Corinthians boss explains midfield choices in Bahia defeat, discusses squad | OneFootball

After Corinthians’ 2-1 defeat to Bahia last Wednesday (28), in their Brasileirão debut, coach Dorival Júnior analyzed the team’s performance and commented on tactical, individual, and squad planning issues. In an interview, the coach spoke about the possibility of fielding Bidon and Garro together in midfield and was direct in defending the technical quality of the players.

“No problem at all. Quality players can play in any situation and in any role. The difficult part is adapting players who don’t have the level, capacity, or quality”, said the Timão coach in a press conference.

Photo: Rodrigo Coca/Ag. Corinthians

Detailing the formation used against Bahia, the coach explained that the approach is not based solely on man-marking, but above all on the team’s collective positioning and compactness. According to him, specific mistakes ended up being decisive for the result.

“Marking is not just individual, but by compactness. If the team is well positioned, you don’t give the opponent much space to play. Our ball recovery has always been very quick, since last year. We were one of the teams that pressed the most after losing possession and managed to recover the ball with few touches from the opponent. Today, however, Bahia took advantage, with competence, of the two moments when we made mistakes, creating situations that were decisive for them”, said the coach.

Dorival Júnior also cited the match against Santos, in the Campeonato Paulista, as an example that using more technical players in midfield can work, even in the face of external criticism.

“The other day we played here against Santos with the midfield set up this way, with just one extra man inside, which many thought was absurd at the time. And we dominated the match. This shows that when you have midfielders who know how to work the ball, by putting them together, they find spaces and ways for the team to play”, he pointed out.

Still on the midfield sector, the coach made a point of differentiating the roles within the squad and emphasized that he sees no problem in starting several technically skilled players together in the lineup.

“It’s always like this: when you have three players, everyone says they’re defensive midfielders, but they’re not. In our team, the defensive midfielder is Raniele and, maybe, Charles. These are two players we can consider defensive midfielders; the rest are not. The others are midfielders, players much more focused on passing. I’m not afraid to put them together, because I don’t see a problem with that,” the manager pointed out.

Finally, Dorival Júnior commented on the possibility of further promotions from the youth academy to the professional squad. The coach indicated that, at this moment, the planning is already set, but acknowledged the need for reinforcements after recent departures.

“Those we had planned are already working with us. I don’t see, at this moment, a situation that could change that. Maybe a different player could appear, but I don’t see that possibility. We need to bring in some players, we lost six or seven and for a team that was already lacking in some areas, we’re even more exposed now”, he concluded.

After the defeat in the first round of the Brazilian Championship, the alvinegro club takes the field in search of their first title of the season. On Sunday (1st), at 4pm (Brasília time), Corinthians face Flamengo at Estádio Mané Garrincha, in Brasília, for the Supercopa do Brasil.

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This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.