Bernardo Alegra: Benfica’s poor form down to lack of confidence | OneFootball

Following another unconvincing performance against Gil Vicente, Benfica is going through a delicate moment in the season. In this Glorioso 1904 Exclusive, the Newspaper Director, Bernardo Alegra, linked the poor form of the reds to a lack of confidence, without forgetting the eagles' market and the reinforcements signed by Rui Costa in the summer.

"It seems to me that the main problem of the team, as of today, is mental. The players are without confidence, uneasy, having a lot of difficulty dealing with the enormous pressure they are subjected to at such an early stage of the season and with a set of games at the door of a much higher degree of difficulty. On one hand, if there is someone who can turn the players' heads around, that person is Mourinho. On the other hand, we are in a phase of games every three days where the coach will have very little time to work the team with his stamp. At this stage the essential thing is to start winning games, even if it is by half to zero. With confidence and time better performances will come", he begins to say.

Next, Bernardo Alegra shows caution regarding the investment made during the last transfer market: " Benfica indeed made a very strong investment in the market. It seems to me still very early to assess whether the investment will have a sporting return (the only one that matters to Benfica fans) even because the current context does not favor the necessary adaptation and a new and demanding reality".

As for the new reinforcements, the Director of Glorioso 1904 praised two players in particular, also pointing to another signing whose performance has been lower: "From what we have seen so far, Dedic and Lukebakio seem to be the ones who will most easily justify the bet. At the opposite end we have Ríos who, despite the advantage of not being at the beginning of the season, seems to have already lost the good graces of the fans. The next few months will tell us more accurately whether they are reinforcements or not".

Finally, Bernardo Alegra placed his hope in Sudakov and Lukebakio when it comes to creative options in José Mourinho's squad: "Sudakov and Lukebakio are two artists in a team of accountants. Lage and the Benfica board opted to let go of the creative axis of the last two seasons (Di Maria, Kokçu, Carreras) replacing them with more physical and combative players. The bet on these two players who have shown little so far was left until the end, but from what little has been seen, they are a real oasis in a desert of creativity that is Benfica's starting eleven. I fear that the team will end up depending too much on these which will make life easier for our opponents, especially those who have caused us more discomfort with very low blocks", he concludes.

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