Farioli confirms Martim Fernandes return: “He’ll be an important option” | OneFootball

Francesco Farioli confirms the return of Martim Fernandes in Reboleira and explains how he will manage the players’ minutes in FC Porto’s final four games of the season:

Problems in attack

«The numbers are clear, we cannot deny them, but if we talk about Deniz (Gül), the goal he scored in Famalicão was ruled out by 13 centimeters… Maybe he is not going through his happiest moment, but his performances at Estoril, in Nottingham, or in the last game were good. Part of the assessment of a striker lies in his contribution to goals. There, the numbers are not the best, but they are still contributing to the team. Deniz provided the assist for Gabri (Veiga)’s goal against Tondela and in the last game, against Sporting, Terem (Moffi) came on very well and almost scored, but the goalkeeper made a great save.»

Zaidu and Martim Fernandes

«Martim is coming back. Last week he was better, but he only had one training session with the team. Today, we expect him to work without restrictions. He will be an important option for tomorrow’s game and for the remaining ones. Zaidu is still partially following his recovery program. He will probably train with the team today, but still with some limitations.»

Management in the final league matches

«We were very much tied to the rhythm of recovering in two days and playing the next match, with the whole squad involved. We had 18 or 19 players who could feel like starters. Now, we are going to play once a week. We have more time to train, but there are challenges. Everyone feels so important within the group that, regardless of my decisions, they know that, in 99.9 percent of matches, eleven players will start and five will come on. Sixteen players will be involved in every game, and we have already proven, with numbers, the importance of the players who come off the bench. This is not a moment when anyone can complain or count whether they will play 10 more minutes or 10 fewer minutes. I believe we have a group with enough maturity to understand this issue and approach the final weeks with the necessary mindset to finish the job.»

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