Farioli confirms Martim Fernandes return: “He’ll be a key option” | OneFootball

Francesco Farioli confirms the return of Martim Fernandes in Reboleira and explains how he will manage the players’ minutes in FC Porto’s final four games of the season:

Problems in attack

“The numbers are clear, we can’t deny them, but if we talk about Deniz (Gül), the goal he scored in Famalicão was ruled out by 13 centimetres… Maybe he’s not going through his happiest spell, but his performances at Estoril, in Nottingham, or in the last match were good. Part of the assessment of a striker lies in his contribution to goals. There, the numbers are not the best, but they are still contributing to the team. Deniz provided the assist for Gabri (Veiga)’s goal against Tondela and in the last game, against Sporting, Terem (Moffi) came on very well and almost scored, but the goalkeeper made a great save.”

Zaidu and Martim Fernandes

“Martim is coming back. Last week he was better, but he only trained once with the team. Today, we expect him to work without restrictions. He will be an important option for tomorrow’s game and for the remaining ones. Zaidu is still partially following his recovery programme. He will probably train with the team today, but still with some restrictions.”

Management in the final league games

“We were very focused on the rhythm of recovering in two days and then playing the next match, with the whole squad involved. We had 18 or 19 players who could feel like starters. Now, we are going to play once a week. We have more time to train, but there are challenges. Everyone feels so important within the group that, regardless of my decisions, they know that in 99.9 per cent of games, eleven players will start and five will come on. Sixteen players will be involved in each game and we have already shown, with numbers, the importance of the players who come off the bench. This is not a moment when anyone can complain or count whether they will play 10 more minutes or 10 fewer minutes. I believe we have a group with enough maturity to understand this issue and approach the final weeks with the necessary spirit to finish the job.”

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