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Santos’ coach Dorival Junior was pleased after Saturday’s classic against Palmeiras at the Allianz Parque. “This was the team’s best performance this year, no doubt” he declared, adding that only Palmeiras keeper Prass had stood between Santos and the three points.
Fernando Prass did indeed have a splendid night, but the game wasn’t all that that Dorival saw, neither was Santos particularly superior: both teams created chances, as Marcelo Oliveira again tried something new, this time with Matheus Sales starting instead of Arouca. Using three more defence-oriented midfielders, as also against River Plate, might be an interesting option. Highlights below.
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Dorival has been at Santos since July 2015. His current squad is at large the same that lost the Brazil Cup final to Palmeiras. So far in 2016, Santos have played 5 games, computing 2 wins and 3 draws – 60% of possible points won.
In the last five years, Dorival has bagged one title: the Rio Grande do Sul state championship (the Gauchão), with Internacional.
Marcelo Oliveira has been at Palmeiras roughly the same time as Dorival at Santos, arriving in June of last year. He also works a similar squad as last year, although now with more options: six new players have arrived and most of these can enter a starting eleven. So far in 2016, Palmeiras compute six games, being 1 victory, 4 draws and 1 defeat: 39%.
In the last five years, Marcelo has won 3 state titles (the 2011-2012 Paranaense Championships with Coritiba and the 2014 Mineiro Championship with Cruzeiro) and 3 national titles (the 2013-2014 Brazilian Championships with Cruzeiro and the 2015 Brazil Cup with Palmeiras).
Palmeiras have played 4 games in the last 10 days. I repeat: 4 games in 10 days. The ignorant would say “well, that’s plenty of opportunities to get things right”. I refuse to comment.
Palmeiras have a good squad. In addition to Brazil’s currently most merited coach (might want to throw Tite in there as well). Naturally, expectations are high and Palmeiras are not meeting them. Not yet. I believe everything will suddenly fall into place, and in a manner that will surprise us all. Patience.
Scoppia che la vittoria è nostra!
ANYTHING PALMEIRAS 
Palmeiras maintained his base: a base who won a title by luck and showed us a really poor game. The new hires: a bunch of unknown players without experience/background to support them. Where are the advanced midfielder to think and distribute the game? Where is the defender to replace Almeida? They are throwing away the Libertadores Cup again. Just to remind: how many victories did Palmeiras have in the last 25 official games? There is no quality (titles) without investment.