Ajaccio
José's Tactical Analysis
13th July 2010 - CFR Cluj The game against Cluj was certainly a frustrating one. It seemed as if we dominated, yet we came away with an underservedly poor 1-1 draw. With Cluj just managing to beat us in Fouls, Offsides, Corners and Throw-Ins, the stat men tell me, it seems as if that we really did dominate the game in midfield and this was down to Carlos Martins who had a very solid game whilst being instructed to make sure he is everywhere.
(Our shots are on the right, with Cluj's on the left).
As you can see, we dominated in midfield whilst making sure we had plenty of oppurtunities and also not allowing Cluj the oppurtunity to get many shots in and there only shot on target managed to find it's way into the net past a flailing Roberto.
Despite the dominance in midfield, which is always a very good sign, a striker who scores one with only one chance is far more important than a striker who scores three with seven chances, and the strikers need to become aware of this.
Transfers
Axel Witsel - £3m (from Standard Liege) Fernando Muslera - £11m (from Lazio) Yilidray Basturk - Free Transfer
Certainly a very mixed month. There've been some very promising performances on the pitch, mainly from a certain Carlos Martins. I've been telling him to be everywhere, and he's done this exceptionally well. The box-to-box role seems to suit him perfectally and it's going to be difficult for Axel Witsel to force him out of the side.
On the subject of Witsel, I am delighted with his capture. I've been an admirer of the young Belgian for a while now and the scouts in Belgium highly recommended him, and for £3million it was certainly a solid capture. Then, there is Muslera, one of the world's best keepers in my opinion, and £11million well spent.
There's a long way to go until the side's 4-3-1-2 is perfected, but we've built a solid base upon which the team can built. Defensively, we are strong, but we are not a defensive side. We have Aimar, Cardozo, Gomes, Saviola, Salvio, Gaitan, Martins, Witsel, who can all make large contributions when heading forwards.
We've got an ideal team blend. We will win the league.
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Fin. Very disjointed update, but pre-season always will be. Not as I'd like it, and I'll be focusing on outside of footballing matters as well in future updates, but I didn't have a lot of space considering how large the update is already.
What does everyone reckon? I plan to vary how the updates are to keep it fresh, and as I said in the Opening Post, I am always looking for feedback. Thoughts on the update?
I like it, specially the tactical analysis, I expect that will be very interesting.
I agree with the idea of varying the updates and I advice you to do so, for the very same reason you say. It is good to have one standard style of update that is the usual, but it is good in my opinion to change it from time to time, be it because there's some special match, competition or something that would qualify for being considered a special event. However the changes should not be kept just for those and be a regular thing, else it can become repetitive and that would weight on the story.
And of course, some of his polemic statements. Some of the updates could well take the shape of an interview to the press.
And Death Ball, yeah, plan to make plenty of different variations in terms of update. And yeah, the tactical analysis will have one match for every month, which I feel I can write the best analysis about (will usually be the biggest game of the month).
Rui Costa struck me as a brilliant man. Among the many greats of football that I've had the pleasure of coaching, they've never had the football brain of Rui. Despite retiring a season ago, he remains in the Benfica board room and has already become an integral part of everything I do here in Lisbon. From transfers to tactics not only does he play the role of Financial Manager, but also acts as another Assistant Manager. You hear stories of managers leaving due to over-invasive board members - but I love it.
"Cardozo should not start. Not at the moment. Nuno [Gomes] is playing fantastically." "They play different roles Rui. Cardozo is the only real target man at the club and Nuno and Javier [Saviola] can only fill in there at a push," I half-shouted back at the over-excited former AC Milan playmaker. "But do we honestly need a target man? Free-flowing football wins games. Let's play it along the floor," he beckoned back to me, giving a very unnecessary example of how to pass a football as he swung his foot through the air as if playing a pass along the floor. "Not conceding wins games." I returned, stubbonly.
Rui pondered for a second, and almost an instant later his phone rang. Rui has a football brain to be proud of but he, as will most of the footballing world, now discover that the slick football played by Brazil, Barcelona, Arsenal is not the only way to win trophies. There is the José Mourinho way, and I will show that to the world.
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Mourinho warms to sunny Lisbon
Yes, you, José.
Those weeks ago, when the Benficanites were absorbed by solemn after the departure of their God Jorge Jesus (who, by the way, is having a distinctly average time at Valencia currently residing in 7th position in the LIGA BBVA). And the shock arrival of Portuguese-born Mourinho brought further doubts to the fans who would gladly draw blood for their club.
But now we're almost four months into Mourinho's tenure and it's certainly looking like promising signs for those quick-to-draw-conclusions Benfican fans. We've seen wins against big sides like rivals FC Porto and overseas wins against the likes of Sampdoria. Mourinho continues to insist that his team has yet to reach fourth gear, and despite boasting one of the best attacking records in the LIGA Zagres as far, he would love to sure up his defensive options, possibly in the January transfer market.
Yes, some pretty decent results there. And we saw Mourinho's Benfica side brush aside rivals Porto to get their hands on the first piece of Portuguese silverware available every season - the Supertaca. It was a more than confident performance from a side who have only been playing under their manager for the worse part of two months.
Oscar Cardozo was particularly prominent as his two strikes made sure that the champagne would be chugged by the litre by the red-side of Lisbon. And his first strike is one that will live in the memory of Portuguese football fans everywhere as one of the great goals in the final of a Portuguese cup.
Here at Benfica-watch, our man of the month is going to be Nuno Gomes. Not only has he played the role of Target Man (yes, Target Man) far more than decently, he has also got his name on the scoresheet more than once. His aerial prowess combined with his ball-skills and suprisingly, considering his age, quick feet show that Nuno's got a lot left to give despite reaching the tender age of 34.
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José's Tactical Analysis
7th August 2010 - FC Porto The Porto game was always going to be very highly anticipated, and despite a nice, comfortable 2-0 win, it needs to be properly analysed if we are to determine how to improve.
The main strength was the aerial ability of Luisao throughout the game. Called on ten times in total he only failed to disappoint just the once, whereas his opposite number, the usually aerially consistent, Rolando, only completed four of his seven attempted headers.
(Luisao on the left, Rolando on the right).
The aerial ability of Luisao proved key as Porto strang the crosses together as the un-marked Porto wingbacks continued to marraud down the touchlines. Luckily, both Luisao and David Luiz were well in control and the Porto frontmen never got a look in of the ever-so-tempting crosses swung in.
Another contributing factor was the shutting down of Porto's undoubtedly two most important players in Joao Moutinho and Brazillian starlet Hulk. They've been utterly destructive over the seasons, and it was up to the defensive unit of Luisao and David Luiz to keep Hulk calm and Carlos Martins and Javi Garcia were assigned the roles of handling the tricky Moutinho.
(Hulk passes on the left, Joao Moutinho passes on the right).
Hulk was continually frustrated by the tight marking he was receiving from our two centre-backs and was often found coming deep looking for the ball. In an area where he is not at all dangerous, and where we've got the extra men, it worked very well in our favour that he often drifted far too deep.
In regards to Moutinho - the supposed primary playmaker of a successful side, he was outplayed and made less than half (yes, 50%) of the passes of his side's right back, Jorge Fucile. It was an embarrasing display from the Portuguese midfielder and the packing of the centre of midfield obviously worked in this instance.
The Verdict
Overall, certainly an impressive month and a bit. There's been a number of impressive performances and the fact that Sky Sports are mentioning that a defensive unit that has conceded 3 goals in 5 games is our weak point, is certainly something to be proud of.
It was an exceptional start to my competitive managerial career to take the Supertaca away from the grubby claws of FC Porto. Oscar was exceptional and it's a credit to Mr. Nuno Gomes that he managed to displace him in the starting lineup (no small part due to Rui).
I've learnt many things about Portuguese football and I will continue to learn. But I've also realised that this side has the ability and potential to go on to reach great things and the game against Porto and the hard-earned draw against Sporting CP summarise this. Definately signs of progression, and I am very pleased.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTGjh5hHmxg"]YouTube - Benfica 2 - 0 Porto - Match Highlights[/ame]
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