Mano Menezes on Corinthians, best player he coached and Cristian | OneFootball

Former Corinthians coach and current Peru national team manager, Mano Menezes experienced ups and downs during his time with Timão, but he is remembered as one of the managers who won major titles with the black-and-white club.

In an interview with the program Bate-Bola com Falcão, the coach highlighted the prominence he achieved with Timão, revealed who the best players he has ever coached were, and also singled out defensive midfielder Cristian, who stood out in the black-and-white shirt under the command of the coach from Rio Grande do Sul.

“It was very significant at Corinthians. It even led me to the Brazilian national team as coach,” he said.

Rodrigo Coca/Corinthians Agency

“Ronaldo Fenômeno. He was the best at everything. When you coach a guy like that, you become very demanding. But I had great players that I coached, and at Corinthians itself there was an attacking midfielder, Douglas, there was Danilo, there was Roberto Carlos, there was Elias, there was Cristian, who was a defensive midfielder and had that quality,” he began.

“Cristian was Flamengo’s fifth-choice defensive midfielder, and they gave him to us for free. See how football is, right? I gave him the number 6 shirt, he went onto the field, put on the shirt, and it looked like he had been there forever. And he had never played as the holding midfielder before. It’s just that I’m defensive-minded, right? You know? (Ironically) I moved him from attacking midfielder to holding midfielder,” he continued.

“So, Cristian played as a number 10 at Fenerbahçe, played in midfield at Paulista, Copa do Brasil champion. He was the third midfield player, because they played with three center-backs and he was a midfielder. Elias had never been a defensive midfielder in his life, never. Elias was a forward, just so you know, he was a forward, then he dropped back at Ponte Preta and was runner-up with coach Sérgio Guedes as a midfielder, and I dropped him back to the number 8 role. I was the one who moved him to defensive midfield. Besides Douglas. So in my Corinthians midfield (in 2009-2010) there wasn’t a single defensive midfielder,” he explained.

“The full-back also never really stayed as a full-back, right? André Santos. The one who held back more was Alessandro, we kept the right-back a little more restrained,” Mano Menezes concluded.

New horizons

Replacing Óscar Ibáñez, coach Mano Menezes was hired by the Peru national team already focused on the 2030 World Cup cycle. Available on the market since leaving Grêmio last year, the former Corinthians coach was announced in his new role at the end of January.

In the interview with former player Paulo Roberto Falcão, the coach spoke about André Carrillo, who plays for Corinthians and is one of the most experienced names among those called up to the Peru national team.

Stints with Timão

In all, Mano Menezes coached Corinthians on three occasions. He won three titles (2008 Série B, 2009 Paulistão and 2009 Copa do Brasil) in his first and most successful spell at the club, between 2008 and 2010. In the second, in 2014, the team had an irregular performance, and the cycle ended without trophies. In the most recent one, he was in charge of the team at the end of the 2023 season, but was eventually dismissed in February 2024.

There were 267 matches, with 142 wins, 69 draws and 56 losses, resulting in an overall points percentage of 61.79%.

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