Benfica needs to turn attention to right back

The Benfica season is less then a month away as the club gets set to face arch-rivals Sporting for the Super Cup on August 4. Benfica continue to talk to clubs with the goal of shoring up their roster for another run at the league title and with the hopes of a stronger performance in the Champions League compared to seasons past. The latest out of media outlets have Benfica looking to add a keeper, a secondary striker and potentially another striker to the club before the transfer window closes. What you fail to hear much about in the media is the club looking to strengthen the right back position, a position that I believe to be one of the clubs weaker links. Andre Almeida has been as good a soldier for Benfica as you could expect but has always been an inadequate replacement for the much more talented Nelson Semedo.

Benfica's other options if Almeida were to suffer an injury are "a yet to touch the grass because of injury" Tyronne Ebuehi and an "often injured" Eduardo Salvio playing out of position. The right back spot is also a position that the B side finds themselves lacking with currently Simon Ramirez and U19 prodigy Joao Ferreira filling that position with the club. Benfica's promising youngster at the right back position is Alex Pinto but he will not be available to the club as he has been loaned for the season to league new comers Gil Vicente. The experience that Pinto will receive playing regular minutes in the league will be valuable for his future development but this has no barring on Benfica's current situation for the upcoming season. The time is now for Benfica to focus on a position that needs to be strengthened for the upcoming season, failing to do so could leave the club in a tough predicament and suffering disastrous ramifications.