Leonor Pinhão loses hope in Benfica player: yet to step up | OneFootball

Criticism of Georgiy Sudakov is nothing new among Benfica fans and analysts. After another underwhelming display by the Ukrainian midfielder in the Europa League match against Aarhus, Leonor Pinhão examined Marco Silva’s insistence on continuing to back the Eagles’ number 10.

“Marco Silva’s persistence with Sudakov is remarkable. The coach has believed in the player since day one. Better yet, he believed in him long before day one. You surely remember when Marco Silva had not even landed in Seixal yet, at the beginning of June, and the newspapers were already assuring us that, unlike José Mourinho, for whom Sudakov was destined for the list of players to be released, the former Fulham manager had told Rui Costa about the big plans he had for the player,” she wrote in the newspaper 'Record'.

Despite the confidence shown by the coach, Sudakov’s performances have fallen short of expectations. The Ukrainian international has often been pointed out as one of the least influential players in a Benfica side that, overall, has delivered good performances at the start of the season.

In the matches against Hearts, Casa Pia and Aarhus, for example, the Eagles produced quality displays and positive results, but Sudakov once again failed to convince. The situation is therefore beginning to raise doubts about how much longer Marco Silva will continue to stick with the midfielder.

“In light of the facts — by facts, read the overall assessment of Sudakov’s performances since the start of the season — for the Benfica fan, who is growing frustrated at how long Sudakov is taking to show the qualities the coach sees in him, that old principle of the benefit of the doubt now applies more properly to Marco Silva’s aforementioned persistence than to the supposed qualities of the Ukrainian player himself.”

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