Mourinho slams press, on Otamendi exit and Real after Benfica v AVS SAD | OneFootball

José Mourinho was at the press conference after Benfica's victory against AVS SAD (3-0). Among various topics, the coach criticized the media for not giving more attention to José Neto's starting position, discussed Nicolás Otamendi's halftime exit, and the controversial match against Real Madrid.

"AVS SAD is better organized, defensively compact, resilient, because their situation wasn't easy, losing 3-0 at halftime, but they showed resilience to keep playing until the end. It's clear they will do their best until the end and will fight for victories and to earn more points. Today we are more of a team than we were in that game at Aves, we are more of a team, with perfectly defined game principles. We continue in this pursuit of points, doing our duty which, regardless of the standings, is to give our maximum. And that's what we did today."

He said this week wasn't easy, did the criticism he faced have an impact on him, regarding the accusations of racism against Vinícius Júnior?

"I don't want to comment. I repeat that it has been difficult for everyone, I won't specify at what level the difficulties were. Today we were all able to be professional and do our job."

Ivanovic, with you, only has a place on the wing, or do you still consider him as a striker?

"From the moment we won the game, it was more about management. I wanted to give rest to those who came off and try to fit the pieces as best as possible to keep the team balanced. I wanted to take off Pavlidis and Schjelderup and wanted to give minutes to Ivanovic and Anísio. Anísio is more of a forward who plays with his back to the defense, using his technique in tight spaces, Ivanovic is a central forward in depth, in transitions. When we play against teams that play in low blocks, Anísio is a more prominent player than Ivanovic. We like Ivanovic, both as a person and as a professional."

Is the first-half performance a boost for Benfica four days before visiting the Bernabéu?

"It has more to do with Barcelos than with the Bernabéu. If we didn't win today, we would go to Barcelos with different horizons. Assuming that one of our direct opponents has already won, assuming the other will also win, we maintain the distance and will go to Barcelos with the mentality that the game is also decisive for us. Therefore, the fact that we won today doesn't motivate us for Wednesday, it motivates us for Barcelos, because they are completely different things."

Was Otamendi's halftime exit due to physical management? And were you satisfied with Bah's performance?

"I made many changes in the team and wanted to keep three or four players there and thought that Otamendi, despite being the oldest of all and despite being one of those with more minutes, I thought his presence was important, even to not give the group the wrong impression. In that central position, we have three top-level center-backs and in this case, at halftime, I took Otamendi off and put Tomás Araújo in. In fact, we even played a big game in Porto, where Tomás and António Silva played, today playing Otamendi was more symbolic in the sense of passing on to the players the message, at least not incorrect, that the game would be easy, that the game wasn't important. Seeing the game was going that way, I divided the minutes between him and Tomás, keeping António in the game, who hadn't played in the previous game. With Bah, I was more than satisfied. I had doubts about whether he should start or come into the game and he took on the responsibility for me that, eventually, 90 minutes would be too many, but coming in to play 20, 25 minutes would be too few. So we decided he would start and go as far as he could. If the game had a higher level of difficulty, we had Dedic on the bench to come in. If the game was more or less controlled and we didn't have that kind of need, we would later bring down Sidny Lopes Cabral. Now we have Bah, Dedic, and Banjaqui back on the right side. And well, if it were another club starting with 17-year-old players like we do and do quite often, I think it would be front-page news, I think it would be the opening of many programs, but since it's Benfica, it's something that almost goes unnoticed, but as a coach, I don't overlook the work that was done with the players until they reached the first team, including in the Federation. If I were in the stands today and didn't know the players, I wouldn't believe that Benfica's left-back is 17 years old."

What dynamics did you ask José Neto and Bah to have in their interactions with Schjelderup and Sidny?

"It was easier on the left than on the right. On the left, we wanted to build with three with Neto inside and Schjelderup outside. And it's an almost natural dynamic that matches the characteristics of both. And everything was very fluid on that side. On the opposite side, it's the first time Bah plays with Cabral. Bah likes to attack depth more outside than inside, just like Cabral. There was a bit of a clash regarding the occupied areas. But we already knew that could happen."

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