Samuel Soares urged to leave Benfica: a keeper can't develop idle | OneFootball

, Norwich City’s goalkeeping coach, offers a critical analysis of the Portuguese goalkeeping landscape. The coach also took the opportunity to speak about the case of Samuel Soares, Benfica’s usual backup, leaving in order to play regularly.

“A goalkeeper who does not play cannot develop by spontaneous generation, no matter how good the training quality is”, he said in an interview with Record, arguing that this does not exist for the young keeper of the Eagles - who made a special request to the board.

The coach reinforced his opinion. “Benfica felt they had a reliable number one there with potential, but the truth is that Samuel has had too little game time for far too long, in the way I conceptualize the development of a young goalkeeper,” he said.

Ricardo Pereira argues that there is a structural problem on this subject. “We cannot just complain and say that the young Portuguese goalkeeper does not play. We have to look at ourselves, as coaches, and understand how we are helping these players arrive better prepared”, he said.

This season, wearing the Benfica shirt, Samuel Soares – valued at 4 million euros – has made six appearances: two in the Liga Portugal Betclic, three in the Portuguese Cup and one in the League Cup. In the 495 minutes he played, the Eagles’ goalkeeper conceded only one goal.

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