"We have to play with our brains, not just our hearts"

PREVIEW

In the preview of Ajax vs. Benfica, a match in round 5 of the Champions League, scheduled for 5:45 pm (Mainland Portugal time) on Tuesday, November 25, José Mourinho emphasized that winning the three points is essential to fuel the goal of advancing in the competition

.

What do you expect from this match against an opponent who, it could be said, is in more or less the same situation as Benfica in this Champions League? Do you consider this game to be a real final, both for Benfica and for Ajax?

I think so. I think both teams are in exactly the same situation. I didn't bother to look at Ajax's schedule after this game, because I'm not really interested in that anymore. But this game is crucial for both teams. Obviously, maybe 9 points could eventually be enough. So, a team that loses tomorrow [Tuesday] will still have, mathematically, the hope of qualifying with 3 wins in the last 3 games. But looking at our situation very objectively, the next three games are not exactly easy. I believe that tomorrow is crucial for us to win the game.

Regarding that message you gave in the last game: was it to spur the players on? Did it have any effect? Regarding your history, for example, against Ajax: you've won every game you've played against them, seven out of seven. This international dimension that you've always had, how do you bring it to a reality that's a little different from that time, when you won the Europa League with Ajax, when you were playing in Champions League semifinals and finals? How do you bring that experience, the reality of that time, to the present, at a moment that is somewhat opposite and different, and in a completely different reality as well?

My history, statistics, whether positive or negative, I always consider to have absolutely no influence. I didn't even know it had been seven. I remembered that I played in the Europa League with Manchester [United], I remembered that I played here with Real Madrid, I had no idea that I had played seven games against Ajax. It doesn't matter, tomorrow [Tuesday], one thing has nothing to do with the other. FI focus on Ajax's potential, which, honestly, looking at the players individually, like us, is not a team that should have 0 points after 4 games. I try to analyze the team they are, I try to analyze what they haven't done well in recent games, but what they can do well at any moment, because good players can do that at any moment, and that's what I focus on in my message after the game against Atlético. I have a player here on my left who can perfectly confirm that everything I said in the press, I said to the players. I don't see any drama in that, but I understand that you have to debate, debate, and debate, otherwise how can you have commentators 23 and a half hours a day on all the TV channels? You have to debate things, but the reality is that, for me and for the players, it ended there. That was the message I wanted to convey, and that's it. If you ask me if the last few training sessions were good, I'd say yes. Today [Monday] was very good, yesterday [Sunday] was also good, but it has been like this since I arrived. Honestly, I have absolutely nothing negative to say about the players or the way they train. Quite the opposite. So what I hope is that tomorrow the team will give their all, that the players are at their peak in terms of concentration and motivation. I think it's a matter of winning in order to have any hope of qualifying, and I can't think of anything more important than that motivation.

Still on the subject of that message you sent after the game against Atlético in the Portuguese Cup, you told some players not to come knocking on your door asking why they weren't playing. I'd like to ask you directly if one of those players is Ivanovic. Is there any reason why he hasn't yet established himself in the team?

When you guys keep hammering away at the same thing, obviously I don't like it, but it's something I understand; when you guys lie, it's something that upsets me deeply. If there is a player who works hard, if there is a player who gives his all, whether in training or in games, including against Atlético—and I can say with certainty that his substitution had nothing to do with his attitude—it is Ivanovic. He is an extraordinary young man, who works so hard, for whom things are obviously not going well, but who is an extraordinary young man and untouchable from a professional point of view. It is one thing to comment, but quite another to invent, and when people make things up about players who are dear to me, it hurts me. It hurts me and I don't like it.

In the last game [Atlético-Benfica], you had a lot of praise for Rodrigo Rêgo, who played left wing against Atlético. I wanted to ask you: how do you plan to fit him into a back four? After the experience at Restelo, are you considering continuing with the three-center-back system, or do you plan to return to a back four?

Rodrigo [Rêgo] cannot play as a full-back in a back four. He has never done so; it is not in his nature. When players come up from the youth teams to the first team, there has to be a transfer in the behaviors they have acquired. He has never been a full-back and, at the moment, he is obviously not in a position to be one. In the future, eventually, yes, because when players work well, they grow tactically. Right now, he's a wingback, both on the right and on the left, in a four-man defense system. In a three-man defense system, he's a left wingback, which is what he's been doing lately with [Nélson] Veríssimo in the B team, and he's doing well. He played well, physically speaking, he also has the ability to play at a high level and can play tomorrow [Tuesday]. Obviously, I don't want to reveal tomorrow's system. My colleague [Fred] Grim would certainly like to be sure of what we are going to do, and I am convinced that António Silva is frozen, because it's freezing cold outside.

I would like to continue talking about the last game, specifically about Rodrigo Rêgo, but also about Obrador. In the last game, you used Dedic, a right-back, on the right side, and Rodrigo Rêgo, a player used to playing in more offensive positions, on the left side. Obrador is in the squad, he recently played for Spain [Under-21 team], but since the start of the season, he has only played two games for Benfica. At what stage of development is he? What has been missing, or what is missing for him to be a more regular option in your choices?

He played for Spain in one game, if I'm not mistaken, against Liechtenstein, and didn't play in the next game, which was the most important and most difficult game. [Rodrigo] Rêgo stayed with me, and we worked for two weeks. Obrador left after the game against Casa Pia and only came back two days before the game [against Atlético, for the Portuguese Cup]. Obviously, it's an advantage for those who stay, an advantage for those who are working every day, especially for these young guys. I need to see them, I need to have them, I need to understand what they can and cannot give me. Rafa [Obrador] is a full-back [defender], he needs to grow defensively because he still has some gaps. As we started the game against Atlético with three defenders and attacking wingers, Rêgo is much more experienced in that role. He had played four or five consecutive games with [Nelson] Veríssimo in the B team, performing that role, and I also wanted to give him a chance because if you don't give younger players opportunities, you'll never know what they can or can't do. There's always a question mark over how they will react to new scenarios, whether in terms of quality or the intensity of the game. But you have to put them in, if you don't put them in, you don't know. And I thought it was a good opportunity to put Rodrigo in and try to see if he was capable of continuing with us. 

Welcome back to the Netherlands. What do you think will be the biggest challenge in this game against Ajax?

The biggest challenge is the responsibility to win. It's one thing to want to win, but it's another thing to have to win. It's different. Personally, it's the same thing, because I always tell myself that I have to win. Ask him [Pavlidis] if he feels the same way. But I think that's the challenge. We have to be balanced. We know we have to win, we know that to reach 9 points—maybe 10, I think 9 are needed to guarantee qualification—we need to win tomorrow [Tuesday], we have to win tomorrow. But we have to play with our brains, not just with our hearts or emotions. That's the biggest challenge for us.