Roger admits he backed Maik's suspension to get him back on track | OneFootball

Coach Roger Machado admitted that he supported the decision to sideline right-back Maik, who will now train separately from the rest of the São Paulo squad.

This Sunday (10), in a press conference after the 3-2 loss to Corinthians in Itaquera, in the Brazilian Championship, the São Paulo manager explained that he spoke with the 21-year-old and laid out the reasons for the measure.

“Maik was a joint decision between the coaching staff and the board. Since I arrived here, I’ve been talking to Maik that he needed to improve in training to put himself in a position to compete with the other players in his role, and this was for him to reach that level,” he said.

The decision by Rui Costa and Rafinha to remove Maik from training with the rest of the squad became public this Saturday (9).

The board found two openings for the decision. The first, obviously, was Roger Machado’s approval of Igor Felisberto’s performances, seen as the real jewel of Cotia for the position, and who made his professional debut in Thursday’s 0-0 away draw with O’Higgins in the Copa Sudamericana.

What really weighed against Maik, however, was his lack of proper fitness and lack of commitment in training. Sources consulted avoided talking about disciplinary issues. Recently, a journalist from radio station ‘Nova Brasil’ even claimed that the 21-year-old full-back arrived drunk to a training session, but São Paulo denied the information.

Maik played in only one match under Roger Machado: the loss to Atlético-MG on March 18. The last time he was included in the squad was for the defeat to Palmeiras on March 21.

He was set to be included for the match against Millonarios on the 28th in Bogotá, in the Sudamericana, but reported with muscle pain.

“These are my choices for the moment. I work from some principles: respect for the path of every athlete within the club, and also those who came from elsewhere. But each athlete’s story with me starts being told from the moment I arrive,” the coach said at the time.

São Paulo’s board did not like at all the photo posted by right-back Maik alongside Arboleda at the Barra Funda training center on Wednesday (6).

AVANTE MEU TRICOLOR found out that the entire squad was well aware that the 34-year-old center-back’s decision to leave the club for nearly a month did not deserve the slightest sign of leniency.

And Maik’s photo next to his friend was understood in exactly that way. The report heard terms like “provocation” and “indiscipline.”

“The impression it gave was that Arboleda continues to interact normally with the rest of the squad. He lacked a bit of common sense,” said one person heard by AMT.

According to the report, Maik took advantage of the fact that the entire football department board was traveling with the squad to Chile, where Tricolor face O’Higgins in the Copa Sudamericana tonight. The full-back was at Reffis receiving treatment because of muscle pain that kept him out of the matchday squad.

Internal information from the club indicates that the center-back’s ‘crazy-but-cool’ attitude did not go down well with the squad, which repudiated it. However, it seems that Arboleda’s affection for the youngsters from Cotia remains strong.

The defender, who returned to Tricolor, is seen as the main figure bringing together the boys coming up from the academy, with his playful and relaxed manner, and he is very popular among the Made in Cotia group. Maik is one of them.

Be that as it may, the board believes there are no grounds for a more effective punishment for Maik. But the photo is expected to bring him the worst kind of punishment: loss of standing. And the understanding is that no major efforts will be made to keep him in the squad. His loss of space under coach Roger Machado is evident.

AVANTE MEU TRICOLOR revealed last month that the full-back’s staff received contact from Basel, of Switzerland, and things are moving toward a proposal for the 21-year-old being made in the next transfer window, during the World Cup.

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