Paulo Bento criticizes the “noise” in Portuguese football and asks for “peace” for the national team

Coach and former national coach Paulo Bento said on Tuesday that there was “too much noise” around Portuguese football and called for “peace and tranquility”, namely the work of new selection coach Roberto Martinez.

“There is too much noise in our country around certain situations in football, often from people who do not have the slightest ability to analyze the game. This leads to even more conflicts and disputes. This is all that our team does not need. To train and play, you need peace and quiet,” said Paulo Bento.

The 53-year-old coach, who recently left the South Korean national team and was one of the guest speakers at the National Association of Football Trainers (ANFT) forum, commented positively on the hiring of Spaniard Roberto Martinez to Team Quinas.

“It is up to us to support his work. Naturally it will take him some time to adapt, which won’t be that difficult because he has a number of players of great quality and maturity who play in the most competitive leagues and clubs in the world. A number of factors have been collected that, I believe, will lead Portugal to participate in the next European Championship,” he analyzed.

The former national coach, who led Portugal from 2010 to 2014, considers Martínez “a quality and respected coach with experience in a good national team”. [Bélgica] and with an outstanding performance in the 2018 World Cup and another good one in the 2021 European Championship”, apart from the fact that the first line-up of the coach was conservative.

“He understood that these were the best options. We are criticized for making certain decisions, or we are criticized for not making certain decisions. If a very big revolution happens, we need to be a little more conservative or keep a solid foundation. don’t hold back, you have to be bolder. There is always room for criticism in our country,” he commented.

Still answering a question about “criticism and noise” in national football, Paulo Bento noticed several outbursts from Porto manager Sergio Conceição, who admitted that the Dragoen manager could be worn down.

“The credit for Porto’s recent victories is also largely due to Sergio’s work. [Conceição] and his technical team. Not only for what they are doing nationally, but also in Europe, I see comments, perhaps not very assertive and even with some lightness and disrespect, which I admit can tire you, like me, at a certain point. period,” analyzed Paulo Bento.

The coach, who managed the South Korean national team between 2018 and 2022 after leaving his post after being eliminated in the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup against Brazil, admitted that he already had offers to return to active duty, but continues to analyze the market of opportunity, commenting the departure of the Portuguese coach Pepa to the Brazilian team Cruzeiro, for which Bento had a short period of only two months, in 2017.

“I want to congratulate you on the path you have chosen, but I cannot help you much with what you are about to find, because the current structure of Cruzeiro will be completely different from the one I had. What I can say is that Brazil has a more complex context. This is a country in which there is very little time to work and manage the process. The opinion of the public and the press carries considerable weight,” Paulo Bento warned.