Bruno Lage hails Benfica star: the player who scored most for me | OneFootball

Bruno Lage took to social media to leave a message paying tribute to Pizzi following the tribute paid to him by the Portuguese Football Federation this Monday. The coach was not present at the ceremony, but made sure to publicly mark the occasion.

“I couldn’t let the chance pass without paying tribute to the player who scored the most goals for me while I was a coach,” wrote the Setúbal-born manager, who coached the midfielder at Benfica between January 2019 and June 2020, winning the league title together in the 2018/19 season.

Lage also highlighted the importance of collective work in the individual development of players, underlining Pizzi’s ability to read the team’s attacking play: “One of our responsibilities as coaches is to create the collective context to get the best out of each player. Pizzi understood positioning and play between the lines very well, with creativity, assists and goals… lots of goals,” he said.

The coach also recalled the midfielder’s numbers under his command, highlighting his attacking productivity over two consecutive seasons, including how difficult it was to play amid the Covid-19 pandemic during the 2019/20 season.

“Between January 2019 and the restart of the league after the stoppage caused by Covid-19, Pizzi scored 38 goals under my command, making him the player who scored the most goals in my career as a coach,” noted the former Eagles manager.

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