“I’m paid to do things differently”, Jardim after Flamengo win | OneFootball

First of all, before talking about the match, a very special message to all these fans. Right? It was magnificent. They were the twelfth player. A fantastic atmosphere, with the fans supporting us throughout the entire match. And that’s my first message to them.

As for our match, I think it was an extremely successful game. A very, very strong first half. Then we lacked efficiency, because we could have gone in with more than one goal. In the second half, with the opponent’s reaction, with their first shot almost inside the box, they ended up scoring. And then we reacted again and took control of the game. I think it’s a fair result.

It had been an option in the home match. We had more possession, more build-up play. It was an option already planned for this match. That’s why he came in. Bruno was available in the last match. He still didn’t face Mirassol because of the knock, but he was fully available now. But it was a strategic choice, because we knew we would have more attacking volume than we did in the first match at Mineirão.

There are fans who cut out quotes here, who leave out the context elsewhere... Arrascaeta is a fantastic player, a fantastic player. What I regret is that he can no longer play every match, every day, for 90 minutes, and handle that demand. But I’ve already explained that, and then they tell me: ‘oh, I don’t like Arrascaeta, I prefer so-and-so, I want this, I want that’... What can I say? I think he’s a fantastic athlete. Last year he already had a spectacular campaign, also with the coach managing him. I saw it many times: sometimes he played 60 minutes, other times he didn’t play, then he came on for 30 minutes... That’s the player we want to always have available, because it’s important to count on him.

The first thing I look at is whether we’re going to have a lot of possession and a more combination-based game. In that case, Pedro is extremely good. If the opponent also has technical quality and good positioning, especially in a home match, then I think Bruno Henrique also had a fundamental role. But, as I said about Bruno Henrique, he is an extremely important player for me as a coach and for Flamengo, but he’s also not the kind of athlete who can play every match for 90 minutes. It’s the same for him, I’ll say the same thing I said about Bruno Henrique: I think he’s a spectacular player, with above-average technical quality. But to play with the intensity he’s playing with nowadays — because nowadays he plays with different intensity, presses, defends, tracks back — he often can’t play 90 minutes and then play three matches in a row. That’s why the coach has to manage things. The players know I need everyone.

You can see that this is a group with a certain rotation: one player starts one match, another starts the next, and this is Flamengo. I’m not a defender of player A or B, I’m a defender of Flamengo, and we take into account the best options within what we have. Today we already saw Gerson struggling; Ayrton Lucas played three matches in a row, and I even rested him against Mirassol, but he was already having difficulties, except that today was not the day to put in a kid.

Regarding the transfer window, transfers, I’ve already told you that the club has people responsible for that. Both in terms of the direction we’re going to guide the club in and in the market. But, once again, I want to point out that our squad has several players who are important players, who sometimes aren’t valued as much, but they are important players. Players who come in. Just now I was looking at Araújo against Mirassol, a player who had been out for a long time. He came in and had a great game against Mirassol. And all these options... people on the outside talk more about the market than we do on the inside.

You need to put fresh meat on the grill. And we’ve managed that, especially when everyone is available. Thankfully, physically speaking, we’ve more or less got the squad back, except for Nícolas, who’s a little banged up. Having the rest of the group available is important. It’s important for what Brazilians call “rotation.” It’s important for managing the team.

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