Crespo’s nightmare: Fighting poor record, São Paulo’s cup form collapses | OneFootball

He left São Paulo through the back door, there's no doubt about it. Struggling against relegation in the Brazilian Championship, the coach found himself vilified by a large part of the fans, under accusations that he did not give enough space to the youth players and could not find the best tactical formation to line up the teams.

Ok, you may agree with all of this. But there's one particular detail that makes São Paulo fans scratch their heads with a certain tone of disbelief: the performance in the knockout stages.

Regardless of the virtues and faults of Zubeldía and his successor, Hernán Crespo, this is a report that seeks accuracy. And for that, we will stick to the coldness of the numbers. And that's it.

With their former commander, Tricolor had a golden phase in the Copa Libertadores, boasting their record unbeaten streak (surpassing, believe it or not, Telê Santana).

While Crespo, on the other hand... The current São Paulo coach still doesn't know what it's like to win a match in the main continental competition in his return to Morumbi. There have been three games so far, with two draws against Atlético Nacional and a loss to LDU, an opponent that the club will need to overturn a two-goal disadvantage in the quarterfinals this Thursday (25), at Morumbi.

More than that, Crespo is going through a phase of contrasts. If he saved São Paulo in the Brazilian Championship, stacking up excellent results and taking the team from the Z-4 to the G-4, on the other hand, besides the drought in the Libertadores, he saw Tricolor being dispatched from the Copa do Brasil in the round of 16 by Athletico-PR, an opponent that is in the B Series, with their players missing all the penalties.

Interestingly, it's a reality exactly opposite to the one faced by Crespo in his first stint, in 2021. At the time, the coach prioritized knockouts at the request of the board, became state champion, but the fight against relegation in the Brasileirão ended up weighing heavily.

The fact is, before we are accused of defending the previous commander (far from us to be crying over the ex), Crespo arrives at this decision with LDU under pressure due to a moment of fluctuation, perhaps the biggest since his return, with only three wins in the last ten games.

And the defeat suffered to rival Santos over the weekend had a taste more than bitter for the Argentine: it was only the second time he lost two consecutive games for São Paulo. That is, if he stumbles against LDU on Thursday, he will reach for the first time his negative record of defeats as coach of Tricolor, also including his first stint in 2021.

In light of all this, it seems clear that, more than the satisfaction of the fans in seeing São Paulo reach a Libertadores semifinal again after almost ten years, there is the anxiety of their coach to reverse his own picture in the statistics. Before the trumpets start to play, as happened with .

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