Roger praises Cotia gems, but warns: “Result better than display” | OneFootball

Coach Roger Machado approved of São Paulo’s goalless draw with O’Higgins in Chile this Thursday (7) in the Copa Sudamericana.

In his post-match press conference, the Tricolor boss sought to highlight points he considered important. And of course the biggest of them was the debut of two young players promoted from the youth academy. Right-back Igor Felisberto and center-back Osório made their first appearance for the senior team. They joined defensive midfielder Djhordney, who was given another chance in the starting eleven.

“We started with three youngsters, which is a good number to begin an important match, with a team that has training chemistry but not match chemistry,” he said.

“It’s an important point: staying top of the group, rotating the squad and giving players opportunities. Osorio’s debut was at a very high level, and Igor and Djhordney also contributed a lot collectively,” he added.

Roger also explained the decision to field a reserve side, which had ten changes compared to the starting eleven in last weekend’s draw with Bahia in the Brazilian Championship. And he said that even with the draw and the lack of chemistry, it can be considered a good night.

“We make a broad plan, but with each round we’ll make small changes with the aim of putting out a more competitive and fresher team. The option was to bring the best we had available. Against Millonarios, many stayed in São Paulo out of necessity; the idea was to use them only if needed,” he said.

“Those who came in managed to contribute in some way. For the upcoming matches, we have a broad plan, but what will determine things are the fixtures, the returns we may have, and who is more worn out. Managing minutes on the pitch to have everyone available and lose as few players as possible is very important,” he added.

Of course, in Roger’s assessment not everything was perfect, because despite remaining unbeaten in the continental competition and still not conceding a goal, São Paulo did not win. And the coach pointed out what, in his view, was decisive in the team’s underwhelming attacking display.

“It wasn’t discomfort with the spaces left open; it was a consequence of positioning errors, some move where the best decision wasn’t made. The idea was different from the game against Millonarios: there we played with a back five, here we played with two center-backs,” he said.

“We could have played better. But in the moments when our opponent had chances, it was us giving the ball away at the wrong time, missing a cover, not being close enough on a cross into the box. Of course they have that quality. The first half was balanced; in the second they had chances, but it’s still an important point. In football, ‘if’ doesn’t step onto the pitch. What the match showed was that the opponent created clearer chances than we did, but overall, I think it was an important result and, obviously, better than the performance,” he concluded.

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