The warning sign on MorumBis It stopped being just an internal fear and became a public reality. After the 3-1 defeat to Palmeiras this Saturday, at Arena Barueri, the coach Hernan Crespo was direct in assessing the moment of São Paulo: the concern about relegation in the Campeonato Paulista is real. The ghost of the A2 haunts the club. With just four points and parked in 14th placeTricolor is dangerously flirting with the state’s relegation zone.
Although the performance in the classic was better than the defeat to Portuguesa, the table is not forgiving. “We are worried, yes. We have to worry about that”, admitted Crespo. “But we will have three rounds, against Santos, Primavera and Ponte Pretawhere anything can happen. We have to go game by game. The coach turned on survival mode for the season. Crespo fears falling in Paulistão and also in Brasileirão, which starts on Wednesday.
What caught the most attention at the press conference was the Argentine’s projection for the remainder of the season. In a club used to fighting for titles, the discourse is now down to earth and focused on remaining in the first division. Crespo outlined the symbolic objective of those fighting at the bottom of the table. “The future, as I said, in the Brasileirão is 45 points. This is the future. And try to build how we play today”, projected the coach, indicating that the immediate focus is to stabilize the club amid the political and financial turbulence.
What Crespo said
Despite the pessimism with the State table and a National that scares before it even starts, Crespo praised São Paulo’s attitude in the classic against Palmeiras and believes that the arrival of reinforcements and the return of the boys who played in the Copinha could change the team’s direction. “I don’t think anyone likes defeat. But there are defeats and defeats. For Portuguese it was worrying. It wasn’t today. The team is growing, but the real difference was in hierarchy. They made it happen and we didn’t.”
