Roberto Martínez stopped this Sunday, with a lapidary sentence, the controversy and the desire, perhaps, of many Portuguese fans to see the striker Gonçalo Ramos be in the starting lineup of the Selection on a regular basis and play alongside Cristiano Ronaldo in the attack, with a confession, but also a warning to navigation that he thinks for himself and that he does not contain with him to feed topics that he considers sterile and that are within his competence: who plays and who does not play in the National Team.
At the press conference held in Luxembourg, after the 6-0 defeat by Portugal in the Grand Duchy, on the 2nd round of Group J qualifying for the 2024 European Championship in Germany, Roberto Martínez cut short the insistence on the subject of Gonçalo Ramos has not been a starter for the national team since he took the helm, that is, in these two games against Luxembourg and Liechtenstein (4-0, Thursday).
“But of course Gonçalo Ramos can play alongside Cristiano on the pitch and in the team. But, and let’s see something: this is not a debate, or being here watching players. It’s assessing the level of the team! And the team was very focused, demanding, in terms of stopping Luxembourg, who were playing at home. If Portugal has to be champion, it’s because the players will provide the level that the team needs. But I have 35 or 36 high-level players, who can play, all of them, at the beginning: if we talk about those who don’t play, we enter the wrong dynamic “, was Roberto Martínez’s warning.
Regarding the game concept that he intends for the Selection to be what was seen in these two meetings, the 59-year-old Spanish coach was pusillanimous.
«Yes, the main idea of the game is this: to be able to create goalscoring occasions, yes. Honestly, I didn’t like 25 minutes of the first half with Liechtenstein, between 20′ and 45′. But the attitude, the commitment, the intensity of the players’ training at Cidade do Futebol was… spectacular! Much better than I expected, I confess “, recognized Martínez.
«Portugal must be variable in tactical and game systems. In the second half, Luxembourg changed the system. I also like tactical flexibility in my teams, they are a very important part. But we worked for a week, there is still a long way to go for the national team. It is just a starting point, but a very positive one, I agree», acknowledged the national coach to Portuguese journalists, at the press conference after the meeting.
So delighted is he that Martínez promises not to be surprised to be without the players now, until the next appointments in Portugal. «My experience of the last seven years as a coach [da Bélgica] tells me that I must now work in the same way, but without the players. In nine weeks, there’s Bosnia, then we play Iceland: my work doesn’t stop anymore, but it’s very different to have the players with me, or not».
Finally, and out of curiosity, he ‘killed’ the curiosity of a Belgian journalist, a team that led him to the semi-finals of a European and a World Cup, with a stroke, on whether he continues to follow what happens to the ‘red devils’ . And the answer left no doubt about his satisfaction at seeing his former pupils well on their way.
« Lukaku scores and Belgium wins [3-0 na Suécia, ‘hat trick’ de Lukaku] makes me very satisfied, but I was very busy working with the Portuguese national team», he said, before concluding with the – much more interesting – observation of the importance of Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva in obtaining spaces for Portugal to achieve create occasions and score goals, even playing in positions that are not the ones they usually play in the two ‘giants’ of Manchester (United and City).
«If I asked Bruno Fernandes to play differently than he does at Man. United? I am very happy to have him in the national team, like Bernardo Silva, from Man. City. They are two players who fit well into any tactical system, as they have a lot of quality. Both play in a joint relationship, looking for spaces, and they got it in this game», concluded Roberto Martínez.
