Aursnes back for Benfica v Nacional, some can breathe again: the drama... | OneFootball

The match between Benfica and Nacional saw the return of Fredrik Aursnes, who had not played since March 2. At the end of the match, José Mourinho appeared at the press conference, where he commented on Tomás Araújo’s injury and analyzed the performance of the Norwegian midfielder, who is building match fitness ahead of the derby.

"Barreiro and Aursnes are two very important players in our team. Not having one... ok... not having both starts to verge on being a drama for us", José Mourinho began by saying when asked about having had the chance to count on both midfielders, key pieces in his tactical system.

"Not having both is close to being dramatic. Today we were finally able to have Barreiro for the full match and Aursnes playing for a while. I was going to make three, I wasn’t going to make the fourth, Enzo for Ríos came right at the end. But they are natural substitutions", added the Special One, revealing that, without being able to count on the players, the situation becomes more complicated.

"Prestianni had a great game, but he was obviously already starting to fade along with Lukebakio, who had a good week of work and was ready to come on. Ivanović, hardworking, intense, pressing, also made sense at that moment. Bringing on the kid [Gonçalo Moreira] is not one of those situations that helps his development as a player", the Special One added.

"You help when you start Neto and Banjaqui, when you bring on Anísio with 15/20 minutes left. The contribution of coming on four minutes from the end to his development as a player is zero, but it is a reward he deserves", José Mourinho concluded, also addressing the playing time he has been giving to the youth academy players.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.