"Fans and team: focus only on football and passion for Benfica"

PREVIEW

With the certainty that Benfica “must perform at their best” when they host Moreirense this Saturday, February 8 (6pm), at the Estádio da Luz, on matchday 21 of the Liga Betclic, stressed the Eagles' ambition at the start of “a terrible cycle”.

Benfica hadn't had a week to prepare for a game in nine matches. What was it like to have that time, before another demanding cycle and also a match against Moreirense, an opponent who has already taken points off the big teams, and who knocked FC Porto out of the Portuguese Cup?

It was a time for recovery and also an opportunity to train some moments that were important to train, not least because, as you know, we received three new players, and it was also important for them to understand our dynamic. We're going up against a great team, who are having a great league season, particularly, as I said, at home, both in the Cup and in the league. It's a team with a very interesting quality of play, with a good dynamic up front, particularly on the wing, lots of combinations between wingers and wingers. A very interesting midfield... A team that likes to have the ball, and we have to be at our best, as always, to win, because that's our main objective. We're going to enter a terrible cycle again, not so much because of the number of games as we've had in the last month, but because of the time between games. The focus and what interests us right now is Moreirense and playing at home, because we love playing at home, at the Estádio da Luz, in front of our fans, because they are the soul of the club. My appeal, as I did a fortnight ago, is to be all Benfica during the 90 minutes, supporting the team as always. It was like that against Barcelona, against Famalicão, in Turin, in Amadora... So 90 minutes of total support for the team. That's the message I wanted to send out a few days ago about shielding the stadium. Let all the differences, the politics - both internal and external - and even the attacks from our opponents stay outside the stadium. And that the fans have that capacity and passion to shield the stadium, just as I, in my capacity, shield the locker room from what doesn't matter, and focus only on football and the passion for Benfica.

This week, you've been able to work with the new signings, so I'd like to ask you to analyze these players, how you feel about working with them, what they can add to this squad, and whether they're already an option for this match.

Regarding the signings, it was just as the President said, they were small adjustments that we had to make to the team, also a little based on my work and a deeper knowledge of the team over the last five months, so that was the main reason. The main reason was to bring competitiveness and quality to the team. We're very pleased with the work that the whole structure has done to get these players, they're players of enormous quality, and, anticipating the possible question from you, at the moment, I'm completely aware and conscious of the responsibility on my part, because the team is more to my liking, because it brings us enormous competitiveness. I'll give you a small example of what I mean: look at the position between Manu and Florentino. Manu brings us a building capacity that I think is very important for a team like Benfica's to have, but at the same time we have Florentino, who is the best ball-retriever in the Champions League. That's what I want in the different positions, it's this internal competitiveness that I think is important, because we have to be competitive out there against our opponents, but first we have to be competitive here at home. So this is the balance I want in the squad, this is the competitiveness I want in the squad, and I think this example is very good for all the other positions.

Are the new additions already available for this game [against Moreirense]?

Yes.

There's a clássico between FC Porto and Sporting today [Friday, February 7]. How important could the result be for Benfica's season? Can it help define what Benfica's season is going to be like, with Sporting six points ahead and FC Porto two points behind Benfica?

No, it's an important game for the league, for Benfica's season it can't be. For Benfica's season, what matters to us right now is our game with Moreirense and the team's ability to play a great game. That's our focus, what matters to us right now.

A while ago I asked him whether Prestianni had a chance or not. You replied that you had a plan for Prestianni. With the arrival of the new recruits, has that plan for Prestianni fallen apart? Is Rollheiser also completely out of that plan, which you had for everyone, in fact?

Yes, that's what I was going to say, we have to have an idea and a project for all the players and, at the moment, what I can tell you about Prestianni is exactly that: nothing changes. Because we have it for Prestianni, we have it for João Rego, just like we have it for ene players who work with us every day, even the older ones. We always look at the player, regardless of their age, and understand how we can help them play in accordance with what we want. There are even older players who have made significant progress in the way they play, even in terms of performance. Like Prestianni, look at the evolution and the plan - I'm going to use “plan”, the term you used - that we had with [Álvaro] Carreras, with Kökcü, in short, with some players who started to play, started to produce - for Andreas [Schjelderup] too. Now, we can't do everything at once. What's fundamental is for the players to be aware of what we want for them, in the short, medium and long term. So that's the way we work. We look at each of them individually, and that's what we've also done this week with the players who have arrived, so that they understand what contribution they can make to the team, what aspects they can continue to improve in the short, medium and long term.

Can you clarify if Di María is injured, if he's going to be spared to control possible muscle fatigue? And just now you were talking about the fans being Benfica for the full 90 minutes to avoid these internal and external “politics”. I ask you: what are these internal and external “politics”?

Di María isn't available for this game, and our idea is that he'll be available for the next game [against Monaco]. You live the day-to-day life of national football, you know perfectly well what I said - what I meant - and I'm going to say it perfectly. All the political situations, we know what's going to happen between now and October, there will be elections and there will be, as I said, internal and external politics. An example of the internal issue was the resignation of the vice-president, and the external ones are possibly other candidates who might want to run against our president. And I, as coach, the person most responsible for the team, have this responsibility to shield the dressing room from these issues. And the fans, because the fans' main interest, apart from the life of the club? inside the stadium is to play football, and my appeal to the fans is that. In there, let there be no differences, just the feeling of supporting the team, the feeling of liking Benfica, supporting the players, watching the football match and, in the right places, discussing what needs to be discussed about Benfica's future.

What does Andrea Belotti bring to this Benfica team? Considering his latest figures, he's had less of an impact on the teams he's played for recently compared to what he did at Torino. What do you think he can bring to the Benfica team that Benfica doesn't already have?

Look, I'll tell you quickly: he could be an option for tomorrow's game [Saturday], because Arthur Cabral has been injured in the meantime. We ended up with the same fundamental solutions, having the striker, and also looking a little at what Zeki's [Amdouni] role has been. Zeki is a striker who likes to play in a more withdrawn line, and if there is a business opportunity to bring in an area spearhead who has the same or similar characteristics as Zeki, we can eventually exploit that and use him more as a spearhead, and Zeki can be that player in a second line. So he's a player with a lot of experience, it was a business opportunity, with the loan, and what we want is to try to get the best out of him. He's going to relaunch his career at a great club, he has the chance to play in the national championship, all the competitions we're involved in. We have a lot of confidence in him.

Four new recruits have arrived, but you can only register three for the Champions League. What I want to know is: who has been left off the list that Benfica has already sent to the European competitions?

Bruma, for the simple fact that he had a two-match ban to serve, and we then analyzed all the circumstances in terms of the squad, in terms of having a balanced squad, having various solutions available, and Bruma was left out.