A good day for Benfica, Sporting and Maritimo. But..... Porto seems to be the only top team struggling right now and it doesn't get any easier for them against Chelsea. Porto is having a hard time finding their groove from last season and seem to be having a let down after being Champs. What has to happen for them to regain their supremacy? I think the loss of Carvalho and Deco was too much to handle.
I think whats wrong is whiney people who portraits a few draws as a crisis. Benfica was smashed by the inferior Anderlecht but they are still in a great shape arent they? Sporting had an awful pre-season looking like a joke in Spain and now losing to recently promoted Setubal but they are doing fine huh? Porto just needs time, people should be patient with that.
But Sporting and Benfica are playing closer to their expectations...Porto is a far cry from the team they were last season.
Benfica still playing like crap, they beat unknow team they lost two important games one against Porto for the Portuguese supercup, the other against Anderletch
We're a team in transition. It was inevitable that we're going to struggle. The CL is one tough competition and the only reason why we won was because we had the best squad and coach out there. What must happen this season is the other players stepping up and impose their jogo right when it counts the most. And Superliga is not out of the question until the last matchday. We can always get back to the big competition if all else fails.
they have some fantastic young players but will need time to gel, teams that tend to do well play there best soccer towards the end of the season, last season they progresivly got better with every match in europe, players like quersema, diego, fabiano, postiga and alberto will be a force once they gel but that will take more then a few matches. man utd struggled against Lyon, Arsenal needed an own goal to win at home against a weakened PSV, Real were destroyed by Bayer, Milan won 1-0 against shakutar but struggled big time. alot of other top teams aren't playing great soccer or getting fantastic results so why should porto be held to a higher standard.
Benfica did there job, was to win a game against a team nobody new much about it nothing to get excite,
True but Porto won the CL and sold away three top players and lost a great coach. Maybe they should have bought some proven players with all that money they made. It could be years before the current team gets good enough to compete again for the CL as they are a very young team.
Porto did the right thing, got the money and invest on the young players, know they need the team to Jelly, but it takes time
I agree with you, investing in the future was a smart thing to do but it might take longer than many people think.
if you look at Benfica and Sporting they also going with youth Benfica signed players like Amoreirinha, Carlitos, they still got Joao Poreira, Manuel Fernandes, Moreira etcc Sporting they made a lot changes in the last two years they went from a old team to a much younger team Paito, the kid from Nigeria, Viana his back, Danny, Pinilla etc I won't be surprise if a mature team, well coach squeezes thru the big three and wins the championship
you wanna know what the real problem is too much egos and a coach that was irreplaceble to begin with guys come on mourinho/fernedes these players dont respect him.porto i think wont do well this year if they do then im a idiot.
What I don't like is if the top teams are in a rebuilding phase then Potugal will suffer in the Cl, Eufa, and world rankings etc. We need at least one of the top teams firing on all cylinders at all times or the Superliga may start losing respect.
It is something to get excited about, it was a very important win for Benfica. They are a step closer in qualifying into the group stages of the UEFA Cup, which means it could bring in alot of money.
Observing from an objective position, it is true Porto are not on form as of late. However, niether are the majority of the top flight teams. It is nothing to worry about. Obviously a new coach and an entire new look, as far as players, will do that. The players that were brought in this summer are all young with boundless potential. When Porto begins to gell, they could possibly be one of the most explosive teams in the world. Their attacking potential is second to none.
You would think with the likes of C. Alberto, Diego, Quaresma, Postiga, Derlei Mcarthy and Maniche on the attack, they should do some real damage at some point.
i just finished watching the game against CSKA, i'm not to worried. on another day we could have won by 5 or more goals, the keeper made 2 good saves against postiga and queresma shots, there was a clerance off the line, Postiga crimanally missed 2 chances that should have ended in the net, that header and one on one, there was a fair shout as well for a handball in the box and finally a jorge costa flick that didn't miss by much. my biggest complaint would be some players looked a bit rusty but that is to be expected at the beginning of the season. Pepe looked good with the exception of that mistake but as time goes on he will develop an understanding with costa, diego is still finding his feet, once he develops an understanding with the rest of the players he will be a real threat, queresma is queresma, made some good chances had some good shots but tryed to dribble when passing was the better option. alberto has to be dropped for fabiano, postiga worked hard but looks like things aren't going his way and Derlei should be playing in his position. i hope McCarthy plays some role in this team, the commentators were saying him and the coach had history and it wasn't good, but he is a quality play that adds something different to the team. what else can be said, the defence looked solid for 89 minutes, i'll chalk that one poor minute down to being rusty, midfield was solid and CSKA basically suffocated the game but i think Porto should have won, 5 games left and to early to start panicking.
FC Porto sold some important players but also replaced them with formidable replacements. They also have a new coach. With a new coach come new tactics. New faces with older faces need time to come together. They all have to adhere to a new coaching schematic. Give it some time. Of the big 3, FC Porto is the one on track to do something this season. I feel that they will win the SuperLiga, go to the 2nd phase of the CL, but I hope a smaller team wins the Portuguese Cup. Not that I don't want SCP to win it (at least that), but I like seeing smaller teams battle for something like the Cup. Sorry, Frank, but the big 3 have way too much depth to have on of the other 15 teams to jump ahead of them. That won't be happening any time soon.
There's nothing wrong with Porto. They lost some big players but they replaced them with some young players that could be great. I believe this team can get out of this group and within a few months can be playing good football once the younger players start going. They didn't have a terrible performance against CSKA Moscow and should have scored several times. If they defeat Chelsea, they will get a massive confidence boost (althought that will be difficult). Don't count these guys out yet..they have only played a few games.