Roberto Martínez described the choice of Matheus Nunes to replace Otávio as “very obvious and natural”.
“Matheus is the natural and obvious choice. During the training camp in March he played a very good game against Sweden and worked in the role that Otávio plays tactically. I really value the game he played against Sweden,” said the national coach at a press conference on Monday.
Point one: Does Matheus have Otávio's profile? Questionable.
CNN Portugal commentator Sofia Oliveira accused Roberto Martínez of incoherence, saying in a post on Twitter/X that “swapping Otávio for Matheus is like swapping potatoes for onions”.
“There's not a shred of consistency in Roberto Martínez's choices. Either you believe in the importance of Matheus' specific profile from the outset - giving up on other midfielders who are similar - or you don't. Swapping Otávio for Matheus is like swapping potatoes for onions,” wrote the expert.
For his part, Tomás da Cunha aligned himself with Martínez, considering the swap-for-swap “obvious”. However, on the same social network, the soccer commentator wrote that, regardless of Otávio's absence, Matheus Nunes should have been included in the starting line-up.
“Otávio and Matheus Nunes don't have to be the same players to have the same role. In this case, inside forward in a 4-3-3 or right midfielder in a 4-4-2. Come on in. The call-up is relatively obvious, although he could (should, as I said) be on the first list,” he said.
Rui Malheiro agrees that Matheus Nunes should have been called up straight away, but believes that “choosing him to replace Otávio is a contradiction”.
“They're very different players. I think Matheus should have been called up instead of Rúben [Neves], because he's a midfielder who can offer completely different things to other midfielders. Otávio is much more of a joker who can play from the right wing or in the middle; he's not a player to burn lines, like Matheus,” wrote the expert.
Speaking of contradictions...
Point two: Roberto Martínez's biggest contradiction started right at the call-up on May 21.
In his explanations of the 26 selected the following day, the Spanish coach admitted that the fact that Matheus hadn't had many minutes at Manchester City throughout the season was a determining factor in his being left out.
This was the explanation given by Martínez for not calling up the midfielder - who had even been in top form in the game against Sweden (with a goal), in the team's last training camp in March... before getting injured.
“It's difficult for us to know if he can play two games in the space of four days. The idea in March was for him to play both games, but after the first he wasn't fit for the second. Rúben Neves treads the same ground and so does Otávio. We know a lot about what Matheus can do, but we don't know when,” he explained.
This would have been a valid and non-contradictory justification had Roberto Martínez not called up Pedro Neto, who has only played 12 minutes since March 9.
Martínez now says that the choice of Matheus Nunes is “very obvious”. In the meantime, has the English champion midfielder given assurances that he can play “two games in the space of four days”?
Portugal play their first friendly before the Euro this Tuesday, against Finland, at the José de Alvalade Stadium. The match will be broadcast on RTP at 19:45.
