Until kilometer 31 of the current campaign, the driving of the UD had passed without excessive curves, the normal ones on a road where certain ups and downs can occur. The ups and downs in terms of the numerical results of a team in a championship are not surprising, unless they are caused by situations that go beyond the limits of the pitch. There, kilometer 32 awaited the most atypical week of the year within the club.
Anomalous in terms of the division of opinions that have worsened in the inner core of the locker room around one of the figures of the technical staff that García Pimienta has at his disposal and with whom he has worked since the final stretch of last season in the final sprint that put the team in the playoffs and with which they have been sailing together until the day of the derby, always in the top positions of the LaLiga Santander table and with fourteen games as leaders – he was also part of the staff of the squad that was promoted to the First Division in the 2014-15 season.
But with the defeat at the Heliodoro Rodríguez López last week certain blisters have risen within the locker room. The bulk of the team has taken a step forward and they understand that it is a matter of the players to get the potatoes out of the fire.
All this with a certain nuance that came with a tailwind from the very week of the derby. Given the psychological load that a match of maximum regional rivalry entails, Jonathan Viera was questioned about the relevance of the person in charge of managing emotions in the booth, the sports coach, to which the owner of the yellow bracelet replied: «Richi has a very important job. As they all have. The coaching staff itself, the coach », he advanced… and at that moment he snorted and pointed at Álex García. «The second does a spectacular job. The entire coaching staff has a very important job to do this week.”
In addition, immediately afterwards, the captain left a reflection on the positive situation of the team: «I think there are people with a lot of experience. In this team it is important that no one is above anyone else. This is the important thing this year. In other years that had not happened and this one did. The team is above everything and that is what I think has made the team where it is today.
Before and after
However, once the derby was played last Saturday at the Heliodoro Rodríguez López and they conceded two goals in just five minutes and endured the 4-1 final, the team’s morale was touched. “It has been a tough week, we must admit it, but there is no drama, we are in a privileged situation with many points at stake,” García Pimienta said yesterday about the course of what he experienced after the derby.
And it is that after the club decreed to give two days off to the squad to “air the head” after returning from the neighboring island, once the squad met again in Barranco Seco on Tuesday, the players undertook the path of the communication to make the defeat against the blue and white team a turning point and that the situation of three games without knowing the victory is reversed tomorrow against Sporting de Gijón (8:00 p.m., #Vamos).
One of the decisions that were carried out behind closed doors in the booth pointed to the group dynamics carried out by Serrés. The staff decided to carry out a vote in which it was decided whether the emotional work with the coach should continue as before and the results of the preference of the majority of the staff members decreed that the assistant lose prominence as soon as to choral work.
Just the simple fact that a decision was carried out by democratic means, in which there was no unanimity of opinion, makes it clear that at least in this aspect there is a division of acceptance of this working method and that it has come to light at the most delicate moment on an emotional level, such as having lost the derby.
Thus, after having carried out the opinion poll and having won the option for Serrés to conclude with the group work, Loiodice was questioned on this issue on Thursday, when the Frenchman was in charge of showing his face before the media.
The Parisian’s response was explanatory: “The coach is no longer going to work collectively, from now on the talks will be individual, it is a team decision,” argued the midfielder, without wanting to fully enter into the matter that handled the dressing room.
Question that García Pimienta did want to deal with yesterday after he was approached on up to three occasions about the situation of Serrés from now on.
«We have a wonderful club that has given me all the tools so that the players have the best means so that they can transmit the best they know how to do, which is to play football. soccer. What happens in the locker room is up to us.”the coach first expressed about his assistant.
Explanation that he continued to expand by reflecting that “each technician has his role and each one of them has a specific task within the staff that they have to continue doing.”
Given the answer, Pimienta was approached for his opinion on a personal level about what the change of role that Richi would have to assume from the locker room decision means and the coach once again made it clear that from his point of view. “We are not going to give up anything we are doing up to now”, to continue with a categorical reaffirmation about whether there would be a variation in its dynamics carried out up to now: “It will not change anything, I assure you.”
Chronology
March 16
Jonathan Viera comes to the fore in the preview of the Canarian derby. The UD captain is asked about the importance of the motivational work of the team coach and offers two answers in one. “Richi has an important job, as does everyone”, on the one hand and on the other he points to the “spectacular job” that the team’s assistant coach, Álex García, does.
March 18th
UD plays the derby against Tenerife and in less than five minutes after the initial whistle the score reflects a surprising 2-0. Morale, touched to try to compete the whole game. At halftime: 3-0 and after an attempt to show a dignified image in the second half, the match closed with a disturbing 4-1.
March 19 and 20
After the blow to the yellow team’s confidence by having to deal with the large result conceded at Heliodoro, the team is given two days off “to rest their heads.” Two days of living with the factor of having left the direct promotion positions after being surpassed by Granada.
March 21st
The team returns to Barranco Seco. In the reunion of the squad, a vote is carried out in which there is a part of the dressing room that opts for changes. One of the demands happens because Richi Serrés put aside his group dynamics and if anything he continues to have contact with the players individually in the motivational aspect. In a democratic way, the option of the coach having less prominence wins.
23 of March
Enzo Loiodice is in charge of showing his face to the media in the run-up to tomorrow’s match against Sporting de Gijón and the Frenchman, when questioned about Richi’s role, confirms that the assistant will have a new way of working: «The coach is no longer going to work collectively. The talks will now be individual. It is a team decision », he stressed.
March 24th
García Pimienta comes out in Richi’s defense after being questioned about his opinion on a personal level about the change in role that the coach would have and the fact of doing without a work tool like the one carried out by the Catalan. “We are not going to give up anything we are doing up to now,” remarked the strategist.
