Benfica have made a move with one of their youngsters as they look to get some of their Seixal academy players regular playing time this season, sending midfielder David Tavares to Moreirense until seasons end. The 21 year old Tavares appeared in 13 games across all competitions and 1002 minutes between Benfica and Benfica B last season but went without registering a goal or an assist during his playing time. Benfica will now turn their attention to a pair of other Seixal products as they look to find loan deals for Jota and Tomas Tavares before the transfer window closes.
Jorge Jesus has always enjoyed experimenting with players on his squad at different positions and this continues this season with the veteran manager currently tinkering with 23 year old winger Diogo Goncalves at the right back position. Goncalves could follow the footsteps of former club players Miguel and Fabio Coentrao who built long and exciting careers after switching to the full back position. Goncalves spent last season on loan at Famalicao where he appeared in 34 games for the club scoring seven goals while setting up ten but what caught the attention of the club brass was the versatility that Goncalves showed while at Famalicao.
Goncalves played 24 of his 34 appearances at the right wing position but was also used in the right midfield, the left wing, the left midfield and once at right back. Jorge Jesus has decided to move forward with this experiment adding pressure to long time starter Andre Almeida and newly signed Gilberto for playing time and was quoted in by the Portuguese media that Diogo Goncalves could be a great right back in the future.
Benfica kicked off their league campaign with a dominant 5-1 victory over last seasons darlings Famalicao as they look to start rolling after this weeks disappointing loss in Champions League qualifying. Jorge Jesus made four changes to Tuesdays starting eleven inserting Luca Waldschmidt, Darwin Nunez, Rafa Silva and Gabriel while sitting Haris Seferovic, Pizzi, Julian Weigl and Pedrinho and the change paid dividend quickly when Benfica's new strike tandem combined to open the scoring with Waldschmidt chipping in a beauty to open the clubs scoring campaign.
New signing Everton Cebolinha doubled the Eagles lead before Alex Grimaldo picked the top corner on a set piece to give the club a 3-0 half time lead. Rafa Silva and Luca Waldschmidt would extend the lead to five with second half goals before Famalicao would get on the scoresheet breaking Vlachodimos' clean sheet. Benfica will play their home opener in Week 2 against Moreirense next Saturday at 6:30pm WEST as they look to keep their form going.
