Why Corinthians rested quartet for match against Chapecoense | OneFootball

The Corinthians drew 0-0 with Chapecoense last Thursday night at Arena Condá, concluding the seventh round of the Brazilian Championship. Besides fielding a mixed team, coach Dorival Júnior decided to rest a quartet of players after accessing data from the club's physiology department.

Carrillo (discomfort in the right adductor) and Kaio César (discomfort in the right thigh) did not travel with the delegation, as well as Gabriel Paulista and Memphis Depay, who were rested due to load management. This situation caused dissatisfaction among some fans, who questioned the reasoning behind it—especially in the cases of Kaio César, who recently returned from injury, and Memphis, who took a while to debut this season.

Dorival then opened up about the medical department's situation and revealed that Memphis has been playing with knee pain. The coach also explained the process of determining whether a player needs to be rested, aiming to prevent potential injuries.

"Because he [Kaio César] felt discomfort due to the previous game, so there's no way to field him. These are medical issues, the same goes for Carrillo. Memphis has been playing with knee difficulties, and we have to be careful with him, otherwise, we might lose him, and when you lose a player, it's for a month, as happened with Yuri. Look at the price we paid for not having a forward with Yuri's characteristics. You have to be as careful as possible not to end up losing more and more players in this sequence of games. Yesterday, we couldn't bring them, and I have to live with that. How is this load management done? Physiology provides us with data. They warn us of a potential athlete injury," justified Dorival.

Yuri Alberto, mentioned by the coach, suffered a grade 2 injury to his left thigh in February and returned last Thursday, just over a month after the injury.

"[It's] As happened on Monday, with athletes already in treatment. I have to respect this period, there's nothing I can do. It's not magic. 'Oh, Dorival doesn't want to field the players.' What nonsense. Now, two and a half days later, we will be on the field again simply against Flamengo. How are you going to recover athletes, maintaining the same level, fielding the same players all the time? I've always dealt with this. The team responded. Goals aren't coming, that's another aspect, but we're working," he concluded.

Carrillo and Kaio César will be re-evaluated soon by Corinthians.

The final word is with the commission

Although he mentioned the importance of the data provided by the other physiology departments of Corinthians, Dorival Júnior made it clear that the final decision to rest or not a player is made by the technical commission, after a precise analysis of each athlete's physical condition.

"The last word is the coach's. I see all possible data from all sectors of the club. Physical department, medical department, especially those undergoing treatment. Suddenly, I speed up due to a necessity because I perceive that the player is ready to return. I talk to the medical department: 'The responsibility is mine. You can speed up, I'll field him because the data shows me things to accelerate.' They provide me with the data, the decision is ours, but I can't be irresponsible," he stated.

Even so, Dorival prefers to be cautious to avoid losing players for longer periods, as was the case with Yuri Alberto. The caution is even greater with Memphis Depay, who was also spared from some Paulista games, for example.

"Discomfort is a very clear sign that the player would leave before finishing the first half. It would be a mandatory change for one reason: injury. Then he would be out for at least three weeks. I won't be irresponsible by fielding players without the best conditions. When I said this year would be very difficult because we didn't have an initial work period, that's it. We are accelerating the processes now. Changes will happen in every round, I said at the beginning, that's why I would like to have a more composed group. But they will happen," he said.

"We had three or four players in the medical department at the beginning of the year. Memphis took time to start working. He had to solve the knee problem, so it's natural to have greater care with the player. I prefer to intervene at this moment without being negligent, to have the player on the field longer. It happened with Yuri, and we paid a high price. We have to live with that," Dorival concluded.

Situation in the standings

With the result, Corinthians couldn't break the negative streak this season. The team reached nine points and remained in ninth place in the Brasileirão, but it was their sixth consecutive game without a win, with two losses and four draws in this stretch.

Upcoming Corinthians matches

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