Roger Schmidt: "I am very pleased with our team"

PRESS CONFERENCE

Roger Schmidt, coach of Benfica's professional football team, spoke to journalists at a press conference at Benfica Campus, in what was his first public intervention in the run-up to the start of the 2023/24 season.

What are your expectations for the match against Feyenoord on Sunday, July 30?

We're going to have a very tough game. Feyenoord is a very good team, it is the final test before the Super Cup. We chose Feyenoord because they play with a lot of intensity, they are an aggressive team, and it will be a very good test. These three weeks of pre-season have been very good. The atmosphere has been very good, the players are training without problems and are very motivated. For tomorrow's game [Sunday] all the players are available, even Nico [Otamendi] is ready to play. I'm very satisfied with the pre-season, it's a very important moment because it's the foundation for a whole season in physical, tactical, and mental terms, since during the season we don't have time for this type of training. We have used this period as well as possible. Against Feyenoord, we want to have a good game, then we still have a few days to prepare for the Super Cup and especially for a very tough season.

How have the first days of Benfica's new recruits been, particularly Kökcü, Jurásek and Di María?

Very good! They are different players. Orkun [Kökcü] is a player we have been in contact with for a long time, especially when we knew we were going to lose Enzo [Fernández]. The transfer was not possible in the winter, but we kept in touch. I'm very happy that he decided to come to Benfica, it's a big step for him, maybe the perfect step. It's also very good for us. He's a very good player, he showed it in pre-season. He has something special reading the game, he's very good at leading the team in possession and making decisions. He's very good with the ball, he gives us more options. We also had to replace Grimaldo, who left and was a key player for us. We looked and found Jurásek, he has a different profile to Grimaldo, but for him Benfica is also a big step, it's a great opportunity to play for one of the big clubs in Europe. He sees it as a great opportunity. That attitude is very good to create energy, you can see it in training. Our idea is always to bring players who feel it's special to come to Benfica. As for Ángel [Di María], there's sometimes so much talk of players returning to the clubs where they grew up, and now he's back. He came back to the club, he decided to come back! He had many options, but his main goal was to return to Benfica and play for it again. That decision was very special. Now, I've known him for three or four weeks as a person - I knew him as a player. He shows in training the quality that we all know he has, he's a fantastic player! He has integrated quickly, you can see how much fun he has playing football, the motivation to work hard and be in great physical condition. 

With the investment Benfica has made, do you feel more pressure to be national champions this season?

We invested, yes, but we had to invest. We sold a player in the winter transfer window for €120 million. We bought some players, because if you want to replace high quality, you have to invest some money, and we tried to do it in a smart way. I'm very pleased with our team, and the objectives are very clear: we want to play very good football, attacking football, so that Benfica fans enjoy coming to the stadium, and of course, we want to win trophies because that's what you have to achieve when you're part of Benfica.  At the moment, we are completely focused on preparing for the start of the season and then, in each competition, we will try to do our best. That's what we did last season, that's what we'll try to do this season as well.

About your team, it is known that you need a goalkeeper... but is it only that position that you want to strengthen?

We try to build a very good team for next season because that is crucial. If we want to play for trophies and at the international level, we need a very good team in the Champions League. We haven't lost many players, but we have lost players, some very important. We tried to replace them as well as possible, in the best possible way. I'm very satisfied with the team. We can lose one or two players, and we also have to be ready to replace them. As for the goalkeepers, in the winter break [in the 2022/23 season], we lost Helton, and we decided not to replace him because we trust our young goalkeepers, namely Samu [Samuel Soares], André [Gomes] and Leo [Kokubo].

Is goalkeeper Bento a priority for the position, or do you have another option?

I do not comment on players. I repeat what I said about the situation of our goalkeepers: I am calm about that topic. It's not only in the goalkeeper position, it's in all positions: Benfica is always prepared to have solutions. That's very clear, but I don't comment on names.

How important is it for you to have David Neres available to play in the Super Cup?

I'm very happy to have him available for the Super Cup because we need all the players, all the options for this game and the other games. That's always our goal, to have all the players available.