António Silva: Why the 18-year-old is the next great academy product to emerge from Benfica – scout report

Benfica are the very definition of a selling club. The Portuguese giants have an incredible youth system and are constantly churning out top talents who break into the first team before being sold on for large sums of money.

The Primeira Liga leaders also have a wonderful eye for future world-class stars, buying for next to nothing, and developing them for a couple of seasons before eventually selling to the highest bidder.

Victor Lindelöf, Ederson, David Luiz, Ángel Di Maria, Darwin Nunez, Jan Oblak, Renato Sanches, João Félix, Ruben Dias, João Cancelo, Axel Witsel. The list goes on and on, with some of these former Benfica stars being moved on for obscene transfer fees.

Once again, now under the tutelage of the excellent tactician Roger Schmidt, formerly of PSV Eindhoven and Bayer Leverkusen, Benfica are producing some incredible youngsters.

Enzo Fernandez has been touted as the next top-rated talent that will eventually move on from the Estádio da Luz. However, there is one more name within the ranks that has been impressing with his performances in Schmidt’s system.

After Jan Vertonghen departed to Anderlecht in the summer, the German coach entrusted teenager António Silva to fill the void at the back, taking a massive risk by not replacing the former Tottenham Hotspur man.

Regardless, Silva has been impeccable at the back for The Eagles and has struck up a formidable partnership with former Manchester City defender Nicolas Otamendi.

Being already touted with moves to Manchester United and Real Madrid, Total Football Analysis has decided to take a look at the centre-back. This tactical analysis piece will be a scout report of Silva. It will be an analysis of the defender’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as looking at where he has fit into Schmidt’s tactics thus far.

Player profile

Silva’s rise in the side is a classic story of a player taking advantage of an injury or suspension within the squad. At the end of August, Otamendi was suspended for Benfica’s league outing against Boavista.

Putting faith in the 18-year-old, Schmidt threw Silva into the deep end. He would either sink or swim. Thankfully, it was the latter. Alongside Morato at the back, Benfica kept a clean sheet in a 3-0 victory and Silva played a blinder.

Schmidt recognised the centre-back’s raw quality and left him in the starting eleven for the next few matches, slotting Otamendi alongside him. The duo clicked and have been the central defensive partnership ever since. Silva is always positioned on the right of the two.

As can be seen from the player’s heatmap, most of his touches occur on the right in both deeper and higher areas of the pitch which is a testament to how far up the field Schmidt wants his backline positioned which facilitates counterpressing a solid rest defence structure.

Nonetheless, the player is still relatively comfortable being used as a left centre-back which allows his coach to shuffle him across to the opposite side in any case where Otamendi is injured, and his replacement is less comfortable in this area.