Concepts in football fluctuate according to mood and moment – 07/15/2023 – Tostão

Coaches are very important in football. I’ve written this a million times. Yet someone told me on one of my daily walks that I have little praise for trainers. I just disagree with the many tactical explanations given to justify the performances and results. It is enough for the coach to promote changes during the matches for them to become the causes of victories and defeats.

The two halves of a football game are usually different, with or without changes, because of countless technical, tactical, emotional and surprising factors. At the moment of a move, it is the player who decides what to do, regardless of the strategy.

There are millions of statistical comparisons, many of them worthless, like submissions. A team can finish dozens of times without creating a single clear chance to score or the opposite, create several chances without finishing. Evidently, many statistics help a lot in understanding the game.

If the ball hadn’t hit Erick’s head, been deflected and gone into the goal, when Athletico-PR was superior and created many more chances to score than Flamengo, the story of the match could have been different. Flamengo, for most of the game, was vulnerable in defense and not very efficient in attack. Someone, perhaps because of the 2-0 victory, said that Flamengo had an exceptional strategy. I did not see.

I also heard that, if Athletico-PR was still commanded by Felipão or by Turra/Felipão, the team would have eliminated Flamengo because of the coach’s experience. Meanwhile, Felipão is called outdated by many at Atlético-MG. Concepts and opinions in football fluctuate according to mood and moment.

Contradictions also happened in the past, but less frequently. After winning the 1958 World Cup, the obese coach Feola was highly praised for his calm and serenity. After the 1966 flop, he was ridiculed for being good-natured and was even said to sleep through matches.

Football is a master at knocking down clichés, commonplaces. Before the Brasileirão, we said that Botafogo was in danger of even being relegated because of the cheap and low-prestige squad. It reached the 15th round as leader, ten points ahead of vice.

Luís Castro went to Arabia, and the team maintained its performance in the three subsequent games, with former player Caçapa, who has been a coach for some time at Lyon in France. He didn’t know the Botafogo players. If the team gets worse with the new coach, Bruno Lage, another Portuguese, the comment will already be ready, that he did not follow Luís Castro’s playbook.

The victory of São Paulo and the elimination of Palmeiras from the Copa do Brasil are good for Brazilian football because Dorival Júnior deserves to be more recognized as a great coach and because Abel Ferreira needs to be less aggressive and arrogant during interviews and matches. The silence of the Palmeiras coach and players after the game was a superb attitude, of not knowing how to lose.

Football and life have many uncertainties. Obviously, teams, coaches and players that have more talent, more dedication, more desire to win, more concern for learning and evolving have more chances to shine.

We are, professionals and citizens, in varying proportions, ambitious and supportive, pragmatic and dreamy, contradictory and objective, happy and sad, self-sufficient and aware of our limitations. We are human.

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