Jesus Takes Over

It's over, the tale that had started a couple weeks before the season ended has finally reached its conclusion, as Benfica formally introduced Jorge Jesus as our new coach.
I don't have anything against the Jorge Jesus, and little by little, I have accepted the fact that he was the best choice for Benfica. After Quique was left out to dry and there was no turning back. The choice makes a lot of sense, and is the lesser of the two evils when it comes to disrupting the continuity of Rui Costa's project.
Bringing in another foreign coach would mean going back to the start, while with Jesus' choice, Benfica brings in a man who can hit the ground running. Jesus not only has a vast knowledge of the Liga Sagres, but he's also very familiar with Benfica's squad.


Jorge Jesus' wasn't necessarily the choice of many fans out there, but with the deal being done, the vast majority, myself included, will be behind him.
He is not your typical "silky smooth" talker, and his vocabulary would not be a threat in an average game of scrabble, but is that really important? Jesus is a sort of an idiot savant, often times putting his foot in his mouth, or not finding the best words to describe a situation, but flashing signs of brilliance in the same context.
As a Benfiquista i would like to see a well spoken person in front of the media, but i'd trade a championship winning blabbering fool for a failed road scholar any day.

Jesus is known as a master tactician, a student of the game, a self proclaimed innovator when it comes to tactics, but as yet to coach a team of Benfica's stature, where the players' egos are a big part of the locker room chemistry.
Despite being on the way to gather the support of majority of the fan base, Jesus will not enjoy the same type of error margin a new coach would have. A lot of that has to do with the fact that he already knows the team and league. Come December his objectives have to be on track or he will risk losing a large part of the support from the fan base.

Jesus likes to play in the diamond 4-4-2 disposition, and has already stated that he thinks of Aimar as a third forward, your modern "10" if you will, which is the role i feel Aimar is best suited for, the role in which he had success with playing for Argentina and Valencia.
He as also praised Amorim, who he had coached at Belenenses in 06/07, as a tactically smart player. Certainly two important figures in Benfica of Jesus.

As far as a technical staff goes, Jesus will carry over his technical staff which is composed of three assistants - defense coach, forward coach and fitness coach, but will close out this team with two more coaches, whose names are not known at this time.

Little is known about what players, if any, Jesus will want in this team, Eduardo(current Braga and national team keeper) has been talked about by the media, as well as Weldon(played for Jesus at Belenenses), but they are merely media speculations at this point. More speculation will ensue in the coming days and weeks i'm sure.

I'll finish by wishing Jesus a lot of luck, and that his wishes and statements about taking Benfica to a championship become true.

Welcome, Best of Luck