Corinthians boss explains break switch, on Gui Negão, eyes progress | OneFootball

After Corinthians’ 3-1 win over Grêmio at the Arena do Grêmio, Fernando Diniz also commented on tactical aspects of the match, the halftime talk, Gui Negão’s situation, and the team’s expectations for improvement during the break in the schedule for the World Cup.

Speaking about Corinthians’ change in attitude in the second half, Diniz said the team needed to be braver in building plays on the ground and avoid unnecessary long balls.

Photos: Victor Lannes/Agência Corinthians

“That’s half of it, my dear. But I think that, in reality, what we were lacking was a certain encouragement to play. The team is capable of doing what it did in the second half, but it was showing a certain inhibition. What happens when we set out to play is that we made mistakes building from the back against Platense, we made mistakes against São Paulo, and this was a game that called for us to stay closer together to play, with shorter build-up. Obviously, when you win and things work out, there’s this kind of praise for the team. And sometimes, when something goes wrong, people question it a lot: is it really worth playing out from the back? Why play out from the back? Why should the goalkeeper be involved? And today, what made us play well in the second half was the courage the players had to build from the back along the ground, to keep control, not sending long balls that didn’t need to be sent long.

Sometimes you do have to stretch the game the whole time, because the pressing is very high or because we’re too insecure to play. But I think the encouragement to play and enjoy the game of football was what we did most in the second half. The players started playing well, with confidence, things started to flow, the goals came. And then it becomes good to play, you feel the team is solid and secure in possession and with chances to score, while allowing few counterattacks. So I think the second half was an excellent second half from the team.”

Asked about Gui Negão, the coach explained that the striker’s recent absence is related to the period he was out injured and to the internal competition within the squad.

“So, one of the main reasons is his absence because of the injury. Because he’s been with me, I’ve been here for less than two months. And Gui Negão has been with me for less than a month, I think, in condition to take part. And there are other players who were more familiar with the work, and he’s training well. He’s a player I like. He even played very well against us. When he played against Vasco last year, I was Vasco’s coach. And the issue of opportunity is that you can’t put in ten players. Because if you didn’t bring on another player, there are only five substitutions.

There aren’t more than five substitutions. Maybe if there were, he would have come on. But he’s a player who is doing very well in training. And he’s a very dedicated player, also identified with the club, developed in the youth academy. And as time goes by, there’s no promise. I’ll try to put in those who I think are in the best condition for that game.”

Diniz also analyzed the tactical plan adopted against Grêmio. According to the coach, Corinthians tried to press, but without exposing themselves to the counterattacks of the team from Rio Grande do Sul.

“So, from the tactical side, Grêmio is a team we have to be very careful with. It’s a team that plays, to some extent, a bit similarly to Botafogo. And it has players like Braithwaite, who we weren’t even expecting to start. We expected a different kind of setup, more with Carlos Vinícius, Mec and Dodi, quick players, with plenty of energy. We had to know how to press and we had to know how to recover quickly, because Grêmio broke away a few times and caused us problems.

But the team has a posture; it’s not that we did this way against Grêmio, it’s a posture… I usually change little in the team’s structure and in the way of playing. We made some adjustments, because some teams call for special adjustments. And we had a lot of respect for Grêmio, because it’s a team that has an excellent coach. They’ve had matches, fluctuated between good performances and others not so good, but it’s a very well-coached team with excellent players. So we were pressing, but never in an unprotected way. Because we knew that, if we made mistakes in the press or in the recovery, we could have had a lot of problems in the match.”

Finally, the coach spoke about the break in the schedule and said Corinthians can improve in different areas during the training period. Diniz highlighted that the players quickly absorbed points he considers essential in his way of working.

“I think we’ll be able to improve on all fronts. But the most important part was put in place quickly, almost instantly at Corinthians. Because for me football — I’ll say it again and I’ll say it many more times — football, the way I see football, what people sometimes call ‘Dinizism,’ for me has a tripod that is very defining of what I think about football and about life. Football for me is living, it is life in motion.

It’s desire, it’s hunger, the guys had that almost the whole time. Solidarity, helping each other all the time, and having the courage to do things. So these things, which are essential, were there to a good extent, which is why things happened quickly. The other tactical things, with time, we’ll certainly gain more confidence to play out from the back, we’ll even have different pressing structures, man-marking matchups, all of that, physical condition, physical-technical condition that we’ll improve with training.

You know I’m a guy who likes to work a lot, so the players will improve in that sense. So the break will be very good for us at first, for the players to rest. Corinthians and Vasco finished last season on the eve of Christmas and came back early, so the players were desperate for rest. Corinthians needed rest, needed a break. So I’m very grateful — what the players did wasn’t easy after my arrival, because we sped up many processes, and they gave a lot for a team that needed a certain amount of rest. They understood what we needed to do together, and I think we made good use of these first almost two months together.”

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