There have been many criticisms of the alleged poor quality of the national team’s game, but this Friday, in an interview with Sport TV, Fernando Santos defended himself and also exemplified with Benfica (with praise to Roger Schmidt), Paris Saint-Germain and Pep Guardiola.
“To be successful is to win and there is no one who does not want to win. To win you have to play well, of course. PSG, an entire team, with the best players, plays with three central defenders and I play with two! Why am I the result? And I still play with full-backs that go up a lot, Cancelo, Nuno Mendes, Guerreiro… How can you say that my team is result-oriented? It seems counterintuitive to me.
In 2016 we played with four defenders, four midfielders, plus Ronaldo and Nani in attack. How do Benfica play now, with Schmidt’s excellent work boosting the players they have? Florentino, Enzo, Aursnes, João Mário, Rafa and a striker … Then it has everything to do with the dynamics of the game and the profile of the players. Even Guardiola, nowadays, plays with three central defenders to empower other players, free others. It is up to me to find the best formula to play good football, ”said the national team coach.
