Football Season Guide

Benfica will start this new season with an unprecedented 4 star badge on their jersey, celebrating the “Tetra” from last season. The goal is to continue their positive streak and grab the “Penta”, which was only once achieved in Portugal by arch-rivals FC Porto during the 90's. For the defence of the title, Benfica had a few blows to their squad from last season. Three important members of the defensive system were sold to European giants: goalkeeper Éderson and centre-half Lindelof to the Manchester teams, while right full-back Nélson Semedo signed with Barcelona. Benfica are currently trusting internal solutions to directly replace their departing stars but it remains highly questionable if that is the proper answer. Júlio César should come back as first choice, two years later, but he is now 36 and besides he has been collecting quite a few injuries. This means that Benfica should at least have a trustworthy option in reserve, for which Bruno Varela, returning from loan at Setúbal hasn't proven yet to be completely safe for. On the right side of defence, Pedro Pereira was signed from Sampdoria in January but during pre-season it became evident that he might not be ready for first-team status at Benfica yet. In the centre of defence, Luisão is not getting younger and Lindelof’s replacement, Jardel, spent almost the entire last season with injury which makes it questionable if he will have the ideal conditions to keep the level that Benfica's backline had with the Swede. In the midfield, there have been very few changes. Krovinovic arrived from Rio Ave after a very promising season there but he picked a serious injury as soon as he arrived at Estádio da Luz and might take some time to settle in as a first team option, especially because the formidable Pizzi is the owner of that place. In the attack, Swiss Seferovic arrived from German football and already showed that he will be this year's striker for the starting team. He complements Jonas' game even better than Mitroglu and Jimenez ever did. As stated, if Benfica don't take action in the transfer market during August, the defensive area will certainly decrease in quality when compared to last season. However, in attack, not only did many of their important players stay but there are now more new options to consider. Still, with the dynamics of the last couple of seasons, Benfica start as the number one candidate for the title and the team to beat in Portugal.