Benfica gem fails to convince Marco Silva, dropped to B team | OneFootball

Anísio Cabral is part of Benfica’s first-team squad, but all signs indicate that the young striker will start featuring more regularly for the B team. At 18, the player has yet to be used by Marco Silva and spent virtually the entire last month before the international break without playing a single minute.

Although he is currently the third-choice striker in the coach’s pecking order, Marco Silva believes Anísio needs to compete regularly, especially as he still has little experience in professional competitions. With that in mind, whenever the schedule allows, the plan is to give the youngster more minutes with the reserve side.

The player himself is open to that scenario. Anísio, a U-17 World Cup winner, understands that his lack of game time may also have weighed on his absence from the youth national team call-ups during this international break. Despite working daily with the first team, he knows he needs to play in order to keep developing. After winning the U-17 World Cup, José Mourinho promoted Anísio Cabral, Daniel Banjaqui and José Neto to Benfica’s first-team squad.

Of the three, the striker was the one who made the biggest impact, having featured in six matches and scored two goals. One of those strikes proved decisive in Benfica’s 2-1 win over Alverca, raising expectations around the young forward. This season, however, Anísio has been unable to build on that progress. Strong competition from Vangelis Pavlidis and Jhon Durán has limited his opportunities, and Marco Silva has still not used the striker in any first-team match.

So far, the youngster has managed just 167 minutes, spread across three appearances for theB team. A return to the reserve side could therefore be the solution to regain match sharpness and prepare for a future opportunity in the first team.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.