Palmeiras face injury puzzle ahead of derby after free week | OneFootball

Palmeiras will once again have a free week for training after an intense sequence of games over the past two months and will need to solve some ‘puzzles’ due to absences from call-ups. Verdão will have more preparation time for the derby against Santos, scheduled for this Saturday, during the FIFA international break.

The last time the Alviverde team had a free week was at the beginning of October, after the derby against São Paulo. On that occasion, the squad prepared for four days before facing Juventude at Allianz Parque and thrashed their opponent 4-1.

Since then, it’s been intense weeks for Palmeiras. Alviverde slipped in the Brasileirão by losing to Flamengo and fell behind in the Libertadores semifinal, but quickly recovered in the season. Not only did they maintain the lead in Série A, but they also managed a comeback against LDU and advanced to the final of the continental tournament.

Now, Abel Ferreira and his coaching staff will once again have a free week to prepare the team for the postponed derby against Santos, valid for the 13th round of the Brasileirão. The match will take place this Saturday at 9 pm (Brasília time), at Vila Belmiro – and the coach will have some headaches when it comes to picking the team.

Verdão will be missing players, and Abel again laments absences

Palmeiras will go into the derby against Santos missing key players, since the CBF scheduled the match during the FIFA international break. Abel Ferreira has even recently complained about losing some of his starting players just for international friendlies.

So far, Verdão has had four players called up by their respective national teams and lost its starting attacking duo. Vitor Roque was called up to play for the Brazilian National Team in friendlies against Senegal and Tunisia on November 15 and 18. Flaco López, meanwhile, was called up by Argentina for the match against Angola on the 14th.

In addition to the ‘Flaco-Roque’ duo, Palmeiras also lost defender Gustavo Gómez and forward Ramón Sosa, both called up by Paraguay. The team will face the United States and Mexico, also on November 15 and 18. Andreas Pereira, meanwhile, received his third yellow card against Mirassol and is suspended.

Alviverde could still lose three more important players due to call-ups by Uruguay: Piquerez, Facundo Torres, and Emiliano Martínez. The left-back is a starter, while the forward and the midfielder are substitutes, but they are still important squad members.

In a press conference last Sunday, Abel once again lamented the loss of players just for friendlies, something he had already done after the win over Santos in the last round.

“As a coach, it’s not very pleasant to know that I have so many players who are called up and that all of them want to go to the national team, and that none of them want to get injured, nor hurt, and want to be available. But it’s part of the game. We have a squad full of good players. The selectors are responsible for this, it’s a FIFA date, they can call them up. We’re the ones who pay their salaries, we’re the ones who need them. But that’s football and we have to adapt. The management already knew how it would be and we have to adapt with the resources we have,” he said.

Standings

With the result, Palmeiras remained at the top of the Brazilian Championship, but saw Flamengo once again equal their points total. Verdão has 68 points and stays on top due to tiebreaker criteria – they have one more win than Rubro-Negro, who beat Santos 3-2 in the round.

Palmeiras’ upcoming matches

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