Zubeldía hails Fla x Flu win: "Happy for the fans" | OneFootball

Fluminense defeated Flamengo 2-1 this Wednesday (19th) in the Brasileirão and entered the Libertadores qualification zone. The tricolor had a great performance in the first half, where they scored both goals. After the match, Luis Zubeldía praised the team's performance in the derby.

Since taking charge of Fluminense, the Argentine coach has already led the team in all three Carioca derbies, beating Botafogo and Flamengo, and being defeated by Vasco. Zubeldía also spoke about the importance of winning these derbies.

Check out other answers from Zubeldía

Experience of the first Fla-Flu

– Beautiful. Beautiful because we won. I already told your colleague: you can’t praise one derby over another. I don’t want to put myself in a position to choose a derby because for me, whether there are 15,000, 50,000, or 60,000 fans, derbies mean a lot to the teams I’ve managed. So I’m very respectful. I know it hurts twice as much if you don’t win and the joy is doubled if you do. For example, we have Mário as president. Mário grew up in a very nearby neighborhood, so for the people he represents, as for all the fans because he is the president. There are lots of people here who have been Fluminense since childhood. And there are others who haven’t, like Germán Cano, who was born in Argentina, but today already has maroon skin.

Best performance by Flu under your command?

– I think we’ve played good matches, in several of them we had very good moments. I remember the game against Botafogo, which was also good, against Atlético-MG was good, against Mirassol here as well. We had several games where we played well, against Internacional, for example, the first half was excellent.

– There were matches where we played well, others where we had more difficulties, and in some, unfortunately, the result wasn’t what we expected. But, in general, the team worked more often than not. We got more wins, and that’s a consequence of having had better moments than people think.

– Today’s game, even though it was very tough in every aspect, required a very high level of concentration, especially because we are facing strong opponents in a row. Mirassol, Cruzeiro, and Flamengo, all teams that are at the top of the table and are having a good Brasileirão.

Pressing in other games?

– Sometimes yes, sometimes no. High pressing isn’t a game system in itself. It’s not something we apply systematically, it’s a tool we use when the moment calls for it. It depends a lot on the players’ interpretation. When the opponent plays out from a goal kick, we usually press high. Sometimes with one player to guide, other times with two. I have players who press well, and that’s not by chance. It’s no wonder that often the first two substitutions are the attacking midfielder and the center forward, two players who contribute a lot defensively, in addition to their offensive work.

– It doesn’t mean others can’t do it, but the characteristics change. John, for example, doesn’t have the same profile as Everaldo. Just as Ganso is different from Lucho, or Nonato. Nonato can even be useful in pressing, but maybe doesn’t have the composure of a number 10. With certain players, we can apply effective high pressing. But if we make changes, we need to adapt to the characteristics we have on the field. That’s why sometimes we press high, other times we drop back to a medium or even low block.

Ways to attack opponents

– It depends on the opponent. In this case, we had ten days to plan the game, although, in practice, it’s not really ten days, because first you need to recover the players. To work specifically on the game against Flamengo, with seven days in advance, isn’t ideal, because it’s still too far away. But it’s true that we had a period to recover the athletes, work together, and then plan 48 to 72 hours of training focused both on what we needed to improve and on Flamengo’s characteristics, something we normally can’t do with other teams due to the tight schedule.

Strategy against Flamengo

– One example with the ball was if they set up in a medium block, we had to look for situations behind their defenders. Because the full-backs pushed forward and created a slightly unbalanced situation for the center-backs, who could make a progressive pass or a back pass at the wrong moment. This is also a virtue Flamengo has, but we interpreted that when the ball was in the middle zone and we saw this situation, we had to apply (what was trained). I think we did that well. That’s a point to highlight when we had the ball.

– Another point without the ball, Flamengo usually builds up with three plus two. The three plus two are their left-back and the center-backs, and the right-back opens up the field. In attack, Luiz Araújo cuts inside and Carrascal, in Arrascaeta’s position, occupies the opposite side. In this setup (from Flamengo) with the “W” in attack and the three plus two in build-up, we had to occupy the spaces. To avoid going on too long, we occupied the defensive spaces well and from that we were able to block (their actions).

Importance of the wingers

– Here it’s not about saying who is better or worse, but about understanding the different types. You have that winger who covers 70 meters, the famous “box to box,” and you have the winger in the final third, who, if demanded too much defensively, may lose effectiveness. So, depending on the characteristics of these wingers, you choose which is most suitable for a given game, right?

And at this stage of the championship, all teams have attacking full-backs, even Sport Recife, who have already been relegated, but are capable of scoring goals, as they showed against us and in recent games. I don’t see another alternative except for the wingers to help form a line of 5 or even 7, depending on the moment of the game. Ideally, these players should be able to recover, but also that the team can string together 12, 13, 14 passes to get out of pressure, position themselves, and build from the back so that these same wingers can arrive strongly in attack. But it all depends on the context.

Renê's replacement at left-back

– It will be between Freytes and Gabi (Gabriel Fuentes). I haven’t seen him much, it’s a moment to see him too, and Freytes, I’d also like to see on the left side, because when a center-back can play on the left, you gain that height, you can allow for some mistakes through grit, which is harder in the center, and you gain that height on set pieces. So, I have to see. It’s a great possibility we have to choose between the two.

Best campaign since you arrived

– This kind of statistic that pops up from time to time bothers me a lot. It really does me harm. I don’t like this kind of data. I understand that nowadays there are a lot of analyses, a lot of information, artificial intelligence, software, professionals who work with this, and that’s all fine. Analysis has expanded around coaches, players, and matches. But this kind of isolated data, without considering the context, bothers me.

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