This game went downhill when Jovane came on instead of Petrovic... In all seriousness though, this was just a horrendous game. No Defense no Chemistry no nothing. Could have been easily 7-2. Benfica outplayed us right from the start. Get your popcorn ready February 6.
We'll see how the new signings hold up especially for defense. I'm really hoping Borja is a revelation, we cant afford more flops. Need to see if Acuna really goes, if not now then in the summer, and since we're not gonna be in CL, likely another player needs to be sold. Depending on that we'll know how much room we have to sign players. But thats a discussion for a later date.
Funniest shit was Kaizer's response. Claims that we won the League Cup, but it cost us in terms of injuries. No f*cking shit! It's called squad rotation, and it's what competent managers do when they're competing in 4 different competitions!
Theres no squad to rotate. Want him to start Petrovic at cb again? Coates, Acuna, Battaglia and even Bas Dost shoudl be sold. Basically anyone with any market (except bruno fernandes hopfully) should be transferable. None of them would he hard to replace.
Agreed, he accepted this job and the squad that came with it. Varandas said that the Keizer pick was for medium to long term, I doubt Varandas takes the drastic step of firing Keizer unless we completely crap the bed and not even qualify for Europa League. Thinking a bit more rationally, Keizer had a 2 week international break when he came in so the players were well rested and firing on all cylinders. When this hectic schedule started and he started seeing that outside the starting XI there was only 1 or 2 players that have enough quality to play, the performances started to sharply drop in quality. He's still made mistakes, that Tondela loss was on him. Today was just awful, no one except Bruno Fernandes performed and the coach can't do much when the players just don't show up. The scoreline is actually sympathetic to us because we didn't even deserve 2 goals. We all know that and they certainly know that Bruno Gaspar, Andre Pinto, Jefferson, Petrovic cannot possibly be here playing for us.. I totally forgot about Battaglia, he would definitely be playing right now if he wasn't injured. Once he was injured there was no one to replace him and we've been stuck with Gudelj ever since. Just a bunch of unfortunate things to happen to us this year. As for sales, Acuna for 20M would be fantastic IMO, we double our investment, can pay off debts we owe to other clubs (still owe money for Acuna and Raphinha), I would definitely consider offers for Coates and Dost too. Maybe a chinese club is willing to pay.
agreed. How some banks went bankrupt and certain individuals were able to get massive loans is beyond me. now everyone else is paying the price.
This organization is going back to the Bettencourt/Lopes days real quick. - we compete for 4th place - a President that doesn't know what he's doing and doesn't even have the right people in place - already had 2 coaches and at the rate we're going, might have a 3rd by year end - no money - Attendance is down - Season over by winter Yup, we're going places.
I can see the comparisons but we can't forget the abnormal summer and start to the season. All we can hope is Keizer learns from his mistakes in the last game, isn't afraid to drop the proper players who aren't performing. As for Varandas, I'm not his biggest fan either but I'm willing to give him a pass this season. Poor communication is his biggest weakness but if he can actually build a title-winning squad during his term I can ignore that. Keizer was Varandas' personal pick and said he's for the long term, so if he cuts him loose early, the fault will be on the president. Rest of the season looks grim, but we gotta try to be rational, we lost really important players and no adequate replacements, we can't expect to win the title with Andre Pinto, Jefferson, Bruno Gaspar, Petrovic, Gudelj. We got a cup which is likely the high point of the season. As for money, hopefully we know something this year about the players that abandoned the club and if we can get money back from them (Gelson, Rafael Leao, Podence, Renan Ribeiro). Like I mentioned before, sell Acuna now for 20M if Zenit is willing and in the summer another player will likely be sold, use the money to reinvest in quality and depth.
None of the points above can possibly be blamed on Varandas. Ill say it again, considering what was left behind, 4th place is pretty amazing. I dont know why people were expecting to compete for anything this year.
valid points. That being said, I don't want a coach that "hopes to learn" I want a coach that learns from his mistakes. Right now, he seems to be making the same mistakes on a regular basis. You're right on Varandas. no communication. The problem for me is we don't know what's going on. What he's working on, what not. Just see him at games with arms crossed isn't hopeful. I wasn't expecting anymore than a 4th place finish this year, but I want to see some fight. Not get are @SS handed to us at home by a rival. It;s not even the loss, it's the embarrassing loss. I don't think we're seeing any money for those players anytime soon. It'll be a while before everything is all said on done.
Not blaming Varandas, but do something. wasn't his campaign "unir o sporting" ? How's that working out? Lately, he's been taking shots at Viera. He clearly hasn't learned how that worked out for the last president at SCP. Then you hear things like Varandas campaign was funded by Godinho Lopes and it irks me if it's true.
Andre Pinto was called up for tomorrow's match at Feirense but suffered a last minute injury. Mathieu is also injured and Coates is suspended, which means Ilori likely starts alongside Petrovic. Guaranteed to allow at least 2 goals tomorrow.
Starting XI: Renan; Ristovski, Coates, Ilori, Borja; Gudelj, Bruno Fernandes, Wendel; Diaby, Acuña, Bas Dost Side note: Benfica just beat Nacional 10-0
20 mins and not one chance against the bottom feeders. Nobody gives a crap, as long as they kick a ball around and get a paycheque at the end of the month.
Yes allegedly a foul or obstruction on the corner. But it wasnt clear. I'm sure it will get dissected later
There are players here that can just piss off. Gudelj just gets worse and worse, Diaby completely invisible.