Demichelis and the warning he received in the defeat against Talleres

After the agonizing and highly celebrated victory in the Superclásico against Boca, on his visit to Córdoba, River showed another face again, the one with the glass jaw. And although he continues to be the leader of the League, with a good advantage over his immediate pursuers, his loss to Talleres represented a wake-up call for the future.

The focus of the analysis of the defeat against Talleres was placed on one of the two initial changes (the other was logical, the entry of Paulo Díaz for Emanuel Mammana, injured) that Demichelis ordered. Not only in terms of name, but because the departure of Rodrigo Aliendro and the entry of Salomón Rondón caused a modification of the scheme.

The River coach dispensed with a midfielder that is one of the most regular on the squad. And he disarmed one of the main strengths of his team: the midfield. With the intention of pressing higher and trying to recover the ball much more in the opposite field. But the plan did not work out. And, in addition, some low individual performances also conspired against the idea raised in the Kempes.

“Talleres uses a tactical system similar to that of Huracán: to defend, a 4-4-2; when they have the ball, 4-2-3-1. We saw that they broke a lot at the time of starting, they broke up and we ended up being 5 against 5. We defended ourselves with six and tried to steal and do damage with De la Cruz, Nacho, Barco and the two wingers playing hand in hand. In Huracán it went well and here it didn’t,” Demichelis explained at the press conference after the match. And he added: “We were convinced, they didn’t have many people in the middle, they split a lot. That’s why we trained him from the beginning of the week.”

With your explanation, Demichelis revealed that he changed the system depending on the rival, something that he had already done in other games and that modern coaches usually do, even if they win or play well in the previous game. Now, Was it logical to change against a rival who was known to attack River? Was the modification right to be when the team feels better playing with five midfielders?

In the match that Micho referred to at the Palacio Ducó, in which River played with four midfielders and two forwards and had an outstanding performance, the one who played alongside Enzo Pérez was not De La Cruz but Aliendro. And although the Uruguayan recovers balls, he is an attacking midfielder who is always more forward and the man from Mendoza was still very alone in the middle of the field, unlike what happens when the former Colón is there.

On the other hand, is it natural to compare Huracán with Talleres? Although they can stop in the same way, when it comes to defending and attacking, are the characteristics of the footballers the same? Are Valoyes, Garro and Sosa identical to Gudiño, Pata Castro and Gauto, the three attacking midfielders for the Globo in the match against River? In his football responses, Demichelis talks a lot about numbers of tactical systems. He also does so on the conditions of the footballers, but the layout of the scheme prevails.

And the context is not taken into account? After the win against Fluminense, he had also made a great theoretical reference to the fact that with 3-3-1-3 you could break the rival 4-4-2, but you were at a disadvantage on the scoreboard at the Maracana against the best team of Brazil at present and two of the three defenders that remained were full-backs and the only central defender had a yellow card.

Against Talleres, River seemed to make the same mistake of not fitting into the context of the match. And although he had moments of good football based on quick associations between the midfielders and had arrivals to convert, he paid dearly for Enzo Pérez being quite alone in the center and not being able to cover the width of the field well. If the devised plan was thought more based on the rival, wouldn’t the entry of Pablo Solari and not Salomón Rondón have been more reasonable to mirror the scheme with a more dynamic 4-2-3-1?

“They lost against a good team, which at times made it very difficult for us, something that had not been happening to us. We must congratulate Talleres who, in the face of a minimal error, made us get out of the wayDemichelis remarked. Not only that. The Cordoba team, which was one of the few that attacked River, exposed the shortcomings of the championship leader and gave him a call for attention.

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