"We must go with great ambition"

PREVIEW

At the press conference ahead of Vitória SC-Benfica this Saturday, November 1, on matchday 10 of the Liga Betclic, José Mourinho promised an ambitious team on a mission to secure another victory, but one that is aware of the difficulties it will have to overcome in the always difficult trip to Guimarães.

For this matchday 10 fixture, two teams find themselves in very different situations. Looking first at Benfica: little time to prepare since their last victory in the League Cup. On the other side, Vitória SC comes into the game on the back of some less than ideal results. Which team do you expect to see? And how has your team recovered since the last game?

Vitória is Vitória, and playing in Guimarães is playing in Guimarães, always. They may be in better or worse form, higher or lower in the table, but playing in Guimarães is always difficult, playing against Vitória is always difficult. We are still at a stage in the championship where the standings often do not reflect the true value of the teams, and Vitória will certainly not finish where they are now and, as always, or almost always, will end up at the top of the table. They have a good team, good players and, as I said, important support—some of the most important we have in our championship—from their fans.  It's a difficult game for us. They didn't play in the League Cup, they had the whole week to prepare for the game, we didn't. But we have to be ready. OK, fatigue exists, fatigue is real, it's not fictitious, but Benfica is Benfica, and they play to win the Championship, they play to win every game in the Championship. We have to go there with enormous ambition, but completely focused on what the game will be like and fully aware of the difficulties we will encounter.

There has been a lot of talk about academy players this week, because of Sporting's League Cup game [against Alverca], but also because Joseé Mourinho was at U-17 training session yesterday [Thursday] and went to see the B Team's game. I would like to understand how you view this timing for launching players from the Academy: it is a difficult time to do so because your margin, Benfica's margin for error, is smaller and, therefore, the bet may also be later, or, on the other hand, would it be good to already have new energy, players who are motivated and want to show other things?

I think the players are all motivated. Whether they are younger players looking for an opportunity, or older players fighting for their stability and status in the team. Honestly, for me, players have no age. If I have to field a 17 or 18-year-old, I have no problem doing so. Obviously, I've only been here a very short time, so what I'm trying to do is get to know the players as much as possible. Obviously, the B team is the one closest to us, and with players coming to train with me, I go to watch the training sessions—it's easier to get to know these players. But I try to get to know as many as possible because sometimes there are players who have such high potential that they skip stages. Sometimes I might fall in love with a player who isn't in the Under-23s, who isn't in the B team, and who could make a direct leap, for example, from the Under-18s. We coaches are all different: the way we evaluate, the criteria we have regarding the potential of players. It may be that one day I decide that a player who is less prepared than others today, but who I think may have a more important future than those who are more prepared at the moment, could perfectly well skip stages. What I try to do is, instead of being here, when we only train in the morning and finish our work with the first team at 3:00 or 4:00 pm, instead of going to my room for a nap, I go to watch training sessions, I try to follow along, watch some of the kids' games, and get to know them as much as possible. It's part of Benfica's culture and, at the same time, one of the most beautiful things a coach can do is launch players. All the players who made their debut with me throughout my career... all the players in whose careers I played an important role, it's one of the most beautiful things that can happen to a coach. I can't say all of the players, because that would be a lie, but I would say that a very large percentage of the players who made their debut with me are players with whom we still have an almost umbilical connection today. It's one of the most beautiful things that happens in Football. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to do that with all of them, but with almost all of them.

At the end of the League Cup game, you said you felt you had failed somewhat in your attempt to push the players. Now, during the little time you've had to work with them, have you already started pushing the players, with a view to the visit to Guimarães? Or do you need to push them harder?

I think the players who need to be brought back to reality about what it means to play in Guimarães, against Vitória, are the players who arrived this season. I am a new coach at Benfica, a new coach in Portuguese football, so to speak, but obviously I have knowledge and experience of my home league, and I have even played in Guimarães many times as a coach and assistant coachThose are the ones who need to be woken up, because I think everyone else knows perfectly well that it's difficult. It's one of those opponents that title contenders will play, and there's that expectation of “win, don't win, draw, lose,” because it's a good team, it's a team that always fights for the top spots in the standings. I think the players are perfectly aware of that. Regarding the last game against Tondela, there was the prospect, which was later confirmed, that Tondela would change players and focus more on the weekend game against Aves. We fielded a strong team. From the outset, all of us, including myself, felt that “we're going to win this game,” and we went into it with a bit of a “we don't need to push too hard, things will just happen” attitude. Guimarães, I think, is a completely different story.

Richard Ríos and Lukebakio were the protagonists of the second goal against Tondela – Richard Ríos makes a good play, Lukebakio scores his first goal. Do you feel that this move could take some of the pressure off the players to prove themselves? Barrenechea, Barreiro, and Richard Ríos: could this type of midfield be used in some games to free up Richard Ríos in the final third of the pitch?

I think it's nice for players to have that feeling, and for people to feel that they played a good game. Richard [Ríos] came on well, Lukebakio scored his first goal for Benfica. That unselfish empathy of “the goal is ours, the goal isn't mine”... those are nice things. Man of the Match – even though I made the trophy disappear... It's very nice for a player arriving in a new league to be Man of the Match. I think it's very nice for Richard to celebrate a goal that was almost his at the Estádio da Luz and receive that warmth. I think it's good for their growth. The question you asked about whether all three of them can play: yes, all three of them can play. I think Bruno [Lage], once, perhaps defending himself from some of your comments, even said: "People think Barreiro is a defensive midfielder, but Barreiro is not a defensive midfielder at all." Bruno was absolutely right, because Barreiro is a player who works very hard, but who also has fantastic timing when it comes to getting forward in attack. He's a player who, when given the freedom, can play perfectly well in that position, in the number 10 position. In the game against Fenerbahçe, at Estádio da Luz, in the first minute he appeared in a scoring position and almost scored. In this game, when Richard came on, he started playing more offensively—he appears in the second and third goals. They are good players. I think the three who have played the most [Barrenechea, Richard Ríos, and Sudakov], plus Barreiro and, obviously, Aursnes, make up a group of five very interesting players, and then there's also an area where there's [João] Rego, where there's [João] Veloso, where there are young players who have everything it takes to play.