Roberto Martinez was present at a press conference this Thursday evening, on the eve of the match between Portugal and Poland. Questioned for more than fifteen minutes, the Spanish technician was notably asked to explain one of his choices which recently caused controversy. Indeed, in his initial call-up, announced last week, Martinez had decided not to select Samuel Costa, because he already had two defensive midfielders, namely Renato Veiga and João Palhinha.
The former Belgium coach had even indicated that this international break would put more emphasis on more offensive players, capable of projecting themselves into the opposing area, and had named Pedro Gonçalves, Matheus Nunes and Otávio to support his point. In the meantime, Pedro Gonçalves and Matheus Nunes were forced to withdraw. To compensate for their absence, Roberto Martinez did not call on players with a similar profile, but only on Samuel Costa, the same player who did not initially fit into his plans.
Asked about the relevance of this decision, Martinez launched into explanations that were confusing to say the least: “ When we prepare a list, we select 26 players. But in reality, there were 30 (in a larger list). Then, we have to take into account certain criteria, and that was to use everyone. We don't want to leave 'second line' players out, and the idea was to use all the offensive players in the middle. Matheus Nunes and Pedro Gonçalves are among these choices. And when they end up being withdrawn, (then we turn to) Samu, who was very good during the last international break (editor's note: certainly in training since he only played one minute in October) . I have already said that he is a player for the future, I really like the balance he can bring in midfield and he is left-footed. We had the option Renato Veiga to play in 6, but now it's more natural for Samu to be in this position. »
Didn't you understand anything? Neither do we.
Photo credit: YouTube/A BOLA
