Mariano Soso Takes Helm at Alianza Lima: Key Strategies and Prospects for the Club’s Future

2024-08-06 18:24:35

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Mariano Soso comes from being the champion of the Pernambucano Championships with Sport Recife, the most winning club in the competition. (Photo: Sport Recife)

“We are looking for a coach who knows the Peruvian league, connections with height, good management”said Bruno Maroni about the profile of the coach that Alianza looked at after firing Alejandro Restrepo after losing the classic, on July 26. The director of Professional Football of the Alliance institute spoke about the requirements and stated that Díaz would be the perfect fit. But after the failed negotiations that could have ended a trial, the Victorian club went in search of Soso, another coach who fits perfectly.

Soso knows the Peruvian league. He was a champion with Cristal and managed Real Garcilaso and Melgar. He also has high-profile connections through the last two clubs mentioned, as well as coaching Guayaquil-based Emelec. And group management is one of his talents. That is why Alianza decided to offer him a one and a half year contract, trusting in a medium and long term project. This newspaper learned that he could make his first game on the bench this Saturday against ADT in Matute for date 6 of the Clausura Competition where the intima are on top with 12 points.

The Argentine comes from directing Sport Recife in the second division of Brazilian soccer and winning the Pernambucano Championship, a state competition in Pernambuco. In competitive football, difficult in all its divisions, Soso has reached the maturity to take the reins of the blue and white team. Although his arrival is still a bet that can go well or badly, with no middle ground.

Soso was national champion with Sporting Cristal in 2016.

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Mariano Soso: How do your teams play?

There is a trait that Alianza Lima has been looking for for years: to be an attacking team. And in Mariano Soso they seem to have found him. “What I can’t negotiate is thinking about an offensive game, a game that imposes conditions”, the coach said seven months ago while attending his last club. And it is the philosophy that has accompanied him in these nine years of his career. “I agree with the teams that have stars in the game and take risks”he said in 2016, when he took the Cristal reins.

Soso is from Marcelo Bielsa’s school. “My training as a coach is linked to your game project”, he once said. Marcelo Vivas, who was Bielsa’s field assistant for more than a decade and worked with him in various teams before he decided to become head coach, was influential; Argentina will be tasked with turning this Alianza into an offensive team.

The characteristics of Rosario’s team do not change: they seek to pressure the opponent’s field, with an intense game and prioritizing a quick recovery and then having long possessions. System-wise, Soso has shown flexibility throughout his career. The 4-2-3-1 is the tactic he uses most often, but he also resorted to a three-position defense as he did in Melgar in 2023 where he used the 3-4-2-1 and 3- 5 -2.

Sports Prescription (2024)
41 matches – 25 W, 7E and 9 D4-2-3-1
4-4-2
4-1-4-1Melgar (2023)
37 matches – 18 V, 12 E and 7 D3-4-2-1
3-4-3
3-5-2
4-3-3O’Higgins (2022)
34 parties – 12 V, 11 E and 11 D4-4-2
4-3-3
4-3-1-2
3-4-1-2
4-2-3-1San Lorenzo (2020-21)
11 parties – 4 V, 4 E and 3 D4-2-3-1
4-3-1-2
4-4-2
4-3-3Defense and Justice (2019-20)
18 parties – 7 V, 3 E and 8 D4-3-3
3-4-1-2
3-5-2
4-4-2
4-2-3-1Emelec (2018-19)
44 parties – 19 V, 12 E y 13 D4-2-3-1
3-5-2
4-4-2Gymnastics (2017)
12 parties – 4 V, 1 E and 7 D4-3-3
4-2-3-1
4-1-4-1
3-5-2Cristal Sports (2016)
54 matches – 23 V, 15 E and 16 D3-4-2-1
4-2-3-1
4-3-3
4-4-2
4-1-4-1Real Garcilaso (2015)
25 matches – 15 V, 4 E and 6 D3-4-2-1
4-2-3-1
4-4-2
3-4-3Fuente: Transfer market

The game systems used by Soso in his career

That is to say, he will not have problems adapting to the 3-5-2 that Alianza was using Restrepo and in which there is a good defense consolidated with Carlos Zambrano as libero and Erick Noriega (right) and Renzo Garcés (left) as a stopper with good exit and ball handling.

The problem would be solved in the middle. Yes Sebastian Rodriguez He continues to play as an anchor midfielder starting from the bottom or advancing further into the attacking zone, although this would mean that Adrián Arregui has to get the ball clear from the back, which which he has not shown as a winner this year. .

In attack, Soso has many options. Kevin Quevedo He can be a second striker or a winger, as well Franco Zanelatto who can play as a winger, striker or even as a midfielder. And there is also Jhamir D’Arrigo, who produced his best performance for Argentina in Melgar.

Mariano Soso schemes he could use in Alianza Lima with the possible arrival of Paolo Guerrero:

4-2-3-1

4-4-2

4-3-3

3-5-2

Will Paolo Guerrero be Alianza Lima’s next signing?

As Pablo Sabbag fights an injury that “will probably be with him for the rest of his life”, as Bruno Maroni himself said; Cecilio Waterman out of the Tournament Clausura due to a broken shoulder and Jeriel de Santis out of the plans; Alianza Lima had only two goals in front: Hernán Barcos and Matías Succar.

In this context, the possibilities grow that Paolo Guerrero can join the blue and white team. Of course, in Alianza they only hope that the forward solves his problems with César Vallejo. This newspaper learned that the ‘9’ is unable to reach an agreement with the Trujillo club, despite the fact that both parties were flexible in getting rid of certain clauses established in the contract.

Paolo continues to try to leave the Poeta institute where he arrived in February of this year. And his dream is to finish his successful career at Alianza Lima, his beloved club.