Subiabre, between Coudet’s backing and his patchy form at River | OneFootball

One day before River’s match against Bragantino in Brazil for the third round of Copa Sudamericana Group H, one of Eduardo Coudet’s doubts is whether to stick with Ian Subiabre or bet on Kendry Páez’s current form. The youngster from Comodoro Rivadavia has yet to fully establish himself, but he is one of the coach’s favorites, and Coudet backed him after the win over Aldosivi.

In his latest press conference, Chacho chose to use it to highlight his work and the strong haul of points since his arrival (18 out of 21 in the Apertura and 4 out of 6 in the Sudamericana). At the same time, he took the opportunity to once again support the club’s youngsters after a win in which all five substitutions were players aged 18 and 19 coming on (only the Ecuadorian did not come through the youth ranks).

Among all the young players in the squad, Coudet made a special defense of Subiabre. During the win over Aldosivi, there was a clear sense of frustration over some of the left-footer’s failed interventions, and the coach addressed that. “I preferred to protect him a bit in the last match (the Superclásico against Boca). You have to tap the guy next to you on the shoulder and tell him: ‘No, the kids are never to be singled out here.’ There’s no grumbling or anything like that here with the kids,” he said.

So far, the 19-year-old winger has not fully convinced, and with 40 matches in the First Division already under his belt, he is still far from meeting the expectations he generated in the youth divisions and on youth national teams. Even so, Coudet sees great potential in him and continues to regard him as a key part of the team.

“My main role is to keep their heads right. That grumbling about a 19-year-old kid who today created danger and also showed his personality one-on-one. We just didn’t manage to finish off two or three plays where he practically got into the six-yard box, hopefully we can put one of those away next time. I’m going to keep encouraging him to do that. I always want young players to do well,” the coach said last Saturday.

Beyond Chacho’s words, against Aldosivi Subiabre’s contribution was limited to a couple of runs down the flank in the second half that just barely failed to end in goals, but they were overshadowed by Kendry Páez’s strong showing off the bench. The Ecuadorian once again added spark to River’s attack and capped the night with a brilliant goal to seal the final 3-1.

Looking ahead to Thursday’s clash with Bragantino, Coudet has a dilemma to solve: back Ian with another start and reward his tactical sacrifice and persistence, or bet on the growth of the former Independiente del Valle player, who even against Boca showed flashes of his talent and has already broken through with his first goal in the Millonario shirt.

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