Freshly introduced as FC Porto's new coach, Martín Anselmi addressed the media, together with André Villas-Boas, to address the expectations he has about a club he has known “since he was a child”, the “football of advantages” he intends to create in Dragão and the “context that makes a footballer” before revealing that he has already asked the president to “build a new showcase that can be filled” on his first visit to the Museum. He intends to do so with “a competitive team” that strives “for all objectives” and is “always on top”.

Alongside “a person with a lot of focus, a lot of passion, very direct”, the president is aware that they need to let the coach “develop his project, attack this final phase of the market and know what the team may need in his eyes” to continue the continuous growth of the “best national club and one of the best worldwide”: “We really want to fight and compete for the titles, that's what we want Martín to do with this passion and this purpose that will move a lot of people at Olival, not only the players, but also the support teams”.

Martín Anselmi

The first contact
“I promise to speak Portuguese, I still can't, but I will try in the future. The feelings are enormous, here you breathe something... this is what I worked for all my life. Here you feel the passion, the work culture, the demand, the need for the team to convey what the fans want to see, the intensity and the struggle. This symbol is very important, the people of Porto, their titles, this essence that is seen around here and this work culture with which I totally identify. I've known FC Porto since I was a little boy, I'm a Newell's fan and players like Belluschi have played here. As the president said, the atmosphere in the stadium made me understand where I am and I believe I will build a competitive team until the end.”

A formula that constantly reinvents itself
“We want a football of advantages, positional, in which we take positions, more than a system. We can build with three, but if a libero appears as a centre midfielder, we are already playing with four. I can play with two midfielders, but if a midfielder moves up, I'm already playing with one. After all, systems do not say it all, and to attack, having a rigid system does not favour us. For the offensive side,  we have a system that constantly develops and depends on the opponent. To defend there is a system because there is an order: where we start from and where we go, who leaves and who adjusts, but it is also flexible. We really like to study the rival, we don't decide how to attack, the opponent is the one who dictates how we will attack. We need players who understand the game, who know where the advantage is, the free man and the space. These are things that make a system move. We have already worked, in defence, with a line of three or five, but it constantly decomposes because, when it comes to escape pressure, it can become a line of four. We play with one or two strikers, but everything depends on the strategy because we will constantly rebuild ourselves because football evolves, the opponents study us and end up being our motivator because we have to reinvent ourselves based on what they show us. In the end, we will try to build the best system, the best formula or strategy that takes advantage of the adversary's strategy so that they cannot hurt us.”

The importance of context
“I want to be prudent. I believe that to wear these colours you have to be able to play at FC Porto. From there the context is completely different, the context makes the footballer and, from there, we will understand much better what our players are made of. We know they are good, capable, and we want to give them all the tools to be better footballers and make us better coaches. Making a diagnosis of the squad would be reckless, because all the feelings come when you train the players.”

Maximum ambition
“The dream is big, I just visited this Museum and asked the president to build another showcase so we can fill it.”

A trip to prepare
“Starting a process halfway through the season is not ideal, but it is what it is and it is up to us, as of today, to start working with the objective of building a competitive team. This has to be clear from the first training. Today is a recovery day, tomorrow is half a recovery day and then we will prepare for Thursday's game. We will have a journey through the middle, it will be a decisive game, but we will try to convey our essence to the players so that it is visible on Thursday.”

A process of continuous improvement
“It took me just a few hours to decide. When we talk about demand, we know what FC Porto means. FC Porto has to fight for all the objectives and always be on top. This is what we want to achieve, but we are not magicians, we are trainers who work like you and, to see this work reflected, it takes time. Our main and primary objective needs to be better than the day before, always. That's our culture as a coaching team, to always be better. We must always have the humility to acknowledge where we are failing at because if we don't, we don't know what we have to improve on. We like to look inside, be demanding with us and with those who work with us, we charge a lot in the aspects where we see room for improvement and, if we see that they appear week after week, we notice that they are meeting what all the gatekeepers and we want.”

Attention to detail
“My coaching staff did an extensive analysis of the squad to understand what positions and roles each player can play on the field. We want to find out what they can give us with each training, we can imagine certain roles, but they are the ones who have to play them. This is my football idea, but it can't just be mine, it has to be ours. Players have to understand it, believe in it, and defend it. I like players to participate, give their opinion and bring solutions. This is not seen in the videos, it is seen face to face, in every conversation and in every workout. I work individually with the players, both on video and on the pitch, and at this point it is essential to take advantage of all the hours of footage because we have little time and there is room for improvement. We have good players, able to play at FC Porto, and we want to invite them to be better.”

A European background
“It is clear what FC Porto means. This is our first experience in Europe as a coaching staff and they have opened the doors of such a large club where they invite us to participate with great conviction. Of course it was difficult for the other side, but I felt that, if I didn't accept this invitation, I wouldn't be right where I was. I've talked about the story and the titles, but people matter too. Since I arrived in Portugal, everyone at FC Porto has helped me in everything and something else. That is the essence of every human being in this club, an essence of work and passion. To do things well you have to do them with passion and that's what made me fall in love with this club.”

André Villas-Boas

Focused and passionate
“He is a person with a lot of focus, a lot of passion, very direct, as everyone has already realized. Then there is the part related to the game he proposes, an offensive football that has always distinguished the teams of FC Porto and that Martín brings with him and with his technical team. It is this football that has generated interest and that is why we signed them and wish them great success at this stage.”

Hungry for titles
“There was a change in the middle of the season and these changes produce more psychological effects than profound changes. We must let Martín develop his game project, attack this final phase of the market and know what the team may need in his eyes. Yesterday we spoke extensively with the sports structure to find out if there would be a reason for us to go to the market to fill some positions that Martín understands in his idea of a game. We are all here to collaborate with him, of course we all aspire to trophies and if it is this season, all the better. We are in a position to fight for them, we live with that dream, yesterday we lost an opportunity, but we didn't lose hope. He knows this and I didn't want to put so much pressure on him with this presentation at the Museum, but this is the dimension of FC Porto, the best national club and one of the best worldwide. Martín will compete in the Club World Cup, a great honour for FC Porto, and today we will have the presentation of this trophy. We hope that this showcase will be for the Club World Cup, which would be great and a great continuation of our history.”

Negotiations with Cruz Azul
“We communicated the interest in hiring Martín Anselmi to the Board of Cruz Azul, Martín also did the same and we entered into a negotiation process with the directors. Me with the president and Martín with the sports director, we reached an agreement for his departure and then there was a silence from Cruz Azul that we cannot understand. We have proceeded with signing him, confirming the termination of the contract with Cruz Azul and the processes will go through the normal procedures. We will see how far they take us, today Martín turned the Cruz Azul page and became coach of FC Porto.”

The identified profile
“There are emotional characteristics of Martín that are clear, such as his focus, communication, desire and ambition. They are mystical values that are immediately related to FC Porto, then there is the structural, technical and tactical part. His story is of a passionate game apprentice, similar to mine. He also worked in his father's store with sports newspapers, I wanted to be a journalist and I became a coach. He became a student of the game and trained his colleagues, I ended up training the kids of the youth squads of FC Porto. This ambition and desire have a lot in common sense for FC Porto and that is what we aspire to. As president, changing coach in the middle of the season was not in my expectations, I understand that it is a wound in the club and in the people, so my respect to Vítor Bruno for his work. We really want to fight and compete for titles, that's what we want Martín to do with this passion and this purpose that will move a lot of people at Olival, not only the players, but also with the support teams. We have a strong sports structure, we exchange very important human resources and Martín has this ability to unite departments. That's what we want from him.”

A new philosophy
“There is a purity that was evident in the way Martín just discussed the style of play with you. I hope you haven't revealed too many secrets… it's a passionate game, the Argentinians live it like no one else. If there are memories I have as a coach - not being Argentinian, but I see a lot in deep discussions with Andoni Zubizarreta - there are a lot of mysteries of the game that Argentinians like to talk about and philosophize to cause problems for the opponent and to improve their teams. Martín was one of those up-and-coming coaches who abruptly led the clubs he went through to success, not only Independiente del Valle, but also Cruz Azul, and now we are hopeful that this bold sense of the game, now arriving in Europe, can have this level of impact. It is the basis of the decision, it has nothing to do with my past. He has the fire of a young man starting a career with a focus and ambition that are unique and that, in the emotional field, we value a lot. In the strategic field, with the way he works as a team, how he thinks about the game and how he can lead the players, we believe he will bring success to the club.”