Quaresma hits out at Roberto Martínez: “We need a boss who gets it” | OneFootball

In the analysis of Portugal’s performance and the overall assessment of the 2026 World Cup, the opinion was harsh: “For me, it has gone badly from the start until now. Everything has gone wrong. There wasn’t a single match where you could say we played well or attacked a lot and were just unlucky. Even today, you handed the game over to Spain from start to finish. Spain controlled the entire match, did whatever it wanted, controlled the tempo of the game — when it wanted to speed up, it sped up; when it wanted to slow things down, it slowed things down — and we were just wandering around out there with no desire, no joy, very sluggish. Then there were substitutions I just don’t understand… I’m tired of saying this, but Martínez has never impressed me. Like it or not, I don’t care if people get upset or not, but we need much more joy in this. Since Martínez arrived, I haven’t seen the national team play a great match. That’s the reality. He tried 50 tactics, none of them worked. And there’s the proof: we’re going out with the national team that everyone said was the best of all time… but best of all time in what sense? What have they won? Are we going home disappointed and with our heads hanging low? It’s probably best if I don’t comment much more on this World Cup, otherwise I’m going to start saying things I might regret later.”

Criticism of Roberto Martínez: “No one needs to disrespect the coach, but there has to be personality and character. A lot of times I hurt myself because I did what came into my head and what the game was asking of me, and of course there were coaches who didn’t like it and took me off. And that’s all fine, those are their choices, they’re the ones in charge. But I did what the game was calling for. And these players have more than enough standing to do what the game asks of them because no one is going to touch them. No one is going to say anything if they fail, so why don’t they take more responsibility? What are they afraid of? The national team needs to sit down, look at what’s right and what’s wrong, and bring in a coach who understands this.”

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