Crespo keeps quiet on São Paulo’s starting line-up for the season

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Gazeta Esportiva.com

·22 February 2026

Crespo keeps quiet on São Paulo’s starting line-up for the season

Enjoying a great phase and accumulating seven unbeaten matches, São Paulo secured a spot in the semifinals of the Campeonato Paulista last Saturday by defeating Bragantino. Coach Hernán Crespo celebrated the positive moment but avoided confirming the Tricolor’s starting lineup for the rest of the season.

“I can’t say (that I’ve found the ideal team). The season is very long… What happened today can change in two months. We might go back to playing with a three-man backline, as we did today out of necessity,” said the coach.

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In the last three matches, Crespo adopted a system with four defenders, different from the three-center-back system used at the start of the season. The good run also coincides with the return of Calleri and the arrivals of Danielzinho and Lucas Ramon.

“It’s game by game. What’s important is that they (the players) need to know what São Paulo needs to win. The rest is a consequence,” he added.

And where will Cauly play?

With a healthy squad, unlike in recent seasons, the coach now has another option: midfielder Cauly, formerly of Bahia. Crespo did not detail how he plans to use the player, but commented on his debut, when the athlete replaced Marcos Antônio in the final stretch of the match.

“It was a normal situation, to let Marcos Antônio catch his breath. We need to have fresh players and he has the characteristics, he can hold the ball. In difficult moments we had to defend well, but the idea was to defend with the ball. That’s why he came on,” he concluded.

São Paulo’s Current Phase

Now, São Paulo awaits the definition of its opponent for the semifinal of the Campeonato Paulista. In the Brasileirão, Tricolor is in second place, with seven points, the same as leader Palmeiras.