Corinthians Under-20 boss on injury subs in Brasileirão defeat | OneFootball

Throughout the afternoon of last Wednesday (1), Corinthians hosted Fortaleza at Estádio Alfredo Schürig, Fazendinha, in a match valid for the fourth round of the first phase of the Brazilian U-20 Championship, and was defeated 1-0. With the result, Timãozinho dropped from fourth to second place in the national competition with seven points – two wins, one draw, and one loss – nine goals scored and four conceded.

Right after the match, in an interview with journalists present in the mixed zone, the coach of the Filhos do Terrão, William Batista, commented on the impact of the midfield trio substitutions due to injury (Caraguá, Luiz Gustavo Bahia, and Gui Amorim), the learning process even through defeats, highlighted the qualities of João Vitor ‘Jacaré’ and Luiz Fábio ‘Favela’, the use of midfielder Dieguinho in a friendly, reinforcements for the category, and the quality of Corinthians’ youth goalkeepers.

Photo: Rodrigo Gazzanel/Agência Corinthians

Check out the coach’s answers below:

How much the substitutions of Caraguá, Luiz Gustavo Bahia, and Gui Amorim affected the game plan

“I think losing a player in the first half is something we plan for, but we never expect it. That already changes the dynamics a bit, because you lose a substitution and a chance to make an adjustment. And we made that one [Luiz Eduardo for Gui Amorim] in the first half and then went into halftime. We already knew we had to make one, which was Bahia’s. And then when we came back onto the field, we saw that Caraguá probably also wouldn’t be able to handle the second half. We had to sub him out. And we found ourselves with the entire midfield changed at the start of the second half. I actually think we came back well, we created more near the final third, even if it wasn’t that decisive. Did their goalkeeper make any difficult saves? No.”

“But we started to have a little more volume than we had in the first half, because we weren’t as sharp in the first half as we had been in other matches. And I think the players on the bench need to be prepared, they need to be ready for opportunities, especially in a U-20 team, as is our case. Now we just hope it’s nothing serious, Amorim will have tests, Bahia will have tests too. Caraguá took a knock, but it was a hard one, so I think it’s a little less worrying. We’ll see what happens for the next match, which is already on Tuesday against Botafogo in Rio.”

How Gui Amorim is doing after being substituted due to injury

“He got scared, it seems his knee made a cracking sound, but in the initial tests everything seemed fine. Obviously, we have to wait for the exam and MRI to see what it actually was. We hope it wasn’t anything serious, because Amorim is a talented player, an important player for us, important for the club. We were a little more reassured at first because the clinical test suggested it wasn’t that serious. But now we have to wait for the test tomorrow morning to see what really happened.”

The learning process with defeats at youth level

“I believe they are all very talented. Amorim is very talented, Nicolas very talented, Iago very talented. I think my biggest challenge is getting them to combine talent with a lot of effort. And those are things they were able to give us in the first three Brasileirão matches, against América, away at Bahia, and away at Grêmio. And we need consistency in that. A great talent that works hard, I think, maximizes what he already does well. And that’s my big challenge. They’ve been doing good things day to day, the first three matches were good. Today I think we could have been more competitive at this level, as a team overall. What we showed in the first three matches, when we got 7 points from 3 games, was a lot of commitment, a lot of intensity, it was what Corinthians is all about.”

“Today, unfortunately, we were a little inconsistent in that. And in high-level football, which is the Série A Brazilian U-20 Championship, if you dip a little and your opponent doesn’t, maybe the opponent gets an opportunity. In our case today, unfortunately, Fortaleza took advantage of it. We have to take that as a lesson, as you said, so that in the coming matches we can really build momentum in the competition, put together consecutive wins, games without losing, and not go three matches with wins and draws and then lose the fourth. I think my average is almost that. I’ve had 13 games and three defeats, so I lose one game every four matches. And I want that rate to improve. It’s even higher than the previous two coaches who were here. But I think Corinthians can do more than that.”

The importance of João Vitor ‘Jacaré’ and Luiz Fábio ‘Favela’ for the U-20 team

“They are two players with good physical qualities. Jacaré has a lot of speed, a lot of strength, a lot of intensity, and good ability to win duels. Luiz Fábio is a similar center forward. He is very quick, wins a lot of duels, presses the opposition defense well. He’s the kind of guy who makes life difficult for center-backs. Obviously, we need to develop things with them, both Jacaré and Favela, so we can deliver them even better than they already are, so that when they get the opportunity to step onto the pitch and represent Corinthians, they’ll have all these skills they already have and even more. Have a more refined pass, a slightly better finish, so they can delight our Fiel Torcida. They have things the Corinthians fans like: a lot of grit, a lot of commitment, a lot of willingness. And then composure is important to bring all that together and produce good players. A good center forward and a good right back as well for the future of our club.”

Dieguinho ‘coming down,’ while integrated with the senior team, to play in a friendly against Audax for the U-20s

“Dieguinho is a really good person, a very calm guy, a guy who likes training, likes matches, he’s passionate about what he does, so he’s easy to work with. Because he likes it, right? And when someone likes it, when someone is passionate about the game the way he is about training, it becomes simple to get the best out of him, like it was great to have him in the friendly against Audax. He’s a very talented player. It was the first time I had closer contact with him, and it was really nice. There’s also communication between Dorival’s staff and him, so that helps a lot in making him come down motivated, come down engaged. It’s good that we were able to give him some rhythm. Today he was called up for the match against Fluminense in Rio. So I think in some way we were able to help with Dieguinho’s match rhythm.”

Signings brought in for Corinthians’ U-20 squad – João Vitor (left-back), Yago Melo (center-back), Levy Dias (center-back), Zé Antônio (center-back), Christian Oliveira (midfielder), and Ryan Evaristo (forward)

“João had good development at Athletico Paranaense, so he’s a player we can see has substance. He had a lot of minutes there, he was practically a starter all year, since U-17 level at Athletico Paranaense. That caught our attention; it’s important to have minutes under your belt before arriving at Corinthians and being able to perform. He’s a 2007-born player, so he still has basically two more years in Corinthians’ U-20s. We needed a player in that position, where we only had Pires and Luca, who is a 2008-born player, so we were missing a 2007. The ones who came from Flamengo have a good background. Levi has a good background. Levi was captain of their U-17 team last year. Yago Melo was captain of their U-17 team two years ago, meaning we have Flamengo’s last two U-17 captains, both from the 2007 generation, which is Yago Melo, and the 2008 generation, which is Levi. And Christian is a guy who was called up to the national team at U-15 level. He had a knee injury at the time, and that hurt his progress at the club. He’s recovered now, so these are players who have strengthened our squad, have been helping us day to day, and we’re really counting on them for the season. And it’s good that we managed to bring in signings at the level Corinthians demands, which we needed, so the club’s scouting staff did a really good job.”

Opportunity for Pietro and the quality of Corinthians’ youth goalkeepers – they have been called up to Brazil’s youth national teams

“Corinthians is well covered. There are many talented goalkeepers. (Gustavo) Milani (U-17) is talented, Matheus Alemão (U-15) is very talented, Matheus is very talented. Anyway, there’s (Felipe) Longo and Kauê, who are also talented. Nicolas (U-20), who is also injured, is a very good goalkeeper. It’s a shame he’s injured, considering how hard he works. And Pietro (U-20) got his chance today and he did very well. I think if there were one or two positive things from today, Pietro was definitely one of them. I think he had a solid match, a good match to watch, he’s a guy who deserves it for how hard he works. And I think Corinthians is in good hands. And it’s good for us because it gives us confidence that no matter who is playing, we’ll be well covered. Milani played the first match, sat out the other two. Today Pietro played. So Corinthians has three goalkeepers called up to the national team: Hugo, Matheus Alemão, Milani. So I hope there will be more soon. I think that’s good for the club.”

Next match

Looking to bounce back in the competition, the club from Parque São Jorge will return to the pitch next Tuesday (7), at 7 p.m. (Brasília time), at Nilton Santos, against Botafogo, for the fifth round of the first phase of the Brasileirão in the category.

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