“Jesus? We will have a more demanding selector in and out of the field”

“ Ai believe it is a much more objective Portugal, with much less game breaks and with ball. I do not believe in very long ball possessions, but with a lot of objectivity to finish the plays ", Lusa told the agency the former Portuguese international, who worked with the technician for two years at Sporting.

Certain that “some things will change” in the Portuguese selection, already from the game in front of Wales, on Thursday, the European champion in 2016 warned, however, that it will take some time for the technician to put his fingerprint on the team.

“ We all know that it will take some time,” he said, before admitting that the first window of international games of the new era is longer than usual may be “a positive point” for Jesus “to install his ideas already”.

“ We'll have a more demanding selector on and off the field. He is a person who has a lot of attention and that makes his [work] groups always very competent and [are] very close to winning”, he said.

Portugal welcomes Wales on Thursday, in Lisbon, starting from the first day of the League of Nations 2026/27 which will be the debut of Jorge Jesus in the role of national selector.

It is an opponent of good memory, against which the Portuguese selection ensured, in 2016, the clearance for the final of the European of France, which it conquered in front of the selection of the house in Paris.

It was “a different generation” from the Welsh, said Adrien Silva, who had “several stars in big European clubs and that’s why he came so far” to the semi-finals.

“ It's not the same these days. But be it Wales, be it any other selection, if we take things seriously, Portugal will hardly come out with the victory ", the former medium, graduated from the Sporting Academy, boasted.

Knowing “most” of the current players, Adrien believes, however, that “the commitment is never lacking.”.

“ So we'll be very close to getting it [win] if you keep it [serious]. And I am sure it will happen, much more knowing of the demand that the ‘mister’ Jorge Jesus always puts on his athletes,” Silva said.

Owner of 26 internationalizations in the midfield of the ‘selection of the quinas’, the Portuguese-French assured, yet, not to be surprised by Jorge Jesus’ first call, which called only four players who were not at the World Cup2026.

Much less because the technician asked, on the day of his presentation, that Portugal had the best set of averages in the world.

“ It is part of the ‘mister’’s communication, trying to take some pressure or media demand on their own players. We all know the level of each of them, who could play in any club or selection of the world ", countered.

Therefore, believes the medium, Jesus will now perform “a more work in ‘off’” to “fit in the best way” players like João Neves, Vitinha, Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, João Palhinha and Reuben Neves, in order to “potentialize the individual characteristics” of each of them “for the benefit of the collective”.

“ We may have the best players in the world, but if we don't fit in and don't use them in the best way collectively, their own quality doesn't enhance in the same way. I think this will be the great task for ‘mister’ Jorge Jesus, not only in the midfield but in all other sectors”, he analyzed.

The former 37-year-old Portuguese international Adrien Silva fulfilled 26 internationalizations by Portugal between 2014 and 2018, a course that had the title of European champion won in 2016, in France.

During this period, he worked for two periods (2015/16 and 2016/17), at Sporting, with the current Portuguese selector, Jorge Jesus.

In addition to Sporting, Adrien Silva also represented, as senior, Maccabi Haifa (Israel) and Academica, both on loan from the ‘lions’, Leicester City (England), Monaco (France), Sampdoria (Italy), Al Wahda (United Arab Emirates), Rio Ave and Dubai United (United Arab Emirates), where he ended his career last year.