Jose Mourinho saw his Benfica team work hard in the win over Taca de Portugal and insisted he could have substituted nine players after a shocking first half.
Manager Jose Mourinho admitted that his Benfica side did not play very well and was glad he made nine substitutes at half-time before ultimately securing victory.
The Lisbon side saw off lowly Atlético CP in the Taca de Portugal, but the Special One claimed he had been “betrayed” by some performances, claiming that the system was fully effective but that the players were unable to carry out his instructions.
Mourinho made four changes as his players came on in the second half, but was adamant he could have changed almost the entire squad. The former Chelsea manager has only been back in his home country for a few months, but he did not refrain from lamenting for his players.
In the end, Benfica took the lead in the 73rd minute with Ricard Ríos’ opening goal. Four minutes later, Vangelis Pavlidis doubled their lead in the fourth, but Mourinho conceded after the game.
“We made four substitutions at half-time, but we should have made nine. Those nine players weren’t on the pitch. Only two should have stayed. Is the system working? The system is working. The players who are there are not working. I don’t like players who betray me.”
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“At half-time in the locker room, we decided which players we were happy to keep. There were two players who wanted to play. We should take the game seriously. The other nine were not.”
Mourinho claims bringing in new talent has forced a change in Benfica’s approach, but insisted he should not question why some players are not playing after sub-par performances. He added: “We didn’t want to specify what we needed to do internally, but we were forced to change the system to remove some of the players we wanted to remove.”
“The problem was not the system, it was the players. Some of the players were not in the game from the first moment. I have already told them not to come knocking on my door because they will not play.”
Benfica remain unbeaten in the league this season, but a number of draws have left them six points behind leaders Porto, who have won 10 of 11 games. Mourinho has won seven of 13 games since returning to the Estadio da Luz, but all three of those defeats have come in the Champions League.
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