Jardim plays down Pedro ‘confusion’ and says he “hates calm” at Flamengo | OneFootball

Match — In relation to the match, that is a correct analysis. If we had scored one more goal, there would not have been that reaction. The opponent scores from a deflection off us, in the madness, in the excitement, because teams play too. I said we were going to manage the team over 10 days. We had four matches in ten days. Independiente del Valle and Bragantino are aggressive teams that press high and play a lot of duels, and we are a different kind of team. We managed to carry out the perfect plan of having a fresh team. In midfield we only had Jorginho who had played, the others had played less. In the final part it was more emotion than clear chances created, but the result was very fair. Missed chances — Any coach wants a more clinical team, but my line of work is chance creation. After that, it depends on the players. Some are more clinical, others less so, but I’m sure everyone gives their best. It’s not because of altitude. On the other side there’s a goalkeeper, today Arrascaeta hit the post… There are always situations that can happen. Today we created and scored two (goals), but we could have created less, scored just one, and I’d be here lamenting a draw. The more we create, the more chances we will finish. Pitch — In the last match everyone was very clear regarding the pitch. The club understands that too, and they will certainly try to do their best so the pitch improves. That is their department, I am the coach. I don’t want to go on about it. I’m here to talk about the game. Valencia left out of the squad and Saúl’s performance: — They are two boys, whether Valencia or Freitas, two young players we believe in, with many qualities. We are introducing them little by little. Today, you saw Freitas and the difficulty of defending the channel in a phase of greater pressure, where you need to defend space more than attack. At this moment, I’m not going to field one youngster, I can’t keep both. But they are players I believe in, who will develop, and who will still help at this time. But we have more than 20 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 he had an excellent performance. In terms of (physical) condition, he improved. In this second half of the year, he managed to put aside the injury that had been bothering him, and today he showed that he is increasingly a solution. Why did the team play badly against Del Valle? — I’m a positive person who leaves home with good energy to work every day. But that’s not true every single day. Every now and then it happens that I don’t have all that energy. Maybe that happened. Sometimes not everything in life needs an explanation. Once a month I leave home feeling off. It happens. There are days when nothing goes right. The children start crying at school, the car tire goes flat. Life is like that. We don’t have to come up with explanations for everything. I can’t give one. Either I lie or I tell you that this is the truth of life. We have explanations for some things; for others, it’s just life. Carrascal’s positioning in the match: — Within the idea we mentioned, with the movement of the front players, it was important for the wingers to be on their opposite foot. So that when they drifted, they could make circular movements, and a right-footed player like Carrascal would come inside, receive inside, and could finish with his stronger right foot. In this period, that was our strategy: to use those players. Because if we had players on their natural side to cross, the other players drifting, like Pedro, would not be able to arrive in the box. That is why we opted for inverted-foot players. How did you adapt to Bragantino’s marking? — We created some situations mainly with Pedro dropping deeper for the wingers’ runs in behind. Then they put in three center-backs to solve that, so we decided to let them drift. If it doesn’t work one way, we try another. It’s not just about looking at what we developed, you also have to look at the opponent. The idea was for Pedro and Arrascaeta to drift more, for the full-backs to step up in the press so the wingers would be left unmarked. We also scored from a set piece. Bragantino have several tall players, so we had to send in quicker crosses, and we ended up succeeding in that kind of situation. We look at the opponent, nullify their strongest points, and see what has already worked against them. Bruno Henrique’s use: — He is a forward who can play out wide or through the middle. He has his own specific characteristics. He is the player with the best aerial game we have. When the blocks are low, we use him as a finishing winger rather than a creative one. Because we use his aerial quality inside the box. We have no one else like him. In the last match, Lino made a run in behind and headed the ball, but he is not very good in the air. Today, Carrascal did the same. He is a player who can play inside, combine with Pedro, and when we are in a lower block he also breaks on the counterattack and can make diagonal runs on the last line. Bruno’s versatility is important, out wide and inside. Pedro is different. He can give us a very good game between the lines. What can be done to stop Flamengo from returning poorly from the FIFA break with so many players called up? — It’s not that much time because last time it was almost two months. You have your own rules at home, right? If you were to live in your neighbor’s house for 15 days, it would feel strange when you came back to yours, your wife would say that’s not how things are done. We have rules within the team, and during the FIFA break they live with others. Uruguay plays on the 6th in Japan or Korea, and we play Santos on the 8th. Since fewer players are going away, we will try to work so that we do not depend on anyone. If we depend on just one player, we’ll be at a disadvantage. We have to have solutions. Flamengo is far too big to be just 11 players.

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