João Palhinha

I mean, there's different combinations you can make, and maybe sometimes he'll do it, and other times you'll see a different combination.

You get the double pivot in this match of Auschnitz and Manu Silva, so João Palhinha gets a well-deserved rest, and so does Leandro Barreiro.

Sudakov does not start in this one despite having scored in the previous match.

The squad rotation seems to be well done.

I think so,

yeah.

You don't have to risk, you know, putting a Paulinho out there 90 minutes in the Europa League to get through as of right now.

So that's always good to have too, right? I mean, we've seen in the Champions League, Benfica losing to the teams that they should be beating well and they need to get the points.

Bruno, Tonali.

I would go Palhinha.

He's only the, he's only genuinely world-class player in the, in the combined squads-

Yeah

... for me, Bruno.

Do you...

So who would, would you go Palhinha or-

I would have Tonali.

Yeah.

Manager Marco Silva is overly dependent on Palhinha.

European sharks are eyeing Suárez, and Samu is aggressively aiming to secure a starting spot in the lineup.

So if we synthesize everything we've pulled from these front pages today, the overarching narrative is clear.

He subbed in for two, was on the bench for one, and not selected for eleven, uh, matches.

So didn't look much of a challenger to, uh, João Palhinha going into March twenty twenty-four, um, uh, or at least up until the end of twenty twenty-five, um, uh, there.

But here he is selected for the squad.

Okay, before we look at the position, we're gonna introduce the central midfielders since there's not a lot of distinction, uh, on the field, uh, between them.

We thought he was a definite candidate at the end of March, but was not selected for the squad.

That non-selection said to be due to a drop in his club form.

The other one was defensive midfielder João Palhinha, and he came in at the likely level and was not called up.

Actually, both of these players were kind of upstaged by new players coming into the squad that the manager seemed to prefer, and you'll probably figure out who they are from here.

...

Palhinha.

Aiden Heaven played, right? But-

Yeah, Heaven played left back.

... who's the, obviously, the first team they played in, in, in the Champions League this season.

Did you feel a bit of...

I mean, obviously, a couple of the new signings, all three new signings played in midfield, didn't they? Santos, Palhinha, and of course, Tielemans.

Did you, did you s- see much to encourage you there or?

I d- I don't get where they are as a football club.

They buy a young, like, man, like Palhinha comes in, and yes, he's been injured and he'll come back in.

I guarantee you he'll become a worse player pretty soon.

Well, that's what they're doing.