“THE Paulo is a process coach and this will make some players, due to their characteristics, adapt more easily to the way of playing he wants for the team. Others will have a little more time to do it, but they will learn anyway”, estimated the current coach of Dinamo Bucharest to the Lusa agency.
According to the former subordinate of the new coach of the ‘green and whites’, Sporting made, this season, a “big change in the squad”, so “these players have to understand what the coach will want for them”.
“They’ll understand, surely. They’ll need time, some more, some less, but certainly the team will play in a fluid, dominating way, because that’s what Paulo (Fonseca) is like, it’s what he likes, what he knows how to do and he’s one of the best in the world at doing it”, he highlighted.
Therefore, Campos has “not the slightest doubt” that his former team leader “will greatly enhance the players” he has at his disposal, “even those who today seem not ideal for his way of playing” but will end up, in the ‘hands’ of Fonseca, becoming “much more complete players”.
“Little by little, the player starts to internalize what he wants and stops having doubts. This is the moment when the team starts to be much more fluid, they already know how to do everything on the field, things start to appear naturally and the results will follow, certainly”, pointed out Nuno Campos.
Furthermore, learning extends from the most experienced to the youngest members of the squad, who “have a great advantage” with the new coach.
“It’s just that, for him, age doesn’t matter, what matters is performance, behavior, the knowledge they acquire of the game he wants for the team. And these young people are much better prepared for their career, to play at other levels, if it’s not possible for them to play as much where they are,” said Nuno Campos, in a telephone interview with the Lusa agency.
Portuguese coach Paulo Fonseca signed a three-and-a-half-year contract with Sporting, replacing Rui Borges as coach of the Lions, after leaving Lyon, the Alvalade club announced on Wednesday.
Paulo Fonseca, 53, returns to Portuguese football after 10 years of absence, in which he successively coached Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukraine), Rome (Italy), Lille (France), AC Milan (Italy) and Lyon, which he left in third place in the French League, after nine rounds, three points behind leader Paris Saint-Germain.
The Mozambique-born coach finds Sporting also in third place in the I League, but nine points behind FC Porto, which leads the Portuguese championship thanks to a 100% victorious campaign in the first 10 rounds, and four behind Benfica, in second place.
