Emily Lima on derby tweaks and Corinthians' loss to Palmeiras | OneFootball

Corinthians were defeated 1-0 by Palmeiras on the night of last Wednesday (29), at Arena Barueri, in the fifth round of the Paulista Women’s Championship. After the match, head coach Emily Lima gave a press conference and commented on the changes made during the derby, the team’s performance, the absence of some players, and the competition for places in the squad.

When analyzing the difference in performance between the two halves, the coach said she liked the team’s display in the first half and explained that the changes were motivated both by physical fatigue and by the need to observe players who had been getting fewer minutes.

Photo: ©Rodrigo Gazzanel / Ag. Corinthians

“We really believe in the players who were getting fewer minutes. Day played a great game, but we understood that there were adjustments missing, a lot of adjustments in the second half, because she was no longer moving with the intensity that a match like this requires. And she said: ‘Coach, I’m tired, but I’ll try to make it work. Let me try to make it work.’ That was always our dialogue. Then Ariel. Ariel isn’t that attacking midfielder where we create the diamond shape, which is something we’ve been using and that has been working, and she tries to give her best there. For me, on the opposite side of the ball, off the ball, she played a very important role for the team, she gave everything. It was at that moment that we tried to make the changes to at least maintain that intensity off the ball. We managed intensity, but not organization. And that has a lot to do with the game situation and with players sometimes being out of their positions, which was the case with Carol. Carol is much more of a winger, much more of a last-line player. We brought Carol in to play Ariel’s role, then brought in Rayzza to play Jaquinha’s role, and put the speedsters we have—Robledo and Aquino—on the last line. So we try to adjust. We also train with these girls. Many times we train both situations, thinking about the opponent and about ourselves, so that if this happens they already know clearly what our proposal is. But it’s not the same thing.

The rhythm of the game is different; you come into an emergency situation and need to solve problems. So yes, I really liked the first half. They were very tactically disciplined. In the second half too, but I think we lacked the intensity we had in the first half, and we ended up opening up some spaces. Palmeiras’ midfield has a lot of quality. Then you look at Palmeiras’ substitutions, and they practically maintain the same level of quality as the starters. These are very good matches because of that, because of the quality that goes out and the quality that comes in. So we end up not losing the quality of the game, from either team. That’s very much my reading of it, the pace of the game. It was important to make those changes and manage the workload so we could see, in a game of this size, what each player who had been getting fewer minutes can deliver. Because training is one thing, games are another. That’s very positive for the team; it creates a lot of doubt in our minds, a lot of discussion among the coaching staff, because we already have another difficult away match and we need to stay top of the Brazilian Championship and continue our run in the Paulista.”

Emily also commented on the team’s absences and said the squad responded well, even with the negative result against their rivals.

“Look, I’ve said it before, we have a very good squad. I think everyone is missed in the squad, but I believe the players who took the field today, the players called up, delivered and didn’t fall short in any way. We have this workload management and need to respect the players’ limits. We were coming off a mid-season break and had already faced two very tough matches against Ferroviária, so we were exposed to this, just like the other team was too. We tried to put on the field the players who were in the best physical condition, even though it was a Derby. We can’t expose a player all the time. The road is still long in the Paulista, and we have a hugely important match against Flamengo. I think, overall, the squad really met our expectations. Unfortunately I’m saying this after a 1-0 scoreline against us, but within our evaluation, the performance against Palmeiras was very positive.”

Asked about the competition for places in the attacking sector and the few opportunities for some players, Emily stressed that the coaching staff’s choices are based on the players’ daily performances.

“The hierarchy here is work. The hierarchy here isn’t just because her name is Zanotti, or because the other one is called Vic, Jaque, Duda or Andressa. The hierarchy here is work. Whoever delivers and works harder will get opportunities. I’m being very precise about the word ‘hierarchy’ that you used. Now, going back to the question, Rayzza is much more of a winger than a midfielder. Today, with the limitations we had on the bench, our speed options were Rayzza, Aquino, Carol and Robledo. Our option was to put Carol on, leave Rayzza in midfield to help us much more with marking, and use Robledo and Aquino on the last line, using their speed. They’ve been getting few opportunities, first because Jaquinha’s performances, in our view, have been adequate. And Johnson… I’m not even going to put Zanotti in that competition. The direct competition is with Johnson, who has been improving very well. That’s our view.

She delivers with and without the ball. Johnson still has one point where, sometimes, she switches off and then switches back on. That’s very clear. What we’ve been working on with her is precisely so that she’s always active away from the center of the play, which is where she usually switches off. She gets outside the nine- or ten-meter radius of the ball, switches off, and by the time she switches back on the move has already passed. But she has been delivering a lot without the ball and a lot with the ball. Today she had a game in line with the standard she had been showing. Our option was to put Aquino in, who had a good game against Vitória, and try to attack Palmeiras’ last line. I think everything comes down to performance, both in training and in matches. And that’s why sometimes not just those two, but Day herself, who had been getting few minutes. It’s a very complex battle for places within the squad. We’re talking about players with a lot of technical, physical and tactical quality. It’s up to us to make the decisions and choose. Sometimes it won’t please you, sometimes it won’t please them, but it has to please what we believe in and what we think.”

The Brabas’ next match will be on Monday at 6:30 p.m. (Brasília time), against Flamengo at Estádio Luso Brasileiro, in the 14th round of the Brazilian Women’s Championship.

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