Jardim on Flamengo's Varela-Royal rotation and the team's ‘logic’ | OneFootball

Emerson Royal and Guillermo Varela have been rotating at Flamengo’s right-back position

Leonardo Jardim highlighted the importance of rotation at Flamengo’s full-back positions after the win over Bahia on Sunday (19), in the 12th round of the Brasileirão. In addition, the coach praised the complementary traits of Varela and Royal, reinforcing the need to keep players physically fresh in order to sustain the team’s style of play.

— Varela is extremely important. Besides his ability to get forward, he is able to combine well in tighter spaces. Royal has much stronger direct movement and is better in the air. Varela is more technical, more of a link-up player. He is one of the great players we have — the coach began.

— But I won’t give up having two options, as we also do on the left side. I want rotation with quality. Varela covered 11 km today, but if he played consecutive matches, he wouldn’t do that. The players understand this. You need freshness for the way we want to play. The fresher the player is, the better he can carry out the task — he concluded in the post-match press conference.

WHAT ARE VARELA AND ROYAL’S NUMBERS IN 2026?

Varela has made 14 appearances for Flamengo in the 2026 season and, in addition, Leonardo Jardim has used the Uruguayan more often in the Brasileirão. The full-back stands out for his link-up play and consistency, which explains his frequent presence in the national competition.

On the other hand, Royal has played 13 matches in 2026 and started Flamengo’s first two appearances in the Libertadores. Although Leonardo Jardim has not set a fixed rule for using each player in each tournament, the coach has clearly maintained rotation at full-back and, so far, has been getting good results with the strategy.

WHAT IS FLAMENGO’S NEXT MATCH?

With Varela and Royal available, Flamengo make their Copa do Brasil debut this Wednesday (22), when they face Vitória. Kickoff is at 9:30 p.m. Brasília time at the Maracanã, in the first leg of the competition’s fifth round.

As tradition dictates, Coluna do Fla will bring all the details of the match between Flamengo and Vitória through YouTube, the website, and social media. In addition, Globo (free-to-air), SporTV (cable TV), and Premiere (pay-per-view) will also broadcast the Copa do Brasil match.

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