Cachada was one of four coaches who gave the onfield instructions to the players in place of Lage, who – alongside Luis Nascimento and Tony Roberts – continues to test positive for the virus, and with one of the two sides fighting for the Premier League title heading to the Black Country on Wednesday night, the head coach faces a race against time to retake his place in the dugout.
But Cachada is more than confident in using the technology which allowed Lage to make crucial decisions in real-time – despite not being present in west London – to salvage a last-gasp draw at the weekend, if needed once again.
On positive Covid tests within the coaching staff
“The manager’s got no symptoms, he just tests positive. I hope by the end of this day he will do a test and it comes back negative. This is the plan.
“He’ll test this afternoon and I hope he comes negative. If he comes positive, tomorrow he will test again to try to be at the match.
“In this moment, those three are testing positive, and I hope we don’t have any more issues, if not, we don’t have bench.”
On Lage’s communication with the bench at Chelsea
“He was here at the training ground, watching the game live, him and Luis, and we keep in touch every second.
“At the beginning it became quite difficult because it was the first time we had these kinds of situations, but then we dealt with it quite well.
“He always had a contact first with Alex and then came contact with me in a couple of situations, but, to be fair, it all works quite well and if it happens again [on Wednesday night], then we’ll go in the same lines.”
On half-time Zoom chat with the player
“It worked pretty fine. He [Lage] came, he had his tactics board, we showed to the players what we want to do, what we need to change.
“Also, he kept in touch with me, with Tony, with Jhony [Conceicao], with Alex [Silva] to say a couple of individual situations, and we went for that.”
On going head-to-head with Man City
“Strong team, strong manager, they are strong in every point of the game. It’s always difficult, I hope at the end of the game we can score and create some difficulties.
“We admire every point of their games, for the past five or six years they have been incredible, so they’ll go for the game and try to deal with all their situations.
“We are always confident of getting something from the game. This is the plan. We plan always to get the three points, sometimes you get it, sometimes you don’t, it’s a thin line to win games, and I hope tomorrow the lads feel confident to get the three points so we can form a good performance.”
On the first season as a group
“We think a bit more about us. We still have goals, and aims, and ambitions until the end of the season, and this is what the players believe and what the players want. Just that.
“All the season, it’s so long, you have good moments, bad moments, but I think we’ve had a really good journey until this moment.
“We just passed through a bad moment, nothing major, nothing we consider as a strong situation, so let’s see how the season finishes.”
