Months Later and Culture Problem is Still Unaddressed

Sport Lisboa e Benfica’s club members have indirectly approved club’s toxic culture mostly out of fear from the past, at least that was the clear message sent out in last month’s club election.

Now that the club’s presidential elections are out of the way, like it or not Luis Filipe Vieira was the overwhelming choice of the club’s membership. A Portuguese club record of just over 38,000 socios voted and re-elected the incumbent president to an unprecedented 6th term by a nearly two-thirds majority on October 28th.

Believed to be the third highest ever voter turnout for any sport club’s election anywhere in the world sent a statement loud and clear to the world. That there’s simply more supporters of the president than there are detractors, much to the disappointment of many of us in the digital content creating community that cover the club independently. I made the decision before the election that as a provider of information and opinion on my various platforms (podcast, blog, and social media) that it would not be appropriate to officially endorse a candidate. As happens in the political world I find it wrong that publications and sources with the duty of reporting honestly and accurately officially endorse candidates for office, and I have come to the belief that those endorsements undermine the integrity of the information and opinion published by the various media entities. How can I believe that someone is being honest when they have publicly declared the outcome they wish for in an election? That led me to decide that my personal policy is and will be going forward that Mister Benfica will not endorse candidates or positions in club elections or assemblies. I will simply do my best to accurately inform the reader, listener or viewer on the different stances that are on the table.

With that out of the way, it is fair to say that this 6th term has not started well. Off the pitch there’s more investigations and searches for evidence of corruption going on at the Estadio da Luz. While on the pitch Benfica dropped six points in the League, two points in the Europa League and allowed an absurd nine goals in the first full week since the election between the two concurrent competitions. The President’s “all in” choice for manager has been left scratching his head and looking very uncertain on how to resolve the issues within the squad. What was sold to supporters was that Jorge Jesus was here to solve all of our problems. However as I stated here on this platform some months ago Benfica’s biggest problem is cultural and the truth is the new manager has not yet changed the losing culture in the team and to a larger degree in the club as a whole. The results of the election told us that most fans are still influenced by the misery and embarrassment of the “Vietnam” era of the mid to late 90’s and early 2000’s and many swear that Luis Filipe Vieira is the only reason we got out of that difficult time. The fear has to have been that an unknown candidate would take us right back there. The belief must be that at least we’re fighting for titles. And even though we’ve struggled against severely weakened rivals that must be better than the unknown.  The fact is that two thirds of the members are willing to accept a pitiful record of late in Europe, premature sales of our young budding stars and losing two out of three Championships and a Cup final to a Porto side decimated by the possibility of FIFA Financial Fairplay violations rather than take a chance on the unknown is a sign that the culture I spoke of is not just in the locker room. ( I won’t even get into the modalidades here but with the exception of a few of the teams the culture manifests in the other sports as well.)

This team desperately lack a winning attitude (or any attitude at all for that matter). Every time we take on our bitter rival from the north we resemble a scared fighter ducking and moving backwards and sideways throwing only safe and ineffective jabs in hopes we avoid the knockout blow. Rather than coming out of our corner and pressing forward and throwing hooks and combinations of our own, we instead cower. This boxing analogy sums 90% of Classicos we play against Porto and what happens on most occasions is they pick us apart with rights and lefts, overhands and upper cuts. Porto doesn’t fear going on the offensive because we don’t have the attitude to take our shots when they leave themselves exposed. We self-destruct many times without our opponents even forcing it out of us.

Once again last week we had the change to open an eight point lead on our rivals, we instead as has become accustom let our guard down and took it easy. Predictably we found ourselves with our backs on the canvas staring up at the lights as Boavista and Braga picked up deserved wins against us. We gave away a penalty in one match, saw a player sent off in the 19th minute in another, and had our goalkeeper give away a charitable goal that ultimately ended up being the difference against a legit title contender in the third match. A week from Hell is what I called it on the podcast (Episode 96). These types of mistakes are the result of a losing culture that cannot be fixed by simply spending 100 million Euros and bringing in a new manager. Those are steps to the solution but cannot fix the culture alone. A true leader needs to emerge from this group and find a way to begin changing the thinking of his teammates. Rui Costa as newly appointed Vice President needs to roll up his sleeves and address this hands on. Players need to be held accountable for not putting forth the right effort until they are behind 3-0. Players need to know how to simplify their game on nights when things are not going right. Slumps can only be overcome by playing through them and when technique and tactics are not working, old fashioned grit and determination is needed to make up the difference. We saw a glimpse of that in the final quarter hour of the Rangers match. The manager is responsible for pulling that effort out of them, that’s why he’s earning twice the salary of his predecessor. I remain hopeful that when the players get back together as a whole next week that this international break will have done them well, I have hope that the time away from the toxicity will strengthen and rejuvenate them. I hope that they’ll come back ready to work and get another good string of performances and results started.

There’s no question this group as a unit is incredibly weak mentally, like a house made of cards, when the slightest wind come along it knocks the whole thing down. Mental toughness is something that must be trained and those who train it must also be held accountable. Again the losing culture and mental weakness is consistent through the different layers of the club and is not just a product of the football team. The first thing that needs to be done is it needs to be recognized and called out, I’m calling on Rui Costa again, a former Champions League winner to recognize it and to begin to have the necessary conversations with not just players and the manager but with experts on the topic such as mental health professionals, holistic nutritionists, motivational speakers, former club greats, and everyone in between to iron out a mental training regimen and finally exercise these ghosts haunting the club. Benfica are far and away the most talented team in LigaNOS and if they can overcome these self-imposed demons. If they do this, then there’s no one in Portugal that can stop them until that happens though it will be a struggle even against the weaker teams in our League. Our biggest rival is ourselves.

Benfica 1 Porto 2 Portuguese Cup Final #SLBFCP

A Painful comes to a humiliating end at The City of Coimbra Stadium.

Benfica lose to 10 man Porto in the final of the “Prova Rainha”. Below you get my thoughts on the video version of the podcast Episode 74.

Now Over on the YouTube Channel Watch the Closing Segment of Episode 64 Before the Podcast Drops.

My Thoughts on Who’s Next and Where Do We Go From Here in the Post Lage era.

Benfica’s Root Problem is Cultural, Not Technical/Tactical

“…the only one to blame is me, I am the President”

-Luis Filipe Vieira

Lisbon, Portugal- Bruno Lage has stepped down as Manager of Benfica’s First Team, a post he’s held since January 3,2019. 2019 was in-fact a dream year for the now 44 year old former Benfica manager. His reign closed out with a lackluster 2-0 loss on Madeira Island Monday against the now 12th place C.S. Maritimo. In what now feels like an alternate universe (both on the pitch and just in general) Bruno Lage took control of the Eagles then in 2nd place and guided the Glorioso one match at a time, 3 points at a time past archrival Porto and across the finish line in first place as Champions of Portugal in the most fairy tale manner possible. In his first 20 League matches Lage dropped only 2 points in a home draw to Belenseses, SAD and erased a 7 point deficit in the table to the Dragons from the North. Add to that, when Portuguese football kicked off for the 2019/20 season Lage’s men picked up right where they left off the previous season (at least in terms of results). A 5-0 thumping of cross city rival Sporting in the annual SuperCup was followed by wins in the first two rounds of the new LigaNOS season. A round 3 shocking home defeat to the same Porto side Lage had outclassed in every way imaginable en route to the title just months earlier was the manager’s first career LigaNOS defeat. In that match there were suspect decisions made by the gaffer that were criticized by supporters and press alike, including yours truly. I remember criticizing the decision to start a young and green overwhelmingly left footed defender Nuno Tavares at right back. I like many others however, gave Lage the benefit of the doubt and placed the blame on the president for a poor offseason in the transfer market and not providing his manager with an acceptable squad (an opinion I stand behind to this day). With hindsight always being 20/20 it’s not hard to see right from the first defeat that the passionate romance between the manager and the supporters was already showing cracks in its foundation. Benfica would go on to win all the remaining matches in the first half of the season and go into the second half of the race with a 7 point lead of their own. What’s happened since does not have to mentioned here as anyone reading this knows the manager has stepped down and we now sit 2nd in the League 6 points from Porto with 5 matches to play. Much has been said about this team’s collapse in 2020 but I believe to understand the collapse you have to go back farther. For me the roots of the problem go back to 2018 and earlier, before most Benfiquistas even knew the name Bruno Lage.

Previous manager Rui Vitoria also had his romance with the fan base, although it never had the heat that Lage’s affair did. We all remember that Champions League 2nd Leg at home to Bayern Munich where Vitoria stood up for his players and was sent off by the referee and that scene of the supporters in the front rows of the Estadio da Luz near the tunnel embracing and mobbing Rui Vitoria in support of the manager that at that time had guided Benfica to similar come back in the table from down 7 points to over take the recently departed “traitor” Jorge Jesus’ Sporting side while going down in honor and with fighting spirit to a superior German giant in the Uefa Champions League. The break up between Benfiquistas and Jorge Jesus was the most bitter of any I’ve experienced. Not knowing then what I know now I also considered JJ a “traitor” and like with any long term break up (For 6 years JJ patrolled Benfica’s touchline in good times and bad.) harsh words were exchanged and JJ’s words offended Benfica’s players and supporters and inspired everyone in the club from the President to the kitman to youngest of Benfica supporters to rally together behind the hashtag #Juntos and the rest is history. 2 years later feelings had all died off for Rui Vitoria and not only from fans but players as well. The manager lost the lockeroom and the leaders of the team and at first the quality of play dropped and though the team maintained good results for some time they began relying on uglier more kick and rush styled victories, earning Vitoria the nickname “Rui Bombo”. Naturally as play deteriorated, results soon followed and it began to look as if none of the players wanted to play anymore. The nail in Rui Bombo’s coffin was a road defeat to Portimonense in which our players managed not one, but two own goals to ensure the manager’s sacking.

A week later back in our Estadio da Luz it was like flipping a switch and Benfica looked like they’d changed their mind about playing and the new manager inserted a teenager name Joao Felix and it was pure magic. That was the first win in an unbeaten League run that would span 22 rounds into the following season and we all thought (myself especially) we had our own version of the 2003-2007 Jose Mourinho. Only ours was better, our Bruno Lage was not arrogant, he didn’t consider himself “special”, the team played a mouth watering style of football featuring a number of our own academy players. The best part was our new manager had come through as an academy coach along with that generation of players and he was one of us. Fast-forward to the COVID19 bizzarro world and again Benfiquistas and their manager had lost feelings for each other. Many began day dreaming of the day that ex that betrayed us years ago would come back, save the day and we’d live happily ever after. Truth is it is now more than obvious Jorge Jesus did not betray and in fact I will argue our president betrayed him. Luis Filipe Vieira had his own romantic visions of all kinds of Benfica owned properties. Hotels, Media platforms, Health Clubs you name it and the president dreamed of a Benfica branded and licensed version of it. The team on the pitch became secondary to the spreadsheet and players stopped being looked at as part of a football team and instead became commodities to be sold to wealthier clubs abroad. I pinpoint the pushing out of Jorge Jesus as the critical moment where the toxic culture that now encapsulates Benfica was born. The idea that this club no longer needs to buy players that we can just always promote from within, those seeds were planted when JJ crossed the Segundo Circular to the Alvalade Stadium. The president stopped hiring managers based on qualifications but instead on obedience to his plans. In additioned to less experienced managers whom he could more easily manipulate LFV stopped bringing in strong personalities for the teamsheet as well. This is the reason today’s version of the team has very little leadership and this is how overpaid and unchecked egotistical players have buried the last 2 managers. With the exception of small hand full of players on this roster, these players don’t deserve to wear our crest. This club has pampered and spoiled these overall average players rotten. The entitlement of the majority of those players lead them to believe they can decide when, where and for what manager they will player. This is the problem with Benfica and it will not change just by simply changing the manager. Don’t be surprised to see this side decide they are going to play now and turn around and win these last 5 matches because these overpaid primadonnas think they can just turn it on and off as they wish. I now realize Lage wasn’t as great a manager as we thought , I believe because of the weak level of our League they players decided they’d work for him until they didn’t want to anymore. We won a title but perhaps paid for it with the soul of our club. Until the culture in the club is changed starting with the man at the very top, President Luis Filipe Vieira I expect more of the same. Maybe we’ll beat out Porto every other season and trade titles but the Champions League will continue to be viewed as a show place for young talent that is for sale and the manager whoever it will be will likely have to fill the prerequisite of being Vieira’s ultimate “Yes” man. If you’re interested in more of my thoughts regarding Bruno Lage, and the future of the club especially pertaining to the role of manager then check out the upcoming episode 64 of the podcast when it drops later this week. Below is a segment from my last episode.

https://youtu.be/wRSMrU6mMCw

All Roads Lead to the Dragão, Preview of Porto – Benfica Round 20 of LigaNOS

What may very well shape up to be the Match of the Season in LigaNOS this coming Saturday has our Eagles flying into enemy territory. For the entire existence of the Estádio do Dragão Benfica’s arrival has always been met with all the might and hostility of the Porto fan base, club officials, opponents and often times referees. We have seen it all in the many visits to the Cidade Invicta. Offside goals being allowed, ruthless tackles, phantom penalties have all come to be expected. Not to mention you can count on our team bus being attacked with stones and who can forget the fan who ran on the pitch and attack Pizzi? All of this is normal in that stadium and that club has always eluded any kind of real discipline from the league, the federation or the authorities. What else is new??

On our last visit to the Dragão our boys picked up a memorable win that spring boarded us to the top spot of the table last March in Round 24, and we’d never relinquish that lead on the way to winning #37. Spirits were up and anxieties were down when the two sides met again earlier this season. This time at the Estádio da Luz in Round 3 and this time our rivals came in and reminded us which club has had the upper hand in this rivalry for the better part of the last 30 plus years. Playing Porto pits an empty hole in our stomachs unlike anything else. As evidenced in August that even when our team is much better than theirs there is still a fear of the opponent, of questionable refereeing and more recently fear of how the VAR is going to influence the match (Even when VAR shows Pepe in an offside position ducking under his teammate’s shot at goal it still won’t be called back for offside). So with all that baggage let’s take a look at the keys to how Benfica can and should succeed in this match on Saturday.

Let’s start by making one thing clear, as much as we want Benfica to win this match outright the primary objective has to be to come away with a point at the very least. Fans don’t like to hear that, but when going into your main rival’s ground with a 7 point lead in this league a draw for all intents and purposes is a win. If we return home Saturday night with a 7 point lead at this stage, Porto’s spirit and morale will be broken and I don’t see a team as inconsistent as they’ve been being able to mentally handle that result. Sergio Conceição has already put his own job in question after losing the League Cup final a few weeks ago to Braga. So Porto will come into this match knowing they will have to take risks and leave themselves exposed at times if they are to come out with the 3 points. That means Benfica should have plenty of oppertunities on the counter and should not go chasing a result in this match.

Bruno Lage Attempts to be the First Ever Benfica Manager to Win Back to Back at Porto

Porto fielded a mostly second choice squad this past Tuesday in their Portuguese Cup semi final first leg away to Academico Viseu. But here is the squad Sergio Conceição rolled out last week in the league at Setubal

The Dragons are hoping to have midfield anchor Danilo back for this match but we may very well face a very similar line up to this one. I also would not be surprised if Conceição works Marega into his XI perhaps in place of Otavio and partnering the Malian with Tiquinho Soares in attack. In August Tecatito Corona featured as the right back in place of Manafa but given that the Mexican has been one of Porto’s brightest players this season I expect him to play further up the pitch as he did against the Sadinos and expect a lot of crosses to be whipped in from both sides for Tiquinho(Soares) who’s much more dangerous an attacker in the air than on the ground. Expect Porto to attack our left side predominately knowing that Grimaldo is more of an attack minded back and Ferro has been in a dip of form as of late. Now below is the Benfica XI that I am expecting Lage to roll out:

This is of course hopeful that Julian Weigl recovers from his illness in time to be fit for this match and if that’s case Lage has one difficult decision to make next. Gabriel or Taarabt? Now before everyone closes out this page and unsubscribes to the podcast because I’d go with Gabriel over Taarabt hear me out first. Remember that this game is in Porto and will be a dog fight. The opposition will undoubtedly look to up the physicality of the match and I don’t expect much in the way of pretty football and quite frankly the game may become very direct as a result. Gabriel is the better ball winner and better at knocking the long ball and switches across the pitch to the weak side to change the point of attack. Taarabt’s superior dribbling ability will be met with studs up tackles and a lot of body throwing by the horses in Porto’s midfield. I see Taarabt’s qualities better suited for the later stages of the match as the opponent has grown tired and will probably be carrying a yellow card or two, that’s when I’d bring the Moroccan in and let him run at the “Tripeiros”. Also Gabriel gives more in the way of set pieces both by defending them and getting on the end of them in the attacking third. Porto are the best team in the league when it comes to scoring on setpieces. Also, his late goal against Familicao on Tuesday is an example of a quality that sets him apart even if he is not playing particularly well. One thing is for sure and was proven on Tuesday and that is that Taarabt and Gabriel is not a good combination as a double pivot in midfield. Sure they looked good together for a few matches but once they faced an opponent who attacked  our central corridor (specifically down the left side of that channel) the way the Gonçalves boys did on Tuesday our central corridor became an expressway to our back line and as result Ody picked the ball out of his goal twice that night. If Weigl can’t go, then I’d prefer we plug Samaris into that hole and advise him to stay home and protect his central defenders (particularly Ferro). In addition to his expirence in big matches and stellar positioning Weigl is also very strong under high pressure and can construct play out of the back into his transition players in front of him. Below is a chart of his completed and missed passes against Belenenses SAD courtesy of https://twitter.com/_Goalpoint/status/1223344118161727491:

Very few errors come from the German and he will be needed to pick out the Pizzis and Rafas that roam between Porto’s lines looking to exploit the open spaces. And exploit the open spaces is what they’ll have to do, again expect Alex Telles and either Manafa or Tecatito to play very high as Porto have to win at all costs. That should leave space for Benfica’s play makers to create and get forward in transition.

There are two key match ups in this match I’m watching for. First is in our end and it’s Marega(if plays) against Ferro. I expect either the Malian or the Brazilian Tiquinho to pick on Ferro and try to force an error to pounce on. Again Weigl (if fit) is going to be very important in preventing service to Porto’s attack and in dropping in as cover for the center backs when needed. The other key match up will be Corona vs Cervi as we know Grimaldo will likely do alot of the attacking from our left flank leaving the Argentine with alot of the defensive duties and his primary one will in my opinion be to neutralize the Mexican and prevent him from getting good looks at goal and/or from providing service to Porto’s big strong forwards. Time will tell how this one plays out but Benfica have never had a better opportunity to sink our rivals this early in the season. Make sure you check out my re-cap on the podcast early next week. You can listen here https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mister-benfica/id1453307380 and don’t forget to rate and share the pod! Carrega Benfica, Da-me o 38!

Derbi Preview: Sporting-Benfica

It’s true what they say about Derby Matches, forget about form and if you’re Sporting Clube de Portugal the Derby is a season of it’s own. In fact for our rivals the difference between success and failure is whether or not you beat Benfica. Though they may deny it, Sportinguistas can live with losing to Porto (notice most of them are more concerned with us being awarded penalty against Aves than the fact they were robbed a clear penalty against Porto) but losing to Benfica is the end of the world. So as I look at this battle of eternal rivals I am ignoring the clear difference in lack of quality and form, ignoring the 16 points that separate us in the table, and ignoring the 5-0 beat down we handed them in the SuperCup in August. That’s because none of that matters in this rivalry, this will be a battle of wills, guts, and determination. It will also be battle of efficiency. Benfica will not get 36 shots on goal like they did against Aves. At best we can hope 5 or 6 solid chances if things go well. Sporting will be missing central defender Sebastian Coates who has on multiple occasions gaffed in his own penalty area and given us goals. Lage will have to decide between Vinicius or Seferovic to partner with Chiquinho in the attack. Also there’s the question as to who will start in the center of midfield. Some combination of Weigl, Taarabt and Gabriel will team up with Pizzi and Cervi to hopefully control the majority of the tempo and territory of which the battles in this match will be fought. I’m inclined to believe Weigl will play in the “6” position with the assignment of sending Sporting’s Bruno Fernandes to Manchester United on sour note given the ever impending transfer of the midfielder to the Red Devils. The German midfielder is perfect for the task should Bruno Lage entrust him with it. Weigl has phenomenal positioning in midfield and is right at home canceling out talented play makers. However the key match up for me will be down our right corridor and its the match up between André Almeida and Acuña. Sporting’s Argentine left wing back was the best player on the park in a recent 2-1 defeat to Porto. Almeida will have little help defensively from Pizzi in front of him and will have to rise to the occasion if the Eagles are to soar in this clash. No matter how you cut it up Benfica are superior on paper but Football is not played on paper and for 90 minutes at Estadio José Alvalade Benfica will have to execute and endure a hostile crowd in order to bring home the three points.

Welcome to MisterBenfica.com

Welcome to misterbenfica.com the new one stop home of all content created by “the Mister” Mike Agostinho. After about a year of podcasting I have decided it was necessary to add a written component to the podcast that can be found pretty much anywhere podcasts are available. My mission has been and is to continue to bring quality content and analysis in English to Benfica fans anywhere in the world. Why? Well it’s simple I’ve noticed over time that even though I grew up in a Portuguese family in the United States being fully bilingual a lot of my friends and peers were not speaking or reading in Portuguese as much as we got older, I began to realize that if the club does not make a solid to produce content in English and make it widely accepted they risk losing entire generations of fans simply because they’re now 2 or 3 generations removed from Portugal and naturally a lot of these potential fans have never spoken or read any Portuguese. I realize the massive size of the Portuguese communities in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and elsewhere should be a target audience for the club and I don’t believe the club realize that. At that point I felt it a personal calling rather than to lament the situation I should instead work to improve it and thus I began recording the Mister Benfica podcast. Now they was already plenty of Benfica coverage in the podcast landscape and some of that coverage was in fact in English and when I discovered it I realized I too to could provide to this community and help fill this void for a generation or more of Benfiquistas abroad. Having spent 12 years as a coach in the United States and working my way up all the way to a semi-professional level I felt I could bring a perspective that was different than what was already out there. The perspective of the “Mister”. In Portugal the coach is referred to as the “Mister” by his players and this is a sign of respect that goes back over years to when the British brought football to Portugal and thus the teachers would come to be addressed as Mister. So from that idea the persona of Mister Benfica was born, and though I can get off topic my goal is to be true to the persona and to try to always approach the match reviews from the view of the Mister. Finally after a year of playing horrible ads on my podcast forcing listeners to suffer through them I had earned enough from the pod to launch this page and give Mister Benfica a proper home. I ask everyone to please subscribe below and hope you will enjoy the content on this page. Coming soon will always been an accompanying YouTube Channel for some additional original video content. Thank you for your support over the past year and here’s to another year of success both off and on the pitch! If you haven’t yet I do ask that you rate and comment on my Apple Podcasts page to help me get the pod to more ears in the English speaking world! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mister-benfica/id1453307380 and don’t forget to check out my social media links above! Carrega Benfica!!