This Saturday, Roger Schmidt took full responsibility for Benfica’s performance drop, but reiterated that the break for national football team matches was more damaging than the breaks awarded to players.
“My responsibility is 100%. I am the coach, I am responsible for everything,” the coach of the incarnates admitted at a press conference in Seixal.
But, without stopping, Schmidt stressed that “it is crucial to give players days off in this type of calendar” competitively, with “more matches, more intense, at shorter intervals” and stressed that the question he was asked earlier was not about his responsibility, but about “the break and the days off”.
“My answer was that sometimes players go to the national team and some don’t play, they spend 10 or 12 days in the hotel, they practically don’t train and that’s why they lose shape and intensity. The problem is not with us alone, it is one of all coaches, and they still win games. I don’t use that as an excuse,” he stressed.
Earlier, the coach refused to take stock of the season before the end, acknowledging the importance of beating Estoril Praia on Saturday as Benfica have not won “in four games”, but praised his players’ performances.
“So far they have done an excellent job, a fantastic season. But we have to go to the end, show that we are able to have focus, mentality and concentration to win the last games and become champions. If we doing that, it’s been an incredible season,” said Schmidt.
In this sense, he warned that Benfica “needed to be very organized to avoid transition moments” for Estoril Praia, a team that “still believes” it can stay in the I Liga, but recalled that the ‘incarnations’ also affect your goals .
“We play at home and also have our goals. We want to become champions, we are eager to play a nice game and win,” said the German.
Benfica will host Estoril Praia on Sunday, in a match for the 29th round of the 1st Football League, which starts at 6:00 PM, at Estádio da Luz, in Lisbon, with Rui Costa (AF Porto) as referee.
The team led by Roger Schmidt leads the championship with only three points more than Sporting de Braga, which already beat Casa Pia (1-0) in this round, and four more than FC Porto, after two consecutive defeats against ‘ Dragon’s. ‘ and Desportivo de Chaves, in the two previous encounters.
In total, Benfica have not won in four games, because in addition to these two defeats, which cost them the loss of a 10-point lead, they still lost at home to Inter Milan (2-0) and drew in Italy (3- 3) in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Source: DN
