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.
Portuguese International Ruben Semedo is still pushing for a move back to Portugal to join Benfica even though the club will not participate in Champions League play this season. The 26 year old central defender has been linked with the Lisbon side for weeks but with Benfica now in sell mode, any future acquisitions look set to be put on hold until the club sorts out some of its finances with FIFA fair play rules potentially a concern for next season.
Benfica has already spent €78M on acquisitions and will need to potentially sell a couple of prized assets to get to their dollars spent. Benfica could be looking to move striker Carlos Vinicius and midfielders Franco Cervi and Florentino with the hopes of bringing in close to €80M from the sale of all three players as they look to hold onto prized asset Ruben Dias a bit longer. Jorge Jesus is leading the charge to land Semedo but the club manager and player will need to hold on just a little longer.
