Crespo drops Copinha stars to strengthen São Paulo v São Bernardo | OneFootball

Coach Hernán Crespo decided to promote three players from the São Paulo youth team that is competing in the Copa São Paulo de Juniores and managed to advance to the third phase of the competition last Tuesday (13) after winning the derby against Portuguesa.

Right-back Igor Felisberto, attacking midfielder Pedro Ferreira, and forward Paulinho have already joined the professional squad of Tricolor and trained with the rest of the group at the Barra Funda training center. Images of this morning’s activities released by the club itself already showed the trio.

The trend is that all three will be included by Crespo for the match at 9:45 p.m. (Brasília time) this Thursday (15) against São Bernardo, at Morumbi, for the Campeonato Paulista.

Felisberto will, in a way, be the replacement for Maik, who ended up being sent off during the debut loss to Mirassol over the weekend and will serve an automatic suspension.

The other two fill gaps in Crespo’s current team. Without Oscar (retired) and Rodriguinho (sold to Bragantino), there are no natural central attacking midfielders in the squad. Lucas has been training in the position since the start of preseason activities.

Meanwhile, Paulinho will become an option for the center forward position. The club still has André Silva and Ryan Francisco transitioning back after recovering from serious injuries. There are expectations for Calleri, who has been training normally since preseason, but was rested for the match in Mirassol (SP).

Of the three, Felisberto and Paulinho already have some experience with the first team. The former was promoted in 2024 by Thiago Carpini, while the forward gained minutes on the field given by Crespo himself. Pedro, on the other hand, made a brief debut at the end of 2025.

São Paulo will likely be lined up with Rafael; Ferraresi (Alan Franco), Arboleda and Sabino; Cédric Soares, Pablo Maia (Danielzinho), Bobadilla, Marcos Antônio and Wendell (Ferreirinha); Luciano (Lucas) and Calleri (Tapia).

The last day of squad adjustments this Wednesday (14) began with a video from the coaching staff for the players.

Afterwards, the players went to the pitch and did their warm-up routine with the fitness staff before working with Crespo, who led a tactical session.

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