Corinthians to focus on key competitions? Dorival shares his view | OneFootball

Corinthians started the week going against the grain of its rivals and will continue to divide its attention between two competitions. In the coming days, Timão will have commitments in both the Brazilian Championship and the Paulista Championship, while other state rivals will spend their days preparing exclusively for the knockout stage of the State Championship.

This situation arises because the match between Corinthians and Athletico-PR, valid for the second round of Série A, had to be postponed due to the dispute of the Supercopa do Brasil, which was won by the São Paulo-based Alvinegro. Given this scenario and the Paulistão calendar, the CBF decided to schedule the match for Wednesday. However, a further postponement determined that the game would be rescheduled for this Thursday (19).

The tight schedule has been a major challenge for clubs at the start of this season—especially for Corinthians, who went on vacation on December 22 and resumed work on January 3. Because of this, the Alvinegro coaching staff has been implementing a rotation system, a situation that was repeated in the 1-0 victory over São Bernardo last Sunday in the Paulistão.

Dorival Júnior sent out a mixed team, with Hugo Souza and Matheus Bidu being the only starters. Memphis and Gustavo Henrique, preserved for load management, were not even included in the squad. The team still has three other players in the medical department and lost Yuri Alberto to injury last Sunday. The forward felt pain in the back of his left thigh and left the field on a stretcher.

Given this rotation scenario and the possibility of losing more players to injuries in every match, the coach understands that Timão is not prioritizing or planning to prioritize any competition, as they are not yet in a position to do so due to the unpredictability of football.

“I keep pointing out that it’s a tricky championship, hard to play [Paulista]. We’re not focusing on any competition, doing our best in each one, putting out the best team possible. I can’t plan. You make a plan and suddenly a player comes in, like today, Yuri for example, had a very serious injury, we’ll probably be without him for a few games. You have to deal with each match, each round, seeing the problems, trying to solve them, and putting the best team on the field. That’s how we are. But prioritize? There’s no way to do that,” evaluated the coach.

First Phase Review

Dorival also reviewed Corinthians’ first phase in the Paulista Championship, even amid all the difficulties. Timão secured a spot in the quarterfinals by finishing the first phase in fifth place, with 14 points—three wins, three draws, and two losses in eight rounds, with 10 goals scored and six conceded.

Although Corinthians did not win any classics (losing to Palmeiras and drawing with São Paulo and Santos), the coach evaluated the team’s first phase positively, especially for maintaining a consistent playing style and a fighting attitude, regardless of which players were on the field.

“Look, except for the debut, we had great games, we deserved better luck, a slightly better position for what we did, especially against the big teams. We didn’t get any wins, but they were very interesting games, we prevailed most of the time, played with the ball, had important control, but we weren’t lucky against Palmeiras and had two draws against São Paulo and Santos,” he analyzed.

“It was a good campaign, the team is growing. Regardless of the lineup each round, the teams responded with a lot of security, balance, and possession. Regardless of the names on the field, it was always a very regular, balanced team, and we managed to prevail over opponents who were difficult to break down, but we found important ways,” the coach concluded.

Standings Situation

Corinthians will face Portuguesa in the quarterfinals of the Paulista, scheduled for next weekend. The date and time of the classic are yet to be defined by the FPF (Paulista Football Federation), but the home advantage will be with Lusa, who finished one spot above Timão in the first phase.

Upcoming Corinthians Matches

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