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Bruno Fernandes on Portugal's midfield competition benefiting the squad

tacticsjournal.comBruno Fernandes on Portugal's midfield competition benefiting the squadPortugal international and Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes, in a pre-match press conference: I’ll start with the last part. Who will have space or not is up to the coach to decide, and thank goodness it’s not up to me, because there is a lot of quality in Portugal and I think we only benefit from that. We have players who can play in different positions and be on the pitch at the same time, as happened in the last game. João Neves was on the pitch at the same time as Vitinha, Ruben Neves, myself, and Félix, for example, and we are players who can likely occupy very similar positions. I think that is a very positive point for us. Being in the national team environment is something extraordinary, and it shouldn’t be seen in a negative way, regardless of whether you play more or less. We all want to play, represent our country, start matches, and play games. That’s what we are here for: to cause the manager headaches and difficulties so that the choices become harder to make.This is why Portugal’s underperformance in tournaments is so frustrating. They have so much potential.Fernandes: They end up being two very similar positions regarding what the coach asks for offensively. Defensively, playing a bit on the left forces me to press more often on the outside, press the fullback, track the fullback’s deep runs, and tuck inside when the ball is on the other side to help the midfielders so there isn’t a numerical superiority through the middle. Playing in the position I played in the last game is more about helping the striker in the first moments of pressure. Then, in a deeper defensive block, it becomes part of a midfield trio that helps close down the middle so the opposition can’t play through it. Playing on the left is about occupying interior spaces and giving room to the qualities of our fullbacks, Nuno Mendes and Nuno Tavares, who have great depth, speed, and ability to hit the line. At the same time, I get closer to the midfielders, the number 10 or number 8, the second striker, and the main striker so that link-up play can happen, as it did in Denmark. These dynamics are important for me to assimilate, but it is more important that Portugal has clearly defined ideas and can do things differently in different games so we don’t become predictable. I think we’ve been able to do that.

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