Paulo Freitas on Porto’s loss at Luz: "Obviously I’m worried" | OneFootball

Paulo Freitas took charge of FC Porto this season after leading Portugal to the European title. However, the start of the season has been complicated for the Dragons: they have only one win in seven matches and this Wednesday they lost at Luz in the national championship.

At the end of the match, the coach acknowledged the team's poor form while analyzing the Clássico.

“I think overall we played a good game, this was not the result we wanted. In the second half, we were much superior to our opponent.

The first half was very tight, and I think what we lacked was better finishing near the goal and we were missing some defensive aggressiveness at certain moments.

We were punished with two goals, one from a set piece, another from open play where there was a deflection and the ball fell to Gonçalo Pinto, and a third goal from a shot from the side where again we lacked some aggressiveness.

We understand that we have what it takes to be present at every decisive moment and we clearly admit that we are not going through a good period. The only thing we know is the concept of team, the concept of hard work to get out of this bad patch we are experiencing in terms of results, not so much in terms of performances because we have been building a lot, we have played good games but, in fact, we haven’t been winning and we are here to win.

As a coach and representing this institution, it’s obvious that I have to be concerned. Myself and my entire staff, but above all, we are calm. We are sad, obviously, but we have to stay calm and focused. I only know one way out of this, and that is through work and building results, and I have no doubt that the results will come.

We have only been working together for a relatively short time, but I am satisfied with the work the players have been doing. This is a team that fights relentlessly in every match and, as you saw, we exposed ourselves in the 5×4 and ended up conceding [the fourth goal] in that way.

We trust each other and have the capacity to work, and more important than working after victories is how we get back up, and we will clearly manage to get back up.

This team wants so much to win and deliver titles to the fans that sometimes it suffers a bit from anxiety.

[Will the title contenders drop more points?] I believe so. And there will be arenas that will be as difficult or even more difficult than this one [Luz]. The hockey championship is increasingly balanced and I think one or two more teams will emerge [besides the traditional ones, to challenge the contenders].”

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