Palmeiras rotate 28 in Paulista as Arias readied for Saturday | OneFootball

Palmeiras spread minutes across the Paulista’s first phase, using 28 players, and believe they head into the quarter-finals closer to peak fitness.

Globo.com reports that Jhon Arias could debut on Saturday against Capivariano as the 29th player used. Assistant João Martins said he trained on Saturday and Sunday after four or five days for personal matters, has integrated, and, if all goes well, will be available for the quarter-finals. The staff treated the opening phase as an extended pre-season after only seven days together.

No player featured in all eight games. The most used appeared in seven, including Marlon Freitas, Allan, Luighi and Flaco López. Six outings apiece went to Carlos Miguel, Gustavo Gómez, Piquerez, Emiliano Martínez, Andreas Pereira and Sosa.

Flaco López leads the scoring with four, and he and Sosa top the assists chart on three each. Khellven, Mauricio, Allan and Luighi have one goal each, and the number 18 also provided an assist.

Of the 28 used, Raphael Veiga and Bruno Rodrigues have already departed. Early-phase youngsters such as Luis Pacheco, Erick Belé, Arthur and Riquelme Fillipi have since seen fewer minutes.

In the last four games, the preferred XI has been Carlos Miguel, Khellven, Gustavo Gómez, Murilo, Piquerez, Marlon Freitas, Andreas Pereira, Mauricio, Allan, plus Flaco López and Vitor Roque.

Arias will compete mainly with Allan and Mauricio. He is likely to be named in the next squad and start on the bench given limited time at the club. After Guarani on Sunday, the squad had two days off, return Wednesday, with Capivariano at 20:30 Brasília on Saturday at Arena Crefisa Barueri.

Source: Globo.com