After yet another embarrassing defeat at the Estádio do Dragão on Sunday evening, Benfica fans are left to wonder why does history keep repeating itself.

The performance on Sunday, or lack thereof, was a culmination of what we’ve seen in the last few months.

For some, they were optimistic we’d avoid it. For others, they could see the iceberg from a mile away. Then there were those who I believe deep down were hoping this would happen to fuel their argument of why the manager should have been sacked however many months ago, but to each their own.

As Luis wrote about just a few short weeks ago, and just as we’ve discussed on the podcast many times, despite the performances not being great nor consistent, the numbers were on Roger Schmidt’s side.

On the contrary, we also said that if we continued down this path, eventually, those individual moments to decide matches would dry out.

Bowing out of the Champions League the way that we did was embarrassing, and shouldn’t be discarded, but at the very least, we got into the Europa League.

Domestically, we are in the semi-final of the Taça de Portugal with everything to play for in the second leg, and we are now one point back of first place despite having an extra match. There are 30 points up for grabs in the league still.

We’d already won the Supertaça, and defeated all of our direct rivals in the first half of the season. Of course, that doesn’t win you the title, but again, despite the performances being average at best, the numbers were giving the manager the benefit of the doubt.

The investment that’s been made since Roger Schmidt’s arrival has been substantial, but don’t let that fool you. Spending money isn’t synonymous with winning.

Investment should give you better opportunities to win, and the ability to have a plan a, b, or c, given your resources. It should instill the requirement and expectation to have an identity.

We started off having most of that, or at least believing we did, but now it feels as if we’ve been given an expensive yacht, placed in the middle of the ocean with no map, no guidance, and even no idea what body of water we are floating in.

No one can deny that our gameplay has progressively gotten worse, and the team selections of late are confusing enough to leave even Roger Schmidt’s biggest supporters scratching their head.

How did we go from #RogerBall to #RogerIsLost?

The team lacks an identity, and we lack a concrete style of play. Some players try to press, while the rest of the team sits and watches. I’ve seen more organization from Sunday League teams than I’ve seen from some of Benfica’s performances.

And let me be clear, this has nothing to do with whether you’re in favor of the manager or not. Or at least, it shouldn’t. We should all want Benfica to play attractive football and win. If we can’t manage the attractive part, at least win, and we’ve done that more often than not.

Sunday before leaving the Estádio do Dragão, Rui Costa said we will react. Now the question is, how?! Who will react?

There are a lot of people responsible for this, starting from the direção, to the coaching staff, and the players. The bus ride back to Lisbon will have been hopefully long enough for everyone to reflect and think about how they’ve contributed and how they can be better.

Unless things really fall apart on Thursday against Rangers, Roger Schmidt isn’t leaving, at least until the end of the season. So we now have to wait, and see what this next week brings us. We host Rangers Thursday, and then host Estoril Sunday. A crucial week not only for a lot of individuals, but also for what’s left of Benfica’s 23/24 season.

Will Sunday’s embarrassing defeat be Benfica’s midnight? We can only hope!