Dorival’s success in Sao Paulo exposes Flamengo’s mistake – 05/28/2023

Does anyone consider Sao Paulo better than Flamengo? Since taking charge of the Sao Paulo tricolor, there are 11 matches, replacing Rogério Ceni, Dorival Jr. is undefeated: seven wins and four draws (75.8% success rate). It occupied, on Saturday evening, the third place in the Brazilian table.

Practically in the same period, Jorge Sampaoli, the dream coach of President Rodolfo Landim, played 12 matches ahead of the red-black team from Rio de Janeiro. He won five, drew four and lost three (52.8% success rate). Throwing pebbles, he slept in eighth place and threatened disqualification in the Copa do Brasil and Libertadores.

A simple comparison of performances shows the absurdity of the transformation that Flamengo made at the end of last year. First by Vitor Pereira (who lost the five titles he played in the first months of the year) and now by Sampaoli, who, like the Portuguese he replaced, is a staunch supporter of the positional game, which the red and black team hate. which he cannot adapt to.

I’m still imagining some possible (I can say, probably) dialogue between Florida players. In the beginning, with the arrival of the Catalan Dominic Torrent, he was the first to try to implement the game of positions in a Brazilian team and champion Libertadores, playing dream football with a very high turnover rate.

– Is this guy crazy? Will it change everything that was going well with the master? Phew, that doesn’t make sense.

It didn’t work and it didn’t work. Dom’s visit to Ninho do Urubu was a disaster, including a 5-1 defeat against Independiente del Valle. He ended up falling after another hit, this one applied by Atlético Mineiro.

Then came Ruggero Ceni, who also flirted with some positional principles, but knew how to listen to the players so as not to distort too much the method sanctified by Jesus, and won the fight with the Brazilian. Next came Renato Gaucho, who gave the team complete freedom and ended up in second place in the standings, hampered by a series of injuries. The person chosen to replace him is Paulo Souza, another disciple of the school of the post.

Back to the imaginary dialogues of Ninho do Urubu:

Thirteenth, another one from Team Doom…

– The scheme is difficult, – said Philip Lewis publicly.

New failure. And the choice, based on saving yourself who can, was Dorival Júnior who quickly abandoned Sousa’s tactical system, set up a traditional scheme, restored the shaky confidence of some players (the most typical case is that of Léo Pereira) and, to everyone’s surprise, won the Copa Libertadores.

Because despite the great achievements, his contract was not renewed. Even worse, they brought in Vitor Pereira, the third coach who only knows how to play in the positional system. Let’s go to the virtual dialogues?

– once again?!?!? They are joking…

And Flamengo lost the five titles it played. One hundred percent success in resounding failures. But this was not enough. Landim, Marcos Praz and their assistants chose Jorge Sampaoli, the fourth messenger in the style of play that Pep Guardiola has enshrined.

Does anyone in their right mind think that players believe in his system? What did Bruno Henrique say recently?

– Yes, now we are waiting for the ball to arrive …

It is foolish to think that one day repeating the same mistakes we will come to a solution. And that’s exactly what Flamingo does.

time?

The excuse that the crazy Argentinean (who is stumbling for the third time with replacement windows!) Hasn’t had time to work yet, is broken by what they are achieving, for example, Dorival and Pepa. The last, Cruzeiro coach, in fact, with a more modest team, swallowed it up at the Maracanã and deservedly won.