Leonardo Jardim explains why Anthony Valencia was left out | OneFootball

What happened to Anthony Valencia in Flamengo's Brasileirão match?

Coach Leonardo Jardim left Anthony Valencia out of Flamengo's squad for the 2-1 win over Red Bull Bragantino this Sunday (20) at the Maracanã in the Brasileirão. In a press conference after the match, the manager commented on why he decided not to include the young Ecuadorian.

— They are two youngsters, whether it's Valencia or Freitas, two young players we believe in, with a lot of quality. We are introducing them little by little. Today, you see Freitas, the difficulty of defending in the channel during a more intense period where you need to defend space more than attack. At this moment, I'm not going to put in a young player, I can't keep both of them. But they are players I believe in, who will develop, who will still help us at this moment — he said, before concluding:

— But we have 20-something players and not everyone can play. I can talk about Saúl, who had a great performance. He has been working well, played a little in the last match and today had an excellent performance. In terms of fitness, he has improved. In this second half of the season, he managed to put aside the injury that had been bothering him, and today he showed that he is increasingly becoming a solution — Leonardo Jardim concluded.

HOW DID ANTHONY VALENCIA ARRIVE AT FLAMENGO?

Anthony Valencia was signed by Flamengo in the latest transfer window. However, the Ecuadorian has still not been able to get much playing time since arriving at the club. The only time the forward played in the Sacred Shirt was in the closing stages of Mengão's win over Remo in Belém, in the Brasileirão.

VALENCIA CALLED UP TO THE ECUADOR NATIONAL TEAM

Despite that, Anthony Valencia was called up to the Ecuador national team during this FIFA international break. The forward will therefore represent Ecuador in the current international window, alongside his Flamengo teammate Gonzalo Plata. So, even without a run of games at the start of his spell at the club, Valencia remains on the Ecuador national team's radar. In this way, the youngster is using the FIFA break to gain match rhythm away from the Brasileirão pitches.

What is Flamengo's next match?

While Valencia joins up with Ecuador, Flamengo's squad is using the FIFA break to rest and fine-tune details for the final stretch of the season. In short, Mengão's next match will only take place on October 8 against Santos at 7:30 p.m. (Brasília time), at Vila Belmiro, in the Brasileirão. In this way, Coluna do Fla TV will show the details of the match on YouTube, as well as on its website and social media.

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