Again a bad game, well below expectations, even considering that Mano tested a new formation and Baralhas is still not in tune.
Although everyone is talking about the field, in terrible conditions, which pushed the team to a type of game that it has not practiced, the victory could have happened, not least because it stopped happening due to mistakes made by our attackers.
By opting for three strikers, a defensive midfielder and two midfielders, obviously going further back from De Pena, Mano made the team predictable, as the moves would pass through Alan Patrick, mainly from the middle forward, so that the marking concentrated on this player left the team with few play building options.
There, too, the bad pitch forced a game of long balls, but long balls against a team at the back do not tend to work out.
The team took a while to understand what to do on the field with the possibility of working out. Although PH played on the right, he was without support, as Mario Fernandes came in with much more defensive tasks, and showed zero chemistry with PH.
This was more evident with the arrivals of Johnny, Maurício and Bustos, used to playing on the right, and together, creating, in a few minutes, many more moves than the rest of the time.
Of course it’s an alternative, Bustos is in the starting line-up, but like the rest of the team, he won’t play all of them, and Mano needs to test that in matches, not in training.
Before that, still in the first half, Wanderson missed a goal made by Alemão, in a good move inside the area, but the attacker headed weakly and in the middle of the goal. The pass was so good that Wanderson could have dominated and finished.
Then he rehearsed a beautiful move with Alan Patrick, and delivered a goal to PH, who kicked it off balance. PH, as a center forward, did not recognize Wanderson’s pass.
On defense, a game without shots. NH only made mistakes from Inter, and even so, Keiller was nervous again about the ball being played with his feet or with the possibility of a retreat. He doesn’t seem to talk to the defenders, and he’s facing the game.
Little changed in the second half until Maurício joined, then Lucca and Estevão. Johnny and Baralhas played together, but the lack of understanding was evident; the game flowed a little. Without De Pena, Renê looked for more plays in the middle, and a poorly marked offside saved Maurício from an error, the same one that Wanderson made in Bustos’ cross, but he was offside.
Then the injustice of the night, Alan Patrick’s play, sewing Nóia’s entire defensive line, but ending with the goalkeeper, who was helped by the post, preventing what would be the subject of all sports programs today.
But football is not fair, and you win if you score goals, and Inter missed the opportunities it created.
I still think that we have 11, 12 players, and that we have, with those, a good team, capable of facing any of the opponents in Brazil; if everyone plays what they know all the time.
However, we know that this will not happen, and, moreover, there will be matches in which the team will need alternatives, and today they don’t have them. We need a striker, not because I think Alemão is insufficient, but because he is the only one so far, and he has been playing much lower than he ended the year.
We need a midfielder and a defensive midfielder, and we need a striker on the wing, any of them. Maurício plays that role, but without speed, he is a player who builds plays well and gets along with Johnny and Bustos, but he can also play like Alan Patrick plays. Yesterday it was clear that Mano had run out of speed alternatives with Wanderson and PH in the team, and, needing to change, he called Bustos’ speed, needing to change two more players for that.
Nor am I saying that this will be our way of playing, I believe that PH and Wanderson will alternate as starters, and that when Mano finds a defensive midfielder (which could be Baralhas), he will resume what worked last year.
However, I repeat, just what worked last year will not be enough this year, that’s why I insist that I think we are late in hiring.