The Official Portuguese Primeira Liga Thread

[Merc_Porto]

Stro, wining 0-3 at 70th minute against Vitória and Sporting let them tie the game ?
Unbelievable.

This thread is so inactive lol but had to find you today. Very entertaining game. It hasn't been our season but that Casilla's save man... that's the final knife in our season. I'm rooting for you guys, don't let Benfica get the tetra, please.

You guys have had bad luck once again. Sporting was cleary the better team out there, especially in the 2nd half, same happend in the Benfica -Sporting...

And yeah, that Casillas save in the last play of the game was one of the most brilliant save's i ever seen.

[fraanciiscoo]

Stro, wining 0-3 at 70th minute against Vitória and Sporting let them tie the game ?
Unbelievable.

This thread is so inactive lol but had to find you today. Very entertaining game. It hasn't been our season but that Casilla's save man... that's the final knife in our season. I'm rooting for you guys, don't let Benfica get the tetra, please.

Typical Losers
fcporto and sporting fan

Well FYI we won again
and tomorrow we will will the Portuguese Cup

Keep crying
keep bitching
that we will keep winning

Cya next season and please keep talking just bc it´s 2 funny

[Lord Eder]

It’s been almost 2 years, thought I’d give this thread a little bump, see if we could get some discussion going on for this season.

Early but it looks like things might be wide open. Porto looks susceptible in the back without Marcano and Ricardo Pereira, Sporting is still picking up the pieces after the BDC fiasco and Benfica doesn’t look convincing with Jonas out, as usual.

Based on what I’ve seen so far, I think Benfica ends up back on top once Jonas returns.

[HIF]

during the Leicester Wolves game I heard that there were more portuguese players on the pitch than for Sporting and Porto. Tell me that's not true.

[Craafty16]

Probably. Our league will have the same fate as the dutch and belgian.

Great national team, **** league with the same 2/3 teams in Europe every year.

We just can't compete with the money being thrown around.

[Lord Eder]

Yeah probably true.

Wolves are like Portugal NT farm team right now.

Porto has seemed to pluck their talent from South America the last few years

And Sporting just had a massive exodus of academy players because of the former president.

[fbalmeida]

*Benfica bump*

Benfica's best kept secret is Rui Costa, quietly setting the standard for the team's roster as "Director Desportivo", which is equivalent to General Manager. The results speak for themselves, with Benfica re-establishing itself as Portuguese hegemon since his arrival to his beloved Lisbon-based club. 5 domestic league championships in the past 6 seasons, and 2 lost UEFA Europe League finals.

It's been a joy to see the club rise from the ashes of the mid-to-late 90's, which brought little more than permanent humiliation.

[fbalmeida]

So as it turns out...

It's more or less official now.

Rui Costa will be taking over as acting president of Sport Lisboa e Benfica tomorrow afternoon, while the actual president, Luis Filipe Vieira awaits charges in jail for using the team and his office to steal money from everyone he could borrow money from, including the club itself.

Rui Costa... from ball boy



to president of the club he loves so dearly...



Amidst the cacophony and shame of having a future convict as the outgoing president, it's my firm belief that today is a very good day for Benfica.

Watch on YouTube

[fbalmeida]

First moves:

Nuno Tavares transferred to Arsenal for a reported 8M euros. I like the sound of that. I don't see Tavares progressing 8M euros worth.

Signed Euro 2016 champion João Mário from Inter, on a free transfer. Excellent piece for Benfica's midfield. Hopefully this can finally allow Benfica to move on from Adel Taarabt, who should've been identified as a mistake half a decade ago.

[fbalmeida]

Roger Schmidt signed today as Benfica's new manager. Reportedly a 2 year contract. Finally, someone that can implement a decent "gegenpressing" tactic. Hopeful Rui Costa, in his first off-season and with carte blanche to restructure the team, will whip up something good.

Rumours are swirling and apparently Enzo Fernandez and Mario Gotze are likely additions. They would be so perfect.

[SgtPepper]

Schmidt isn't a gegenpressing coach. He became famous for creating the shot heavy and profligate Leverkusen side with calamity defenders like Tin Jedvaj a few years ago.

[fbalmeida]

All indication and reports from PSV followers etc. indicate that he is. He ran classic counter-pressing with mobile centre-backs and defensive midfields capable of lateral movement, forcing the other team to play the wings.

Watch on YouTube

[Foye]

Schmidt isn't a gegenpressing coach. He became famous for creating the shot heavy and profligate Leverkusen side with calamity defenders like Tin Jedvaj a few years ago.

Well, he was a Bundesliga coach not so long ago.
And like 80% of all Bundesliga teams tend to run Gegenpressing occassionally. Some do it well, others do it not so well.
Leverkusen just didn't do it well enough for the EL/Championsleague.

[SgtPepper]

Yeah, but the closest thing to gegenpressing his sides do consistently is zoning up the 1st pass the opposition receives in 50/50s or where the opposition mispasses to trap it in the center, which is also something Big Sam did quite well with POMOs. I think it's lazy reporting to attribute his nationality as some indicator of counterpressing mastery when the football his sides play don't and in fact his approaches have been flexible.

https://totalfootballanalysis.com/head-coach-analysis/roger-schmidt-202122-psv-eindhoven-tactical-analysis-tactics
https://tacticof.com/managers/roger-schmidt/
https://breakingthelines.com/tactical-analysis/tactical-analysis-roger-schmidts-psv-eindhoven/

The rest of Schmidt's defensive scheme doesn't fit gegenpressing as a coherent philosophy. His Leverkusen was famous for the 7 second rule and applying a high tempo style that resulting in a lot of terrible shots taken, profligacy in finishing, bad chances and goals conceded. He was also famous for the medium block zonal press implemented vs Bayern a few years ago, but even that was not really counterpressing since they were protecting the center and forcing play to the flanks without the press or lane traps associated with counterpressing.

^^Even that video is a pretty bad example, as that's the normal high pressing pattern of a midfield facing an opposition where they have a spare mid.

[fbalmeida]

So there are levels to gegenpressing is what you are saying. Fair points. He's being described here pretty much according to those sources you've provided, as preferring possession-based football. He deploys a typically high positioned and mobile defense, capable of passing their way through the initial line of opposition, along with high pressure in the middle, forcing the opposition down the flanks and using the sidelines in the middle-third as if they were defenders. A physically demanding tactic with some clear trade-offs.

If that's not gegenpressing, then he's obviously been mislabelled as a gegenpressing manager.

[SgtPepper]

He does classic gegenpressing for some games, and as you mentioned there are levels.

The pattern I use to label a gegenpress is if the defending team press in a way that force the ball to the opposition's worse distributors (passer or dribbler) and then pressure those players into turnovers. For example, when Dortmund ko'ed Madrid from the CL in 2013 they exploited Xabi Alonso's lack of dribbling/press resistance by marking him tightly to force him into bad passes and Alvaro Arbeloa's lack of skillfulness (in any of retention, passing, and dribbling) by cutting out all the easy passes to nearby teammates and then having a spare defender from the next line poach off their assignment and instead retrieve the ball from Arbeloa since Arbeloa didn't have the composure to pass to the unmarked teammate in those crowded conditions. Most continental teams these days are somewhat better coached to tolerate a counterpress by either deliberately kicking the ball out of touch (Jerome Boateng did this a lot) so the team shape could be restored or by making these small passes through or around the press that open the field for teammates but there's no reliable tactical solution to it.

Gegenpressing doesn't have to be physically demanding; it's just a structure for team positioning
Teams with a lot of press resistant players can cope well against it (all the continental spanish teams from 2014- qualify in this).

[fbalmeida]

RIP Fernando Chalana

Watch on YouTube

Sporting one of the most typically Portuguese mugs of all time, he donned Benfica's sacred red mantle for 12 seasons where he dazzled everyone with his joyous dribbling skills on the pitch and his bohemian life off of it. 8 time league champion. One of the greats.



Chalana passed away this morning, after suffering from Alzheimer. He was 63

[fbalmeida]

Read on Twitter

Samuel Soares. 20 yo. Benfica's 3rd string goalie. He's been starting for their B team in the 2nd division. Likely the club's future goalie if Odysseas Vlachodimos gets picked up by a petro-dollars club.

[Lord Eder]

Read on Twitter

Samuel Soares. 20 yo. Benfica's 3rd string goalie. He's been starting for their B team in the 2nd division. Likely the club's future goalie if Odysseas Vlachodimos gets picked up by a petro-dollars club.

Bar down. What a screamer lmao

[Shaazzam]

Read on Twitter

Samuel Soares. 20 yo. Benfica's 3rd string goalie. He's been starting for their B team in the 2nd division. Likely the club's future goalie if Odysseas Vlachodimos gets picked up by a petro-dollars club.

that dude is enormous lol