Worrying: Dorival averaged under a point a game in the Brasileirão | OneFootball

What is São Paulo fighting for in the Brazilian Championship?

Well, although the most optimistic fans dream of securing a spot in the next Copa Libertadores, the truth is that under Dorival Júnior, the fight will likely be to avoid relegation.

And no, this is not just the opinion of AVANTE MEU TRICOLOR. The numbers themselves lay bare the coach’s dismal performance in Brazil’s top football competition.

Dorival’s record in the 2026 Brazilian Championship has set off alarm bells at São Paulo. Since taking charge of the tricolor side in May, the coach has posted a success rate of just 25% in the national competition, averaging less than one point per match.

Under Dorival’s leadership in the national tournament, São Paulo have played four matches, recording three draws — the latest of them against Flamengo — and one defeat. That performance yielded only three points out of the 12 available in that span.

Record in the Tournament in 2026

The coach’s shaky spell in the round-robin format mirrors what happened in the first half of the season, when he was in charge of Corinthians.

At the east-zone rival, Dorival posted a 33.3% success rate in 10 Brasileirão matches (10 points out of a possible 30), a run that was cut short by his dismissal in April after a 1–0 defeat to Internacional, which left the team in 16th place, on the edge of the relegation zone.

Adding up his spells at the two São Paulo clubs in the current edition of the Brazilian Championship, the coach’s overall record stands at just 13 points won from 52 available.

Compared to the clubs, Dorival’s success rate is only better than Chapecoense’s, the team at the bottom of the Brasileirão.

Among coaches, he has the worst numbers proportionally, when compared by number of matches played.

Despite the turbulence and the difficulty in building momentum in this season’s round-robin competition, the manager still carries the credit of having won major knockout titles in his recent history, such as the 2025 Copa do Brasil and the 2026 Supercopa do Brasil, at least keeping tricolor optimism alive in the other competition left on the calendar, the Copa Sudamericana.

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