Luís Mateus lays into Rui Costa, exposes Benfica chief's contradictions | OneFootball

Luís Mateus was highly critical of Rui Costa’s recent explanations and of the way Benfica has been managed. The columnist believes there are contradictions in the Eagles president’s remarks and considers that the Club still lacks a defined strategy for the future.

“There are words from Rui Costa that still echo through the Benfica universe in the explanations about José Mourinho and Marco Silva. Marco Silva did more to determine the direction he wants for the team than the leader did. For Marco Silva, Benfica has to be a dominant team. Rui Costa did not even manage that,” one can read in the newspaper ‘A Bola’.

The journalist believes that the narrative presented by the Board does not match what happened behind the scenes: “The coach made it more or less clear that only after the official announcement did he begin to put ideas together with Benfica, when the president had said the opposite and even claimed more: that the club had not been standing still without a coach.”

Luís Mateus also criticises the way the structure has acted in the market, noting that several gaps identified in the squad still remain unresolved: “No decision has yet come from the sporting department other than selling a young centre-back, when the team needs two. Knowing there is a strong chance this will be Otamendi’s last year, the Eagles have not completed a single deal. For those who were not standing still, they hid it very well.”

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