Roger Schmidt stressed on Friday that his role as Benfica’s football coach is to make sure that “Benfica counts” and that the team is prepared to “win the game” against Gil Vicente.
During a press conference previewing matchday three against Gil Vicente, the Benfica coach chose not to be aware of the usual ‘hustle and bustle’ that comes with the final days of the transfer market, noting that his job consists of ‘being fully focused on the team’. “.
“Some agents want their players to leave to make money. There is always a lot of confusion these weeks, but my role as coach of Benfica is to be fully focused on the team, on what we need to do and all that matters is Benfica”, emphasized the German coach at Benfica Campus, in Seixal.
Roger Schmidt makes it clear that the only goal on his mind is to win “tomorrow’s game (Saturday)” in Barcelos, and that his focus is on the “22 players and three goalkeepers” he commands, don’t expect him to undergo many roster changes. There are few transfer market days left [o período de inscrições fecha dentro de uma semana].
“We have to win tomorrow’s game (Saturday) and the current situation in our team is that we have 22 players and three goalkeepers, which is good, but it’s the minimum and we can’t lose many players, it’s impossible, especially a week before the closing of the market. At the moment, there is always something happening behind the scenes and adjustments are still possible,” he acknowledged.
The coach addressed the current dispute over a place in Benfica’s goal and downplayed the controversy that arose over the situation of goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos, stating that his position was simply “as fair as possible” to the Greek, as he stated. plan is to be for each of the players. his players, regardless of their position on the field.
“I try to be honest, very honest about my opinion of the players and the games. As honest as I can be, I don’t think he was in top form. It doesn’t matter what the player’s position is, whether he a goalkeeper, a midfielder, a center player or a striker, it’s no problem to talk about it. It wasn’t a criticism of the person, just what happened in the game,” he justified.
With Vlachodimos in the group, Roger Schmidt was pleased with the quantity and quality of players at his disposal and pointed out that the usual ‘rumours’ in the market and some usual noise during the week do not hinder the team’s preparation .
“What I see at the moment is very good. I am happy with them, with their characteristics. There are always rumors and noise around the club, but not in our team,” assured the German, who showed confidence in the whole squad .
Without being able to count on David Jurásek, who is recovering from an ankle ligament injury, Schmidt defended his choice to adapt midfielder Fredrik Aursnes to the left-back position, showing that the player is also used to playing that role.
“He [Aursnes] he is used to playing in the attacking midfield, on the left side, and last season he rotated many times and was often also responsible for the left-back position, not only offensively, but also defensively. So he’s used to it and we had to make a decision,” the coach explained.
Roger Schmidt justified Aursnes’ choice for the left flank due to the need to “find space” and to have possession of the ball to do so, leading to the arrival of another midfielder.
“My choice on that day was to have Fredrik and another player in attacking midfield. In these games we have a lot of possession and we need to find solutions and a few more spaces, as we saw against Estrela da Amadora last week.” , he concluded.
Benfica will take on Gil Vicente on Saturday in a First Football League third round match, which starts at 8.30pm at Estádio Cidade de Barcelos, led by João Pinheiro, of the Braga Football Association.
Source: DN
