Vojvoda reviews Santos debut and Neymar’s role | OneFootball

Juan Pablo Vojvoda made his debut as Santos’ coach this Sunday, in the goalless draw against Fluminense at Vila Belmiro, for the 22nd round of the Brazilian Championship.

After the match, the Argentine coach evaluated Peixe’s performance and left satisfied, especially with the team’s behavior in the second half, when they were more dominant than Fluminense.

“We missed the goal, obviously, but we had chances, especially in the second half, with Neymar linking up with Rollheiser. We know we need to make that click. I think our wingers are sprinters, in the first half we were more of a transition team, in the second half we were more of a possession team, imposing our style. We know the first halves are always different from the second halves, but we also lacked effectiveness,” said Vojvoda.

Santos even scored two goals, one in the first half with Guilherme, and another in the second with Tiquinho, but both were disallowed for offside.

“We scored from a set piece, we have to keep working, believing, creating scoring chances, because we have quality players. In the second half, the corner play was very good, Fábio made a good save. In very tight matches, there aren’t many chances, only when someone scores does the opponent open up. We have to keep working and find that space between the lines, because we have players to receive between the lines, Rollheiser, Neymar… when we find them, we need to be incisive with other players,” he added.

This Sunday’s match also marked Neymar’s return to the team after recovering from an adductor edema. The player had a quiet performance, but Vojvoda believes that, little by little, he can make a difference for Santos in the Brasileirão.

As for Neymar’s positioning, he’s naturally finding spaces and helping the team solve situations. In the first half, their defense plus a midfielder were worried about Neymar, so there was a lack of connection between our two defensive midfielders and our two attacking midfielders, Rollheiser and Neymar. We asked Rollheiser to drop a bit to fit better, sometimes Rollheiser dropped, other times Neymar,” commented Vojvoda.

Towards the end of the match, he chose to change the attacking system, betting on players with more presence in the box. That’s why Deivid Washington and Tiquinho Soares were brought on.

“Later I needed more presence in the box, so we put on Deivid Washington. I needed even more presence after that, so we went with Tiquinho. What I also liked was the organization and defensive order, we need defensive balance to support this attack. We played most of the second half on the attack, we didn’t suffer transitions, but it was the first match. The next one will be different, away from home. They’re all different, never the same, but our attitude must remain the same. We know that in a league like Série A, so high-level, we’ll face teams that are also strong at home,” he concluded.

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