Thursday’s convincing victory was perfectly timed. Just as perfectly untimed as yesterday’s defeat to Ferroviária. A disastrous way to kick off a sequel of four home games, including two crucial Libertadores Cup bouts.
Ferroviária once more showed why they are the positive surprise of this year’s Paulistão: very tactically obedient, in offense but particularly in defence, the team led by only 33-year-old Portuguese coach Sérgio Vieira (who has been three months with Ferroviária) was exemplarily compacted on the pitch, leaving little space for Palmeiras on the midfield. Palmeiras on the other hand were spread all over the place, making possession and passing difficult, just like in recent games. Dudu, Gabriel Jesus, and Robinho: a few individual attempts and that was it. Ferroviária certainly deserved a draw, but in the end managed to sneak away with the three points. Well done.
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For Marcelo Oliveira, it’s back to square one. Difference is, no one seems to have any patience left. Yesterday, players were seen cursing each other on the pitch. Dudu commented, “Palmeiras are losing because Ferroviária are very well trained”. Morale is clearly deteriorating, frustration taking its place. And perhaps not only frustration.
Palmeiras have reached a point where lines are increasingly blurred. Does coach Oliveira, who has been working the squad for close to nine months now, see where the problems lie? Is he coming up with solutions? Are these implemented at training (some say they are, other say they aren’t)? Does the squad assimilate the training? If yes, why are we seeing only modest to no improvement during games? Since arriving at Palmeiras, Marcelo Oliveira has brought home 51% of disputed points – hardly a record to be proud of.
In Brazil, a coach goes from enjoying the unrestricted confidence of a club’s directors to ostracism in a couple of weeks. Defeat against Rosario Central on Thursday, and rest assured Marcelo Oliveira walks the plank. The Brazilian “solution” to a lifelong problem of the analysis stopping at “this ain’t working very well”, with the “why’s that so?” never properly addressed. No wonder a study carried out in March of 2015 by Mexican journal El Economico found that, in a ranking of football clubs that most times had swapped coaches between 2002 and 2014, the first six positions were occupied by Brazilian clubs: Fluminense (41), Náutico (39), Flamengo (38), Vitória (37), Atlético Paranaense (35) and Sport (33). Palmeiras would be much further down on the list (I haven’t done the math), but still… And mind you, these numbers are almost a year old by now.
The Allianz Parque will be full on Thursday. Hopefully to cheer our men on from start to finish and the night ending with Palmeiras securing three points. No matter what, winning games is never questionable. At least not in my book.
Scoppia che la vittoria è nostra!
ANYTHING PALMEIRAS 