Marcelo Gallardo was satisfied with the performance of his team in the victory by 3-0 a Platense. This result allowed River Plate get up with the Angel Labruna Cup and gain confidence in the face of 2022 in which he will have multiple challenges. After the game was over, the coach Millionaire referred to various current issues: the arrival of reinforcements, the sale of Julian Alvarez al Manchester City and the news of soccer players like Fabrizio Angileri Y Benjamin Rollheiser were some of them.
“The good thing about forming a great squad is that we are going to have a lot of activity and for that we need hierarchy. We finished the year very well, with a team that has been champion. The challenge is to hold that and try to generate a greater commitment so that this year we can have that hierarchy that makes you sustain yourself over time. We are happy with the market we did, with the players who have stayed and we will try to continue evolving to be able to play the way we tried”, said the Doll in dialogue with ESPN.
Asked about the sale of Álvarez to City, he said that he has not spoken with Pep Guardiola in this regard, and detailed: “In principle, he stays until June and there is the possibility that he can stay until December. That is going to be another topic, but having the possibility that he will continue with us and the chance that he can finish the year shows that it is a very good negotiation that has been made”.
“In addition, you are not going to a second-tier club, but to one of the main teams in the world, which has financial power and that allows us today to be able to count on the player because at the moment he does not have a place or they do not need him. That gives us the chance to continue with him, because it was going to be very difficult to go out and look for a player of those characteristics or of that hierarchy”, he added.
And, regarding the River pass market, the coach was clear: “We do not get off the market. We are looking at alternatives. We are not going to bring for the sake of bringing, they are specific names in specific positions. If we can’t do it, we won’t. We have a well-armed and well-designed population of footballers, but we need the occasional player. If they are viable, they will arrive and, if not, we will start with this.
The situation of Fabrizio Angileri and Benjamín Rollheiser is, without a doubt, one of the most tense that the Millionaire is going through today. The contracts of both end in the middle of the year and the negotiations for their respective renewals are stopped, which is why the players have been separated from the group. About this, the coach explained: “I spoke with both of them before the end of the year, before the preseason. They are very personal decisions. I was part of the talks with the directors and there was an idea to negotiate. You have to be very respectful of what you can say and of the positions, but when there is little will to negotiate… If I considered that the player was not willing to negotiate to stay in River, I had to go out and find a replacement. They both knew that. I am very calm that the club, even with its mistakes, has had a lot of will on the part of the directors. I respect their position, they are personal decisions, but I had to know before the season if they were going to have the will or not to continue and based on that the decision was made.
Other phrases by Marcelo Gallardo:
The style that he prints on his teams: “All my teams have had a label that has represented me. The squads have been modified, there are players who have left, others have arrived, but we believe that throughout all this time we have permanently challenged ourselves to have good teams that have identified us And that makes people take it as their own . It is a long-term job, more than seven years ago”.
The news of Jonathan Maidana: “If he didn’t have that mentality, he wouldn’t be able to play. He has a very strong and very marked mentality, he is not going to give anything away. And if he plays, he’s going to play like he did today. And if he doesn’t play, he’s going to train with his limitations -because the passage of time is for everyone-, but he’s not going to give anything away. That is the mentality that I ask my teams, that the players have the mentality of being there but not for being there, but for being a representative figure. He is a good reference, both as Pinola and as Poncio was until recently. They are players who train with a mentality to play and I have always valued that. It is a requirement for them to stay and it is a lesson for the younger ones. That is the way to play and sustain yourself in a club like River, which is very difficult”.
The controversy with Independiente by Elías Gómez: “I didn’t call him. They said many things. If I had to go out and clarify all the lies that are told, I would lose a lot of time that I would have to use to think about other more important things. I usually call the players to find out if they have the intention or desire to come and play with us. From there I communicate to the directors that we can go that way. In this case, do not call this player. The player’s behavior seemed very noble to me, he clarified everything and that’s enough.”
The goalkeepers Ezequiel Centurión and Franco Petroli: “They are two boys from the club who have been doing things well. They have a good presence, they are two good goalkeepers. I want to go see them, they are under consideration. We are going to take this semester to evaluate them. They are backing a great goalkeeper, who is Franco Armani, who has given us security in recent years. It will be good for them to feel close to him, work parallel to him and continue to evolve”.
The players he chooses for his team: “I like creative, versatile midfielders who can understand the game, the positioning and the characteristics of not giving references. That’s what I thought and I’ve put together this campus. When we don’t find the way, I need that ball control, that variety in the game, that they move freely but with a clear idea that is ball control. We have to have the possibility to be dynamic and to reach the area clearly, otherwise we will not finish closing the good that we generate from the game. I am looking for players who give me creativity in the game and who are attached to the goal. If you step on the area, you are closer to being able to convert. That’s the variable we want to give the game. We did it last year and we want to continue with that.”
The arrival of Essequiel Barco: “He is more a midfielder than a striker, he can be inside or he can be a winger on the outside. He is another player who is going to give us a chance because in one-on-one he is very unbalanced. We have very little one on one today. Carrascal is one of them and Barco can give us that characteristic of breaking defenses one on one when they play very close”.
The intermittence of Jorge Carrascal: “He has always been a player whose talent has not been able to exploit it continuously, but he is a footballer who has all the ingredients to unbalance because he has that dribble, that change of pace. Today I wanted to see it there (on the edge), it’s an idea I’ve had for a while and it could be a direct alternative”.
“Talented players are a weakness for me, but that has to come along with everything else. You always give them a little more time and have more patience with them because you consider that these players don’t come out all the time. There are functional players for teams that grow over time and others who are born talented. It makes me very sad that they cannot exploit all that potential, but I keep betting and I will continue betting because I believe there is always one more opportunity. We’ll see if he’s right or not. Today every time he caught the ball, he lifted people up and I don’t know how many players there are in the world who do that. But this is always in pairs: there is the coach and there is the player, it is a back and forth. You have to wait a while, be more patient than with others and sometimes River doesn’t wait for you either, the competition itself doesn’t wait for you, the squad doesn’t wait for you because there is permanent competition. He is going to have to show that he earns his place on a day-to-day basis, in this back-and-forth”.
The growth of the juveniles: “This last time has been very difficult in terms of absences and covid-19. In the last quarter we found a functionality in young players of the club who began to feel much more confident. Players who didn’t have much place today have it. That’s why it seems that now we have more than before. Those players who used to be alternatives are now a reality, like Simón, Enzo Fernández, David Martínez or Julián Álvarez himself, who is 21 years old. Before we had very solid squads, with experienced players and the boys were contributing their things. Now they are a reality and we were able to sustain them. This creates a beautiful competition to challenge each other and challenge me as a coach to have possibilities in the set-up and in the replacement”.
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