'Brilliant' Di María is still Benfica's main man: Portuguese football expert, Tom Kundert | OneFootball

Despite turning 36 earlier this year, Benfica winger Ángel Di María is still the Portuguese side's key man, having scored 17 goals and assisted another 15 last term, insists Portuguese football expert Tom Kundert.

The Argentinian - who is a Champions League and World Cup winner - added a Copa América title to his name this summer, and the former Real Madrid, Manchester United and PSG star is undoubtedly the one to watch when Brentford head to Estádio da Luz on Thursday.

Di María's contract expired at the end of the 2023/24 campaign, but Benfica president Rui Costa has confirmed that the forward is set to sign a new one-year deal with the club ahead of the upcoming season.

Unable to make it to Portugal? Download the Brentford FC app to stream the Bees' pre-season friendly against Benfica live from 8pm.

How has Benfica’s pre-season gone so far and what are their plans from now on?

They started a couple of weeks ago and, in their first friendly, they beat Farense 5-0 and looked really good, before drawing 2-2 with Celta Vigo the day after. In both games, head coach Roger Schmidt chose one side for the first half and another for the second, so it is a bit difficult to take too many conclusions from those.

Most people in Portugal agree that Benfica do have the best squad, the deepest squad, the most high-quality squad so, for them and their fans, it is a question of whether they can make it count this time around.

Last season - following a brilliant season in 2022/23 - everyone was expecting them to kick on and maybe make a bit of a dent in the Champions League, but it was a bit of a disaster and their European campaign was very disappointing.

Though they stayed in touch with Sporting - who have just had an amazing season and broken all kinds of records - they really were not playing well all season and it was not much of a surprise when they fell away in the end, before eventually finishing second by a 10-point margin.

There was a lot of pressure on the head coach and people were calling for his head, and people think president Rui Costa has taken a bit of a risk because the fans do not really seem to get on with the coach at all.

It is quite a high-pressure situation and, if they have a couple of bad results at the start of the season, it is going to be very interesting to see what happens.

There was a period between 2013/14 and 2018/19 when Benfica won five of the six league titles on offer, but they have won just one of the last five since. How desperate are they to get back on top again?

They absolutely will be. That was quite a big moment in Portuguese football because, historically, it has always been the big three clubs: Benfica, Sporting and Porto.

Porto absolutely dominated the 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s, winning championship after championship, and Benfica and Sporting hardly got a look-in.

Then there was that inversion where it seemed like Benfica - who are the biggest club in Portugal in terms of fans: they say six million out of 10 million people in the country are Benfica fans - would return to their success of the 1960s and 1970s and just dominate, but it did not happen.

Porto are also now looking quite rocky, compared to what they are used to. So it is a very interesting time in Portuguese football, where all of the traditional big three clubs are vying to be number one again.

It also makes it interesting because, though Portugal has quite an uncompetitive league in that it is really only those three clubs that can win the league, between those three, it is very competitive and, in the last eight seasons, no club has retained the league title. It is quite a delicate time, quite balanced, which makes it all very intriguing.

Benfica have spent around €40m to bring in five players so far this summer. What have you made of their business and where do you think they need to strengthen?

They have spent loads, especially by Portuguese standards, in the last few seasons, which is another reason why Benfica fans are very disappointed whenever they do not win the league.

Last summer, left-back Álex Grimaldo left for Bayer Leverkusen, who went on to have a brilliant season, personally, in their overall superb campaign. He was so important to Benfica’s gameplan and provided so many assists during his time at the club, but they did not replace him.

They tried three or four alternatives and ended up using Norwegian utility player Fredrik Aursnes there. They have now bought German left-back Jan-Niklas Beste from Heidenheim, who has come with a good reputation and the hope is that Benfica have finally solved their left-back problem.

The other big problem was at centre-forward because they also sold Gonçalo Ramos - who had scored 27 goals in 2022/23 - to PSG and, again, he was not adequately replaced. They tried Arthur Cabral, who was quite an expensive solution, but he never really got going and none of the other strikers really made that position their own.

So they have gone out and bought Greek striker Vangelis Pavlidis, who was scoring goals galore for AZ Alkmaar. He scored three goals in the two friendlies I mentioned earlier, which has provided a snapshot of what he is capable of. In the second game, though, I think he broke his thumb, which is not too serious, but will probably keep him out for a couple of weeks.

Which player should Brentford fans be keeping an eye on this week?

I would say João Neves, though there are question marks over whether he will still be there come the end of the summer. He is an amazing 19-year-old midfielder, who came into the team at the end of the 2022/23 season and, straight away, looked like the finished article.

He has not got amazing skill or pace, but he is such a good all-round player, so intelligent and so mature. It is incredible, really.

All through last season, he was their bright spark and the fans love him because he is one of their own and has come through the academy. He went to Euro 2024 and got a few minutes but, without a doubt, he will be a Portugal regular quite soon.

Manchester United and PSG are said to be interested in him, but he has indicated that he would like to stay another season at Benfica.

The other player for Brentford fans to keep an eye on is Ángel Di María, if he is back in the squad after winning the Copa America with Argentina. There is quite a lot of talk about him because he is still a brilliant player, especially in the Portuguese league and he scored 17 goals and assisted another 15 in 48 games last season.

Some people say he tends to unbalance the team because he does not do any defending at all, whereas others say, to accommodate him, you have to balance what he gives you with what he does not.

The coach is all about high pressure and loads of running, which is the complete opposite of what Di María is now. They have also got about four or five promising wingers whose route to the first team is being blocked by him. Even though he is very popular with the fans, a lot of pundits and fans think it would be best if he was not included in the squad for this season.

He actually came to the end of his contract in the summer and it seems like he is going to sign another one-year deal.

It is going to be all about whether Benfica can find a way of playing where they can benefit from his undoubted attacking potency but make up for his lack of defensive contribution.

How is Schmidt likely to set up his side?

His favoured method is usually a 4-2-3-1 but, with Di Maria, that seems to often be more like a 4-3-3. He almost always plays with a lone striker and then two holding midfielders; there was a bit of controversy last season because they spent €30 million on Turkish midfielder Orkun Kökçü, who had built a good reputation in the Netherlands with Feyenoord, and he basically had to play because he was their record signing.

However, with the way the coach set the team up, Rafa Silva was one of Benfica’s best attacking players and he had the no.10 position, so Kökçü had to almost play as a defensive midfielder.

About three-quarters of the way through the season, Kökçü had not really justified his fee and he gave quite an explosive interview to the Dutch press where he said he was not being played in his correct position, they did not know how to use him, and he did not feel as though he was being given a proper chance.

That caused a bit of a stir and he was disciplined, but then - what do you know - it turned out to be quite an intelligent thing to do because he played for the rest of the season in his proper no.10 position and did much better!

What’s your score prediction?

In Schmidt’s first season, Benfica played seven or eight pre-season games and won all of them. Then, when the season started, they won their first 16 or 17 games!

In front of a big crowd in their first major game, I would expect Benfica to win, maybe 3-1.