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Gallardo’s tense moment when he was asked if he was wrong in River’s formation: “Make a mistake, I can make a mistake”

His face said it all. That walk at the end to go from the visiting substitute bench to the sleeve that led him to the locker room, must have been one of his worst moments as River coach. While the fireworks thundered behind the boxes, the Boca players celebrated in the middle of the field and the Xeneizes fans raved in the stands, Marcelo Gallardo left the Bombonera playing field almost alone, where until recently little time knew how to celebrate. But this time he left defeated and with a long face.

Gallardo showed his face before leaving the Bombonera. And beyond his anger, he tried to explain what happened on the field. “It was a match with little play from the two teams, from mediocre down, where the details ended up defining the match for Boca with a stopped ball”, Gallardo analyzed in the first instance.

Why did the Doll kick the board and change schemes and various names to play in La Boca? What will he have seen in the week to decide to play with a 3-4-1-2, as he did in the first final of the Copa Libertadores in November 2018?

“I train it throughout the year and I have smart players to apply it, and then it comes out or it doesn’t come out. As we lost, it will be said that it was not good, but sometimes it comes out and it does not come out. Besides, we lost it in the second half when we had the line of four, so that they don’t accommodate it as it suits them, but it’s like that when you bet strategically “, Gallardo launched in a furious tone.

And regarding what he was looking for, he commented: “The idea was to have two game plans, in the first half we wanted to have exits on the sides, have a link, we couldn’t execute it and in the second half I planned to make changes and move on to play how we play”. And if the initial formation left doubts, much more were the three halftime changes (Rodrigo Aliendro, Miguel Borja and Esequiel Barco entered) where he tried to change with a pure slap but the team’s performance worsened.

In the continuity of the analysis, Gallardo recognized the team’s apathy. “After their goal we didn’t have the rebelliousness to go look for it, it’s left to us, we had approaches but not arrivals”, he affirmed. And he added: “It was very little that we did, It was very light approaches. We take care of ourselves, we couldn’t play as we intended to play, that’s not bad to say”.

In any case, perhaps because of how short the press conference was, which lasted less than five minutes, there were no answers from the coach to some questions that were left floating in the Bombonera.

Why was the duo of attackers Pablo Solari and Matías Suárez? Neither of them were in optimal physical condition. Especially Solari, who no matter how slight his muscle injury was, it was very noticeable that he was not ready to play. And with Suárez from the start he lost a vital card for the second half.

Greeting from colleagues: Ibarra and Gallardo, before the game. Photo: Marcelo Carroll

And why did Lucas Beltrán, who came from good games, go to the substitute bench and end up being the fourth change? The Cordovan entered well and with more minutes on the pitch he might have been more efficient.

And why was the defense he seemed to have found modified?

And why were three changes made at halftime that seemed like slaps?

Many questions and few answers for a strategist who this time didn’t get anything he thought…

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