Benfica:
Jörg Butt: Experienced gk, at start made little sense in getting him but Moreira had to have another surgery. He did leave Leverkusen because he wanted 1st team action, and he's second choice atm, lets see if he stays happy.
Lu*s Filipe: Came from Braga to provide competition for Nelson at right back, he was cheap but
IMO lacks quality to play at this level. Sometimes looks very uninterested in the game. He's an adaption from a more of an AMR role so can provide cover to that position too.
Edcarlos: Calling PLMF on this one..reports say he was 5th choice at São Paulo, tbh it was a bit of a panic buy, we had 3 central defenders in the squad and they got all injured at the same time. Still hasn't played so no opinion.
Marco Zoro: Huge Ivorian, but a bit slow, can play center and right but got seriously injured at start of season and still isn't back. Useful cover maybe..
Miguel V*tor: Came from the Junior team to the rescue when everyone got injured, as been playing side by side with a midfielder covering the defense and has done extremely well for his age. Will eventually lose his spot when Luisão and David Luiz come back, but he certainly deserves more chances in the future. :thup:
Gilles: Young Cameroonian bought to be loaned out to get experience showed himself in the preseason training and stayed to provide cover. Unfortunatley i don't see him finding a chance to play and TBF would see more evolution on loan. Still hasn't played.
Maximiliano Pereira: Uruguayan came in the last days of the market to provide midfield cover. Has already played and looks like a physical midfielder that works better in the center.
Andrés D*az: Came in package with Di Maria, is now injured and hasn't really shown any quality. :thdn:
Fábio Coentrão: Young talented winger was second division's POTY last season. Mighty dribbler still lacks stability in the final third putting in proper crosses and finishing. Good prospect.
Cristián Rodr*guez: Another Uruguayan bought at the end of the window, played only a few minutes but looked good on the ball.
Freddy Adu: Was used by the now sacked coach at the start, (thrown in the deep end in a CL game with no previous experience after a team mate got injured
) has since disappeared and is probably being protected until he adapts better.
Again excellent prospect if he does live up to the Hype.
Romeu Ribeiro: youth promoted has been getting playing time by Camacho at the end of matches. Quite a surprise specially since we got so many new midfielders. Always good seeing youths make it through the ranks.
Óscar Cardozo : Biggest buy of the season (2nd biggest ever at 9M€), has started the league slow but just bagged his first couple of goals for the club. A tall, powerful striker, not very technical and unfortunately very one footed, but its a traction engine..hope to see a lot of goals from him.
Bergessio: Another argentinian striker. TBF doesn't look to have enough quality, runs around a lot and stuff but bad touch from what he's shown so far.
Ángel Di Mar*a: Came injured and just had is first couple of games and boy does he look like a star. Tremendous pace, dribbling, crosses, not suprised a lot of the european elite were after him. if he keeps this way will probably leave the club quite quickly cause when won't be able to reject the huge amounts.
Yu Dabao: Another promotion from youths, yes he's chinese
. Should have been loaned out but board felt we needed the offensive cover (and couldn't close on anyone in the final day).
He's a tall chap, brings a great scoring record from the youth system, now only needs playing time.
Overall lots of foreigners but some good buys specially since for the first time we bought young players. That's the main problem with the squad, overall it might be too young with avg age at just 24y. But will be brilliant in the future if we hang on to/develop them.
(sorry for the long post)
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