After a great start to his tenure with Portugal, coach Roberto Martinez has come under fire for his team's disappointing performances since the start of Euro 2024.
The state of grace, if it ever existed, is over. Ahead of facing France in the quarter-finals of Euro 2024, Roberto Martínez sees the criticism against him increasing. Not only because of the difficult qualification won on penalties against the modest Slovenian team. Because since the start of the competition, the Seleção has not been convinced: he has only put in one satisfactory performance, against Turkey (3-0), and suffered a heavy defeat in this match, against Georgia (0-2). If Cristiano Ronaldo is often mentioned, the coach is no longer immune. Especially since his very positive communication is annoying.
“The minimum has been reached, but the way Portugal have qualified for the quarter-finals combines insecurity and enthusiasm. The team is looking for an identity, and when you look at Bruno Fernandes or Bernardo Silva, you have the impression that the problem comes from the whole team and not from one or another performance,” notes the newspaper, for example. In Paula.
“Roberto Martinez's press conferences are starting to be insincere,” For her part, journalist Mariana Fernandez said:“It is impossible for a national coach and a great coach like him to come to the end of this match (against Slovenia) and say that the team played very well. They did not play badly of course, but we demand more from players of this quality.”
Ronaldo's surprise training and management is annoying
The mediocre performance against Slovenia provides all the clues to the criticism. When it comes to the game, Portugal’s style of play is not an advertisement for football. Which, as with the Blues, would not be seen as a problem with more encouraging and realistic results. According to Opta’s figures, Portugal are the second least effective team in the quarter-finals, behind… France.
Roberto Martinez's coaching is also incomprehensible, despite his many problems, as evidenced by Vitinha's substitution in the 60th minute, when the Parisian midfielder was one of the best players on the pitch. This change led to a tactical shift, with the move from a 4-2-3-1 formation to a system with three central defenders to better exploit the attacking full-backs Nuno Mendes and Joao Cancelo. An interesting adjustment for some, and evidence for others of the silent distraction that has been going on for a year and a half. “Changes are not made according to the team, but according to the players.” Former striker Nuno Gomes expressed his regret..
And of course, there is the case of Cristiano Ronaldo's management, a topic that ultimately brings together all the issues at stake. For example, Kevin Dias, RMC's sports advisor, said: “I'm a bit angry with Martinez because he forces us to scratch the legend”. “The question is whether he should play every game and every minute. It's not really a question of pointing the finger at Cristiano Ronaldo, but at the person who coaches him. And Roberto Martinez in particular”, analyses Nicolas Vilas, RMC Sport journalist and specialist in sports affairs. Portuguese football.
100% win
It all started well for the coach who was appointed in January 2023 after a difficult end to Fernando Santos' reign in Qatar (quarter-final exit against Morocco, with Cristiano Ronaldo in tears). The balance sheet of his first ten matches, including the qualifiers, is excellent: 10 wins, 36 goals scored, 2 conceded.
Even if there were indeed arguments to put things in perspective, between the low level of the opponents (Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Slovakia) and the difficulty of achieving some victories despite everything (1-0 between the Icelanders and the Slovaks), the lights were green for the observers, as Nicolas Vilas explains: “He broke the record for the number of goals in Portugal and he had the best defence in the history of Portugal in the qualifying phase. Everything was going well for him. He did it”. I don't really know the criticisms, there were sometimes arguments that arose, sometimes about the somewhat boring play of his team, but his team was the hero and there was no real criticism.
once again?
Then the alarms went off this year, with a defeat in March against Slovenia in a friendly (0-2), and another just before the Euros against Croatia (1-2). And now the machine seems to break down in the middle of the tournament. Which raises the question: Is Roberto Martinez capable of making his team win when it counts? This doubt has lingered (and then convinced) among the Belgian fans who have dealt with him from 2016 to 2022.
“It's exactly the same formation he had with Belgium,” confirms Nicolas Vilas. “With Belgium he had a perfect qualifier, the moment we really expected came and with an exceptional generation – and that's also the case with Portugal today – and that's where we expected the results.” However, Roberto Martínez is not far from the goal of reaching the final. Finally, the criticism he faces is not quite in line with that of his predecessor at Euro 2016.
