The Benfica coach said that he is only sure not to lose Enzo Fernández until Saturday, the eve of the reopening of the soccer transfer market, but he guaranteed that he is focused only on the visit to Sporting de Braga.
“Until December 31 we are sure of all the players. Nobody can buy us a player. That’s why, on the eve of the game with the [Sporting de] Braga, I’m just concentrating on that. Everything else will happen, perhaps, when the transfer window opens,” said Roger Schmidt, at a press conference in Seixal.
The presence before the media served to anticipate the match of the 14th round of the I League, but the coach ended up devoting most of the time to answering questions about the midfielder who was chosen as the best young player in the World Cup in Qatar and assumed that “always there is a risk of losing players” and that in Benfica you have to be “prepared for anything”.
“These young players sometimes have opportunities. It’s not just Enzo, it’s all the players. It’s part of the football business. If they have opportunities, they have to make decisions. I can give them advice and recommendations, but I always respect the decisions of the players, because they only have one race”, condescended the German.
Regarding the fact that Enzo Fernández wrote that he will travel to Argentina to celebrate New Year’s Eve with his family, Schmidt said that he does not know anything about what is happening on social networks, but he was more intransigent.
“We are a professional soccer team, the rules are [iguais] for all players. It is very important that all players rest between games to be ready for the next game. There are no exceptions to this”, stressed the coach of the ‘incarnated’.
Regarding the visit to Braga, the coach revealed that he had prepared the game “with the entire squad available, except David Neres”, including Otamendi and Enzo Fernández, who played in the World Cup until the last game and only in the last week. He returned to work at Benfica.
Schmidt admitted that this year “everything is different” because the World Cup was held in the middle of the season and there was no “rest, vacation and pre-season” for the world champions, but he guaranteed that both “are very motivated” to return to work at the club and that they even have an advantage over their teammates.
“In fact, they are in the best situation because they have pace. They are the only players on our team who have rhythm, so what I hope is that they have fun tomorrow. [sexta-feira] play again for Benfica”, commented the coach.
Benfica will visit Sporting de Braga on Friday, in a match of the 14th round of the 1st Football League, which starts at 9:15 p.m., at the Estádio Municipal de Braga, and will be refereed by João Pinheiro (AF Braga). .
The team led by Roger Schmidt leads the championship with 37 points and seeks to increase the gap with FC Porto to eight, which beat Arouca 5-1 on Wednesday, on the day that marks the return of the championship after a month interruption and average during the World Cups.
Sporting de Braga, for its part, is in third place, with 28 points, and seeks to close the gap for the two rivals, but has to react to the 5-0 defeat suffered in the last game, against Sporting, counting for the League Cup.
Source: TSF
