Roger Schmidt says Enzo’s attitude is “unacceptable” and the attitude of the “club that wants the player” is “disrespectful” to Benfica. “We don’t want to sell him, neither me nor the president. Everyone knows there’s a release clause. If he wants to leave and someone breaks the clause, we might lose the player. But they know they can do that on their own.” have if they pay the clause. It’s disrespectful to all of us, to Benfica, they drive the player crazy, they pretend to pay the clause and then they want to negotiate. About Enzo I’m just going to say and I’m not going to answer any more questions about it.”, said Benfica’s coach on Thursday in the preview of the duel with Portimonense.
It has already been reported that Chelsea have reached an agreement with the player and will have influenced him to stretch the ropes with Benfica to leave under the €120 million release clause. In addition to the inappropriate approach to the player and the offer of a salary much higher than what he earns at Luz, the London club will have changed the proposal. After informing that he would beat the 120 million clause to take the player, he offered 90 million euros, plus the transfer of three players from the side blue.
The player ignored the coach’s instructions and went to Argentina before the end of the year, where he missed two training sessions on his return: “It was a hot topic this week. Enzo is a good guy and an extraordinary player, we want that he stay, the situation It’s not easy, he played in the World Cup, won the World Cup, had proposals, there’s a lot of money at stake. He is a young player, this is confusing, we all understand this. But he is an excellent person. He was not allowed to go to Argentina, it is not acceptable, there will be consequences, I will not say which ones.”
Despite journalists’ insistence on whether or not he will be called up, the German coach has always refused to return to the “Enzo topic”. The press conference was actually supersonic and with only three references to the Algarve collision. “We’re going to have a tough game. Portimonense are a good team, they play physically, with intensity, with many players behind the ball, it is not easy to create chances. We need an excellent performance tomorrow. We were disappointed with the final result because we didn’t play the way we wanted. If we play at that level, we will have problems with all the teams in the league. We have to play football tactically, because if that is not the case, the individual performance of the players will deteriorate. We trained very well and we are looking forward to playing at home again, in front of our fans, to show our fans a good game and to fight for the three points,” said Schmidt.
Benfica wants to respond to the first official defeat of the season (with Sp, Braga, in the last round, 3-0) in the reception to Portimonense. The match of the 15th round of the I Liga will be played on Friday at 7 p.m. What went wrong at Benfica in the last few games? Besides the defeat with Sp. Braga, the draws in the League Cup left the eagles out last four. “Unfortunately too little. We were at a very high level for a long time, the players were very focused on what to do, we have clear ideas about what to do if we have the ball or not. But it is very important that all players have internalized this idea. If there are players who are not focused on the game, we play less tactical football, we arrive late, we lose control of the game. You cannot compare the League Cup game with Sp. Braga, with Moreirense we created chances, but we drew. Against Sp. Braga had the players back and the eleven we put on the field were the same ones we played against Juventus. It had everything to do with tactical behavior. We had good momentum, but that’s not something you can turn on and off, we have to work to get it back. My job and that of the team is to remember what we’ve already done, to reach a higher level again. Tomorrow we will definitely do better than last week and have a chance to win,” he replied.
Rafa is out for suspension and David Neres is making a good recovery and tomorrow he has a final test to see if he can be an option. “My choice depends on what is best for Benfica and the best way to win each game. Players on the bench also have the option to say ‘gift’. Rafa is out and we have to find a solution. He is a very important player, but during the season we played without important players and we still won,” said the red coach, who admitted that all teams in the world depend on their best players.
Source: DN
