Fernando Diniz on loss to Coritiba, absentees and Corinthians' run | OneFootball

Corinthians returned to the pitch on Sunday night (23) and suffered their second straight defeat in the Brazilian Championship. At Couto Pereira Stadium in Curitiba, Timão were beaten 2-1 by Coritiba in the 24th round of the competition. Raniele scored the team’s only goal of the match.

With the result, Fernando Diniz’s side remained on 32 points and dropped to 10th place in the Brasileirão standings. After the match, the coach gave a press conference and analyzed Corinthians’ performance, while also commenting on the absences, the wear and tear caused by the run of matches, and the options available in the squad.

Photos: Rodrigo Coca/Agência Corinthians

Assessing the performance, Diniz viewed the opening minutes of each half positively, but acknowledged inconsistency throughout the match. The coach also highlighted the physical and, above all, mental toll caused by the packed schedule this season.

“Speaking about the match, I think we started the first half well, and the second half as well. The beginnings of both halves were very good. Then we dropped off a little. There was also something that was predictable because of Thursday’s game, which is physical fatigue. But the psychological and emotional fatigue is much greater than the physical fatigue. So getting the players ready again to play today’s match is always a challenge. We knew we wouldn’t be at 100% energy today, especially psychologically.”

He then lamented the goals conceded and felt Corinthians could have left Curitiba with at least one point. Diniz also spoke about the players in the medical department and highlighted Memphis Depay’s performance, as he stayed on the field for 51 minutes.

“I think we managed to have a very good first half, and the start of the second half as well. We conceded two goals, again, that were very avoidable. One from a set piece — I think they made a mistake in building the play, and we ended up conceding. Then on the second goal, our team was already sitting deeper. In the two matches against Rosario, for example, when we theoretically had to defend, we had no problems, we didn’t give away any scoring chances. Today, because of a lack of attention, we wanted to win the ball back too quickly instead of marking properly, and we ended up conceding the second goal. Otherwise, we could have at least drawn.”

“As for the absences, I think little by little we’ll get some players back. Obviously, when we can count on everyone, the result is much better. But I’m not going to put it all down to absences, because we had a lot of absences against Rosario, which was a hugely important tie. We went through in the Copa do Brasil and in the Libertadores. But the return of these players will be very important. I think that for the Santos match, we may already have some players from the medical department available.”

“As you said, Memphis played 51 minutes today and, in my opinion, did very well. Since I’ve been here, it was his best performance. He’s a player who gives the team a lot of weight, brings more pressure on the opponent. As I said before working with him, and now I’m confirming it from the few training sessions and few games we’ve had together, he’s a world-class player. So it’s very good for us to be able to count on Memphis.”

Diniz explains Lingard’s current situation

Another player discussed during the interview was Lingard. Asked about the player’s performance, Diniz recalled his period of growth after arriving at Corinthians and mentioned personal and physical issues that interrupted his run.

“I even say that since I arrived here, he’s been with me, he was improving at first and then had his best spell. I think that was with me, about a month after I arrived here. He scored goals, provided assists. Then he had a family problem, with the death of his grandfather, who was like a father to him, and he had to step away for a while. Then there was the Copa, he still went back for the funeral afterward, and now he’s trying to get back into rhythm.”

“He had a bad ankle, he’d twisted it in training, so he couldn’t play against Rosario or even be available. He made himself available for this game and played a few minutes. But today, compared to the other games, I think he came on and managed to contribute a bit more. I hope Lingard, who is a player with a great history in football, gets back to his best, and we’ll do everything we can to help him.”

Memphis could play centrally in attack

With Yuri Alberto among the absentees, Diniz was also asked about the possibility of using Memphis as a more central attacking reference. The coach confirmed that he is considering the option.

“It’s one of the possibilities. He can play there. The position he has played most in his life is the position he played today. With Yuri Alberto’s presence, we have two players we need to fit together, because they are two very high-level players. But he is an option. It’s not that we’ll do it all the time, but if it’s what’s best for the team right now, it’s a very real, very concrete possibility.”

Diniz talks about the squad and possible reinforcements

The number of unavailable players also led the press conference into squad planning. Diniz again said he is satisfied with the current group and mentioned young players who have been getting opportunities, as well as players who underwent surgery.

“I’ve said more than once that I like the team, I like the squad. I think we have the possibility of gradually bringing players through. Dieguinho has been getting minutes, Gui Negão came on again today, there’s a youngster on the bench that we’re developing slowly, João Pedro, and Iago himself.”

“What happened after my arrival is that, for now, we lost three players to surgery: Labyad, Kayke, and Vitinho, who is also out for the time being. If it weren’t for those three players, plus Yuri’s return, plus André’s return and now Memphis’ return, this would be a team that has… I don’t like huge squads. I like Corinthians’ squad, I’ve said that more than once. We have to take care to avoid injuries, and most of the injuries have been a bit of bad luck. We don’t have much control over these knee injuries.”

The coach also explained that some of the muscle injuries happened precisely after periods in which the players had fewer minutes.

“And, oddly enough, the two muscle injuries we had… Today, for example, people might suggest a player got injured because of the sequence of games. But we didn’t have injuries in that sense, when we put the team out to play continuously. Yuri Alberto, when he got injured, we had given him a rest. He came on against Atlético-MG for 20 minutes and got injured. And André as well. He had also rested, hadn’t played against Atlético, against Inter he only played 60 minutes and then another 60 minutes. He ended up getting injured.”

Despite showing confidence in the squad, Diniz acknowledged that any reinforcements would be welcome if Corinthians can resolve the transfer bans that currently make new registrations difficult.

“So I believe that, with the return of the players and if we can keep them on the field, out of the medical department, we have a team we can manage with. Obviously, if we can pay off the transfer bans and make one or two signings, they will be very welcome.”

Workload management and Corinthians’ situation in the Brasileirão

Diniz also detailed the reasons for the absences of Matheus Bidu, Matheuzinho, and Hugo Souza. According to the coach, the decisions were made considering each player’s specific physical issues.

“About this workload management, I’ve talked about it more than once. I’ll repeat a phrase I said before, I think it fits well: a player isn’t just muscle and bone, but he is also muscle and bone. At certain moments, Bidu had already been playing for a while through the pain because of pubic pain, and he was left out more because of that than because of workload management in the physiological sense.”

“Matheuzinho, since we came back from the Copa, has been a player who played every match for 90 minutes, and his body was already asking for recovery. So Matheuzinho was already in my plans for this match, to be able to give him a break, because everyone could see it, including him, which is the most important thing. If he had said, ‘I’m fine, I want to play,’ he would have come. But he was already exhausted from so many games and training sessions.”

Regarding Hugo Souza, the coach revealed some knee discomfort and explained the decision to start Kauê.

“Hugo felt something, a bit of a strain in the knee, he was a little unsure, and we thought it was better to put Kauê in today and give him time to recover fully.”

Finally, Diniz avoided setting a specific finishing position as Corinthians’ goal in the Brazilian Championship. For the coach, the team must aim for the highest position possible and treat every match as decisive. He also lamented the points dropped in the recent defeats to Cruzeiro and Coritiba.

“As for the Brasileirão, I think we have to approach every match as decisive. I can’t tell you for sure. Corinthians always have to aim as high as possible. We lost two games, both against Cruzeiro and today. At the very least, we should have drawn based on what happened in the game. We had chances to win both matches.”

“They were two defeats that, in my view, were very painful. We should have made better use of the chance to play at home and beat Cruzeiro. And today was a match where we had to take at least one point from here.”

After this run of fixtures, Corinthians will have a week without matches before returning to action. Their next challenge will be against Santos on Sunday (30), at 4 p.m., at Neo Química Arena, in the 25th round of the Brazilian Championship.

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