The photos on the sports covers of River’s victory against Rosario Central were the goals that Miguel Borja scored to turn the game around and win 2-1 at the Monumental, for the League Cup, but one of the most outstanding players (as in the Millonario a long time ago) was Paulo Díaz. His photo of the night was the control he made with his thigh as a closure to transform a goal play by Russo’s team into a caress for Armani. The game was 1-1, 38 minutes into the second stage. Due to that action, he suffered a blow to the back from Ariel Cervera from which it took him a few minutes to recover, but nothing was going to make him leave the playing field. The best defender in Argentine football in recent years was limping, but he continued. The gladiator was not going to leave the field easily and was already going to prepare for the next battle, the National match (Uruguay) next Thursday, for the Copa Libertadores.
River’s big problem is that it has not yet finished defining a clear plan of how it wants to attack and with whom, He also faces confusion regarding the formation of his midfield, especially Demichelis is unable to give him confidence or establish a central midfielder. The patience that he asked of his players to “unlock” Central’s defensive lock is difficult for him to have to support the players for more than two games in a row in key positions. But the coach and River are clear about one thing: the leader of the defense is Paulo Díaz.
Afterwards, it is also not clear who the right and left backs are; González Pires played a great game against Central but he is not undisputed. Díaz has these saving interventions – at least – once a game. Even going beyond the Professional League, in the debut of the Copa Libertadores against Táchira, in Venezuela, he also appeared with his usual class. There are plenty of examples and it is difficult to understand why he is not playing for some big club in Europe.
Paulo Díaz has great technical conditions for advances, for passes and exits from the back, he wins in both areas with his aerial gamecould play in the four positions of the last line with 4 in the background and could also fulfill the role of libero or right or left center in a line of 3. He has the character that any big team requires to push his teammates forward, he feels comfortable in individual marks (many times River ends up defending 2 vs. 2) and the times he failed were more for relying too much on some support or coverage than for not having answers consistent with the speed and decision that a closure implies. A tiny percentage, even though technical errors are also part of the game.
One of the (few) mistakes, and one that Díaz still regrets, was the one that ended in a goal by Facundo Colidio (today his teammate) against the Tigre led by Diego Martínez in May 2022, which meant the elimination of River from the League Cup. “The truth is that I needed a game to get rid of the thorn I had and once again demonstrate the security that I give to my team,” Paulo Díaz had said in a conference of the subsequent game, in River’s 4-0 win over Colo Colo. which meant qualification to the round of 16 of the Libertadores: “The night and day after the game I thought about the play. It’s not that you want to make mistakes. I didn’t want it to happen, but unfortunately it happened,” he had added. If you make a mistake, it doesn’t take long to recover.
His main virtue is that he likes to score, he enjoys a recovery after a good reading of the game, but he is also the second player in the tournament with the most passes, behind Santiago Sosa, from Racing, although it is worth mentioning that the Academy midfielder (who played as a libero in several games in the 3-4 formation) 1-2 for Costas) has one more game played compared to Díaz. According to Opta data, in twelve matches of the current League Cup Sosa added 775 passes, while Díaz, in eleven games, completed 724. They are followed in the table by Agustín García Basso, from Racing (710), Pablo De Blasis, from Gimnasia (665), Gastón Lodico, from Instituto (653), Elías Gómez, from Vélez (634), Agustín Cardozo from Tigre (623) , Cristian Lema from Boca (609), Alexis Soto from Defensa y Justicia (609) and Juanfer Quintero from Racing (605).
As could be seen in the Opta graphics, in the match against Rosario Central he gave 81 passes, of which 34 went to Milton Casco, in that departure from center back to left back. Most were in the rival field and only one did not go forward. The Chilean pushes from the bottom, he is one of those who spreads security and verticality.
He has been successful in passing throughout the entire championship. 86,7% and its effectiveness in the opposing half, under greater adversary pressure, is also high: 79.6%. 82.4 of his takeaway attempts were successful, with 44 clearances and 15 interceptions, in addition to 12 blocked shots. of the rivals who were heading towards Armani’s goal.
Temperament reflects it in each delivery. And he is the voice of the defense. Only he knows how angry he got in the almost public challenge (in the middle of the game) to Agustín Sant’Anna because he did not stop Lautaro Blanco’s overflow in the play that ended in Cristian Medina’s goal for Boca’s 1-1 in the last superclassic.
Many believe (and rightly so) that Demichelis still could not solve the absences of Enzo Pérez and Nicolás De la Cruz and that this affects the rest of the positions; Armani’s confidence also stands out – although they don’t reach him much – and the goals that Borja contributes, but while the coach looks for his new ideal team in 2024 thinking about the League Cup and the Copa Libertadores, He is certain that everything would be more complex if Paulo Díaz were not in River.
