Fernando Diniz hails Corinthians win, praises Zakaria, talks Memphis stay | OneFootball

After the 1-0 win over Atlético-MG at Neo Química Arena, coach Fernando Diniz gave a press conference and assessed the team’s performance, Zakaria Labyad’s growth, Memphis Depay’s situation, and the adaptation of the foreign players in the black-and-white squad. The coach acknowledged Corinthians’ difficulties in the first half, but highlighted the team’s improvement in the second half and praised their attacking persistence until the winning goal.

“In the match, I thought that in the first half we played a bit the wrong way. More than playing badly, we played wrongly. We weren’t really finding the right moments to press and we were in too much of a hurry. So we misplaced a lot of passes unnecessarily. In the second half, we corrected that and played the right way. And by playing the right way, we played better than we did in the first half. Because of that, we pushed Atlético Mineiro back a lot. They were very committed and defended very well, they dropped very deep, and we knew how to be patient. We changed the way we were playing a little, the substitutions also had an effect. And we were probably going to score the way we did, with a cross and with a lot of people in the box. So it was a collective merit, besides, obviously, Zakaria’s individual quality, Matheus’ cross, and Zakaria’s finish,” he said.

Photo: Agência Corinthians

Diniz also commented on Zakaria Labyad’s current form and explained that the midfielder had been getting few minutes because of the need to adapt and get to know the squad.

“He’s a player that, honestly, I knew little about. And here at Corinthians, he was very highly rated internally. And I got to know him myself in training and in matches. With this crazy schedule, with so many games piled one on top of another, and especially at first, I decided to change the team as little as possible to give some consistency to the tactical things we were working on. He had limited minutes for two reasons. The main one was that I had very little knowledge of what he was capable of doing. And as the matches and training sessions went on, I got a clearer understanding of his real ability. And he’s an extremely technical player, who brings a lot of flow to the game, is intelligent in the way he plays, and is a great professional. And I also believe it was very much his own merit that he scored today. A very dedicated young man.”

When asked about working with foreign players in the squad, Fernando Diniz highlighted the human connection built with Memphis Depay, Zakaria Labyad, and Jesse Lingard.

“I think the human being is universal. Everyone has a heart, a brain, fears, joys. And I find that very easily in all three of the players you mentioned. Memphis, with a Ghanaian father and a Dutch mother. Labyad, Moroccan, of Arab origin. And Jesse, I think he’s actually of English origin, British. But they are all very similar to us in the sense that they need help, that they are in a strange land, that you need to get closer to them. I think the willingness and desire to get close and help go far beyond the boundaries of language itself. I think they felt welcomed. I really do like to make that connection. Labyad is even a little easier, because he speaks Portuguese well, since he played in Portugal for, I think, two seasons. And most importantly, I think all three are people whose hearts, in that sense, are very much like ours as Latins. They are not even slightly cold, as one might imagine. They are people with warm hearts and are becoming more and more comfortable at Corinthians,” he added.

The coach also spoke about the possibility of Memphis Depay staying after the World Cup and revealed optimism regarding the forward’s continuity at the club.

“The signs are positive. There is a desire from the club, from Marcelo, from the president, from Thiago, who is here, from Júlio. Everyone wants Memphis to stay. So the signs are positive. I hope that becomes reality. I think he’s a player who can still help Corinthians a lot. He’s a player with a very different level of quality. It was very good to have him back today after two months. He prepared himself, he was dedicated. It wasn’t the last home game, because we have Platense on Wednesday now and then Memphis has to report to the Netherlands national team. But I hope that when we come back, he comes back with us to help us moving forward, not only this season but in the years to come.”

Diniz also responded about the tactical analysis of the match and praised the team’s defensive behavior, while also highlighting the collective buildup of the goal scored in the second half.

“So, regarding your question, the end of it contradicts your first point, your statement that the team was tactically poor. The tactical side of the game is the offensive side and the defensive side. So defensively, by your analysis, the team did very well, and in fact it really did do very well. So there we already had 50% of the job done, dividing defense and attack. And I think that in the first half, tactically, we were poor and rushed, as I said in my first analysis. But I think that in the second half, tactically, we played very well. We gave them little in terms of counterattacks, they didn’t get to the goal, we kept the ball most of the time, and they made things difficult because they dropped their defensive line very deep. I think in the first half, tactically, they played better than us. In terms of the game, of the approach they had and what they tried to do, they were more effective. In the second half, I don’t think so. So, in that sense, I disagree a bit with your tactical analysis.

Technically, we had some moments in which we struggled. The pitch was different today as well, because of the rain, it was more slippery, and we misplaced more passes and controls than we normally do.

And as for not conceding a goal, that’s an important thing, and I think it’s largely to the players’ credit for understanding that we need to be very committed in order to defend well. If we defend badly, we wouldn’t have won the game. We could have drawn, we could have lost, because we only won the game because we only needed to score once, thanks to the persistence the team showed at the end of the match. It was a goal, since you mentioned the tactical side, that had a lot of tactical content. We were patient in moving the ball from one side to the other, we combined in triangles down the flank, filled the box, and had the rebound area covered. This play has a lot of important tactical elements for us to manage to score that goal, besides the excellence of Zakaria’s finish,” he concluded.

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