João Brandão: Team improving, aiming to impose our game at Paços | OneFootball

After fifteen days of work at Olival, where the team improved “greater fluidity, greater mobility, and more approach to the opponent's goal,” João Brandão wants the players to internalize “the notion of the collective task they have to perform” in Paços de Ferreira (Monday, 6:00 PM, Sport TV+) against “a team that scores little but also allows very little to the opponents.” In line with the coach, Bernardo Lima emphasized that on the other side is “a historic and competitive team,” but it's necessary “to know how to overcome that,” since those who wear blue and white only think about winning the three points: “We are FC Porto and we will go in to win as we do in every game.”

Because “the purpose of the B team is to supply players and prepare them in an ideal context so that they can then perform in the A team,” the coach expressed “pride” in seeing “Ángel Alarcón enter in Vila do Conde” and “João Teixeira in the call-up” for Salzburg, while the midfielder reaffirmed that “the focus is on helping the B team,” although he aspires “to one day represent the main squad.”

The improvements achieved at Olival“I feel the team is prepared to compete, to go to Paços de Ferreira to retrieve what was taken from us in the game with Leiria. For this, it is essential that we are also allowed to finish the game with eleven. I feel the team has improved in terms of competitiveness and collective understanding of the game, achieving greater fluidity in offensive play as well, with greater mobility and more approach to the opponent's goal. As a consequence, the levels of effectiveness in the scoring opportunities we create increase.”

Paços de Ferreira“It’s a Paços with some elements that have experience and history in the Primeira Liga, and with a reduced goal difference, meaning it’s a team that scores little but also allows very little to opponents. We will play on a traditionally very challenging field as it historically was in the Primeira Liga, so it will certainly be a competitive game, as the context of the Segunda Liga usually is, where it will be essential to have a team with a notion of the collective task it has to perform. The individual angle will stand out after the collective task and after a very competent collective game. We want to reach Paços and impose our game. We want to reach Paços and seize the game very effectively, dominating and controlling.”

The close connection between professional teams“The purpose of the B team is to supply players and prepare them in an ideal context so that they can then perform in the A team. This is the great goal and purpose of the B team and obviously, we feel very proud of these moments like when Ángel Alarcón enters in Vila do Conde and with the constant flow of players from the B team to the A team, as happened now in Salzburg, also with João Teixeira in the call-up. It is a huge satisfaction to see the A team with many players who regularly belonged or still belong to the B team squad, as is the case with Gabriel Brás and Pedro Lima. We also feel very represented in what were the words of Mister Farioli and we feel that we are important in what is the preparation and weekly dynamics. We are always available to do it with great pride, obviously, but we also really want to win. If we can reconcile the two things, it will be ideal, so the focus now, as the game time approaches, shifts much more towards winning and less on the individual.”

The history of confrontations“What we take from these two games last season is that the game has a very deep competitive depth. That’s what happened there in Paços, where it was crucial to rescue a lot of what are Porto values and never give up, always believe until the end. I want to remember that in Paços we were at a 2-0 disadvantage and managed to make it 2-2. At home, it was also a game, already in the final phase of the championship, with a very high emotional load, where the team managed to take the three points that time. That is the only thing we can take from those two games because otherwise, each game has a different story. They are different teams and different players. Certainly, it will also be a different story, especially since we intend to bring the three points, just as happened here at Olival.”

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