Anderson Polga: “I feel like a new man”
Centre-back happy with Carvalhal and comeback
 The first three months of 2009/10 were particularly harrowing for Sporting’s World Cup winning Brazilian centre-back, Anderson Polga.
As the Lions struggled, the defender was targeted for especially harsh criticism. Injury problems compounded the situation, but Polga says he is now fully recovered and is feeling a new lease of life under new coach Carlos Carvalhal.
Speaking after yesterday’s 4-1 victory over Pescadores da Costa de Caparica in the Portuguese Cup, Polga said he is back to full fitness and added that the squad have been impressed with the work of Carvalhal.
“I hadn’t played a full 90 minutes for over 40 days. Today I lacked match practice and some positional sense, but the most important thing for me was that the pain has gone away. Now that’s happened I feel like a new man and ready to help the team.
“Today’s game was important not only for me but for the squad as a whole. It was the debut of a new coach, with new ideas. It was difficult to put everything into practice, but as far as it was possible, it was positive. In the second half our play more fluid and we put new things into practice.
“It’s still early to talk about what has changed. There will be new ideas, and from now onwards, with our daily work, we are going to improve. The squad has been left with a good impression of Carlos Carvalhal from day one. But the pressure for results is still there and we have to live with that.”
The only blotch on an otherwise satisfactory day’s work for Sporting was the red card shown to Polga’s centre-back partner, Tonel, who will now be unavailable for the Lisbon derby next weekend against Benfica.
by Tom Kundert
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