Klippybo
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- Apr 7, 2009
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END OF SEASON POST
I had a great 1st season in charge of Benfica as we won trophies galore. We bagged the league title, the Super Cup, the Allianz Cup and the Europa League!!!! In the league we won the title by 7pts and we cruised it tbh. We were unbeaten for the first 25 games until FC Porto thumped us 4-0 but that was our only defeat of the season. In the 34 matches we kept an extraordinary 24 clean sheets!!!
In the Allianz Cup we sauntered into the final and then beat Sporting Lisbon 3-0 in the final but in the Taca de Portugal we were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Porto the buggers.
We were made to rue a draw with Young Boys and failure to beat 9 man Real Madrid in the Champions League as we finished 3rd in the group by 2pts but we did beat PSG at home. That sent us into the Europa League and after defeating Dinamo Zagreb we came up against Arsenal and after winning 2-1 away with 10 men and then thumped them 4-1 at home to go through. Wolves and Sevilla were then despatched before we beat Ajax in the final 2-1 thanks to a 94th minute goal from James Rodriguez.
It wasn't just the first team that did well as my B team won the 2nd division by 13pts - they have set the standard for the future.
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LIGA NOS
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FIRST TEAM SQUAD
Goalkeepers - Vlachodimos was the main man and only missed 3 games. He is a decent keeper but can be improved - I say that after 24 clean sheets in the league lol.
Defenders - I love my defence - even the backups!!! I brought in Kristoffer Ajer and he was great and netted 5 goals while his partner Ruben Dias was almost identical and scored 6. Ferro did well as backup CB while at RB Nelson Semedo was arguably our player of the season while Tomas Tavares impressed as his backup and scored the late goal to knock out Sevilla in the Europa League. At left back Alex Grimaldo did great but didn't score while Nuno Tavares is a great young player waiting in the wings.
Midfielders - The sore point of the side. Florentino Luis is a cracking young player but was disappointing at CM. His partner in midfield was Gabriel and he was decent but I lacked goals from central midfield. Ronaldo Camara was excellent though when given a chance and he scored a few goals and the 17y/o is going to be world class I think.
My main problems lay in the wings and at AMC. Maybe that's a bit harsh on James Rodriguez as he was one of our top players but for a player of his quality to only score 1 goal that was not a penalty is a disgrace. Rafa started the season at LW - his natural position - and he was a disgrace. He then moved to RW and was just as bad. Everton came in in January to play at LW and I was convinced that he would do better and he didn't. They had better improve next season. Zivkovic was ok but Chiquinho impressed when he was called upon.
Forwards - Carlos Vinicius scored 35 goals in 48 games which was impressive but I am still not sold on him. He did score 9 goals in the Europa League which was vital. Dyego Sousa who is on loan until Christmas did OK and Jan Hurtado didn't have enough chances although I have agreed to sign him permanently in the summer.
My Player of the Season - Nelson Semedo
My Young Player of the Season - Ronaldo Camara
Donkey of the Season - Rafa
Must Improve - Everton/Florentino Luis
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SUMMER PLANS
I don't have a huge budget but I have a lot of players returning from loan spells so can raise funds there. While I am generally happy with my squad we are not world beaters so I will see what is out there. I do need to bring in a forward and a left winger though. I intend to spend a lot of time sifting through my B, U23 and U19 squads and sell a few and loan out a few as some players in the system were just not getting game time.