to replace the "italian" style of trapattoni, koeman wanted benfica to have a "dutch" approach; he said, "a team like benfica always has to play to win. in what i know of this team, we can perfectly play in a 4–3–3," and that finding the right balance between offence and defence in the playing style mattered. vital to his new formation, koeman asked for more wingers, such as andy van der meyde, and boudewijn zenden, but benfica did not sign them. instead, he received attacking midfielders diego souza, andrei karyaka and giorgos karagounis. to improve koeman's options up-front, composed of nuno gomes and mantorras, benfica tried but failed to sign jon dahl tomasson. koeman instead received italian international fabrizio miccoli on loan from juventus. in defence, benfica added brazilians anderson, léo, with nélson replacing miguel, who moved to valencia.