José Mourinho stirs the pot as Benfica duo make headlines | OneFootball

The victory against Napoli (2-0) helped to highlight the good form of two Benfica players. It was revealed that since José Mourinho took over as the coach of the team, Richard Ríos and Samuel Dahl have been the players most closely watched by the Special One.

At the end of the triumph against the Neapolitans — which allowed the Eagles to continue dreaming of the play-off — José Mourinho did not hide his satisfaction with the result and the performance, making a point to highlight both the collective and individual performances. Additionally, the Special One took the opportunity to respond to critics.

“I heard that all Benfica players have worsened since I arrived. I think Ríos has worsened a lot, Dahl has worsened a lot. Many people have worsened a lot,” said José Mourinho, in an ironic tone, at the press conference after the Champions League match.

Against Napoli, the improvement in performance of the Swedish full-back and the Colombian midfielder was quite visible. Starting with Dahl, the focus of the Special One and his technical team was on correcting several defensive aspects of the athlete, particularly regarding space occupation.

In the case of Richard Ríos, the focus was more on the player's mental work, with José Mourinho reinforcing the athlete's confidence in his game quality, something that has been quite noticeable in recent matches. “Ríos needs to have a very large range of action. Limiting him is taking away one of his strengths,” emphasized José Mourinho last Wednesday, December 10.

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