The ball – because Paulo Sousa was not successful: “At one point everyone said it was no longer possible” (Flamingo)

Midfielder Andreas Pereira, who was at Flamengo at the start of the season, explained the reasons why Paulo Sousa could not impose himself on the Brazilian club. At Fulham since June, the player said the Portuguese coach’s ideas had not entered.

“A lot of things happened (laughs). I don’t know how to explain. Your way of thinking as a coach is different. I felt from the first moment that the idea of ​​playing was not suitable for the group. Of course as a group we can’t give up on the coach, we said we would try. But it didn’t work out, you could see.” Clearly – Andreas said to the program “Joga Onde”, on the Twitch platform “Ronaldo TV”.

One problem was the tactical system, where Paulo Sousa imposed a three-axis system in 3x5x2. This has caused Everton Ribeiro, for example, to change positions and lose performance.

“3-5-2 system…Flamingo has been winning for many years with 4x3x3. Connect and convert to 3x5x2. So we see Everton Ribeiro at left-back and I think ‘Not there, bro’. All experienced players said this thing [má] It was happening. We tried, but there was a time when everyone said it was too much. We were punching the wall,” he recalls.

“David is [Luíz]Diego [Alves] and Filip [Luís] They always told us ‘Let’s try another method, we can’t give up’. If we win games and we don’t agree [com a tática], it’s something. Now if you don’t win and it’s hard, the players will start giving up,” he recalls, referring to Souza’s restrictions:

Paolo Sousa ended up being sent off in June and veteran Dorival Junior joined: since then, Flamengo have climbed the rankings and are in the Copa Brasil and Libertadores final.

Success is back, says Andreas Pereira, because Dorival is back to inject confidence and get players back to doing what they used to:

«[Teve impacto] From the first moment he arrived at Flamengo, in the first match against Internacional, when he went to meet us in Ceará, he said ‘this group has it all’, he said what the group wanted to hear, and gave confidence. Even because we were in a moment where we thought “Are we really that good?” ».

Andreas Pereira says Paulo Sousa began suspending players with a series of bans on the field. “Sousa used to say ‘You can’t do this here, you can do that there.’ There comes a time when we end up tripping, and the instinct that learned to play ball is paralyzed. European coaches have more to say that you can’t take a risk in such a place on the pitch. Dorival has arrived. “Andreas, make yourself comfortable,” he said.