“We'll be at full strength”

PREVIEW

With full focus on the Championship, Bruno Lage assures that Benfica's work group is “ready and determined to play a great game” against Casa Pia this Saturday, January 25, at 6 pm, at the Estádio Municipal de Rio Maior, on matchday 19 of the Liga Betclic.

How do you preview the clash with Casa Pia, an opponent who is going through a good moment and has now gone six games without losing?

Yes, our opponents are having a very good campaign. That's why we have to be totally focused on the next game. It's essential that we all have 100 percent energy, because it's going to be a difficult game, against a competent team, who play with a line of five, but an attacking line of five, with the two full-backs deployed, a lot of speed in the corridors... The front three are dynamic and attack well from deep. It's a very difficult opponent, but looking at what we did in the last game... It feels like it's what I want, what I like, that the team is getting closer and closer to the ideas I want, the attacking mentality. So we're ready and determined to play a great game.

Looking at the game with Casa Pia, as you were saying, but also looking at what Benfica have done in recent games, what can't Benfica do, or should they correct, to avoid being surprised by Livolant, by Cassiano, by the Casa Pia players who are strong in attack?

It's about going in as determined as we have been. What we've been talking about is our consistency, our determination, and what we've put a lot of emphasis on is a confident team, going in determined to win the game, having good starts, as we did in the last game - against one of the best teams in Europe, we were already winning after 2 minutes - as we did in a very confident game against Famalicão. I'll repeat what I said a little while ago: appreciate what we've done, appreciate what we've done, hold our heads high and look to the next game with enormous determination. What you mentioned - and rightly so - I'm not just talking about the two of them, I'm talking about the three men up front, because it's a very interesting dynamic, trying to drag our defensive line and having another man between the lines to try and link the play, as well as the speed of the wing players. So it's a team with quality, who are playing very well in the league, but we have to go 100 percent, with energy and determination to win the game.

This week, you've received a new signing: Manu. Is he ready to play? What can this player offer the team that's different from the other midfielders in the squad?

Yes, he's ready to play and he's a great signing. I'll even confess to you... We already knew the player, but it was an opportunity, and a name proposed by our President, and from the moment he mentioned Manu's name, I didn't let go until he managed to bring him in. Benfica did a fantastic job in convincing a great player and Benfica fan. It's around these players and with this feeling - as well as being Portuguese, a great player and a Benfica fan - that the team can grow and evolve. As a player, he'll give us another solution in midfield, which I think was important to have. He can give us solutions as a central defender, and he can give us solutions as a 6, because really, as a natural 6, we only had Tino [Florentino]. It will be very interesting to see how they both grow and develop. He can also give us solutions as an 8. He's a very good builder and has good passing ability. So he's a great player, a great signing, and it was a very good job by Benfica to bring a young Portuguese and Benfica player to us.

How is the team after all the controversy in the Barcelona game? How are the players and what kind of spirit does Benfica have for the league game??

We looked at the game to value what we had done. Appreciate what we've done, appreciate what we've done. Don't take the reference to the Record newspaper the wrong way in your question: our objective - and this was my intervention on the pitch - is to raise our heads after this cruel lesson. That's why we have to move on now, make the most of what we did in the last game, make the most of what we've done, and tomorrow [Saturday, January 25], we'll be at full strength against our opponents.

After the Barcelona game, there's another European game next, against Juventus. In that sense, do you plan to rotate your squad for that game against Casa Pia and do you have any physical problems with your players?

It would be a strategic mistake for us to be thinking about the game ahead, our total focus has to be on the game with Casa Pia. That's what I want, that's the feeling I've given the players and I feel the players are completely focused on the game with Casa Pia, because we depend on ourselves to win the league. We need these three points to win the league, so our full focus is on the game against Casa Pia, and tomorrow [Saturday] I'll decide, depending on what the wear and tear may have been, the best moment for each player to choose the right team to play a great game against Casa Pia. 

You've already put all your focus on the Casa Pia game, but I ask you... After all the incidences of a high-intensity game [against Barcelona in the Champions League] on Wednesday [January 21], knowing that there's a clash with Juventus coming up [Wednesday, January 29], which is always a big European clash, and even more so with the issue of the play-offs not being completely resolved, I'd like to challenge you: convince us that the players don't have their minds set on Juventus.

They can't have, because what we talked about was Casa Pia. I'll tell you how we work: we always and only prepare for the next game. And, with the coach giving us that message and the information we're going to pass on about the opponent - and what we have to do - that's what they have to be focused on. Because we can't play two games at a time, we can only play one game at a time, prepare for one game at a time. Sometimes I don't even know who the next opponent is, I always know two games ahead. In the last game, either [against] Farense or [against] Famalicão, I anticipated and said, 'next game, Champions League, Juventus', and it was Barcelona. So if my head is like this - one, two games, one, two games, one, two games - the players' head is one [game]. So, right now, I know I'm going to play a game against Casa Pia. I understand [the opposition] very well, and I've given the players all the information, how they defend, how they attack, how we can play with a line of five, because we really are very good at playing against a line of five, regardless of how we come out from the back. So that has to be the focus and the determination, and it's normal for these players to be focused on that. So I'm starting from my example, of looking ahead to the next game and preparing ourselves in the best way for the next game, because, as I said, it's very important. Championship... we depend on ourselves to win the Championship, and these three points are precious to win the Championship.