He's already shaking things up! Marco Silva changes Benfica training | OneFootball

The ball is starting to take on an increasingly central role in Benfica’s pre-season work at Seixal. Marco Silva devoted a large part of yesterday’s training session to small-sided drills, at a stage when the new coaching staff want to assess the players’ behaviour in match-like situations more closely.

The progress of the sessions is already visible at the Benfica Campus. After the first few days were mainly devoted to fitness work and restoring the squad’s competitive levels, Marco Silva is now beginning to combine that aspect with more tactically demanding exercises. The information was reported by Record.

Small-sided games allow the coach to draw more concrete conclusions about the players at his disposal, analysing aspects such as speed of execution, reaction to losing possession, decision-making ability and positioning at different moments of the game.

Intensity continues to define the start of pre-season. The coaching staff have been progressively increasing the workload, with twice-daily training sessions expected to be introduced soon. Even so, the ball has been present in the sessions from day one, something Benfica itself was keen to highlight through the multimedia content published on its official channels.

Alongside the work being done on the pitch, Marco Silva has been looking to strengthen his relationship with the group. In these first few days in charge of the team, the coach has held one-on-one talks with several players, conveying confidence and seeking to build a solid bond with the squad in this early stage of preparations for the new season.

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