River: Demichelis and the booking received in the defeat against Talleres

After the heartbreaking and celebrated victory in the Superclásico against Boca, visiting 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 rivals, the defeat against Talleres was 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) ordered by Demichelis. Not only in terms of name, but because the departure of Rodrigo Aliendro and the entry of Salomón Rondón caused a change in the scheme.

The River coach has given up on a midfielder who is one of the most regular in the squad. And he disarmed one of his team’s main strengths: the midfield. With the intention of pressing higher and trying to recover the ball much more in the opposite field. But the plan didn’t work out. And, moreover, some low individual performances have 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 in the beginning, they melted and we ended up in 5 on 5. We defended with sixes and tried to steal and do damage with De la Cruz, Nacho, Barco and the two wingers playing hand in hand. It went well in Huracán and not here”, explained Demichelis in the press conference after the race. And he added: “We were convinced, they didn’t have many people in the middle, they were very divided. 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, which he had already done in other games and which modern coaches usually do, even if they win or play well in the previous game. Now, Was it logical to switch against a rival known to attack River? Was the change right when the team felt better playing with five midfielders?

In the match 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 despite the Uruguayan recovering balls, he is an attacking midfielder who is always ahead and the man from Mendoza was still very much 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 to Talleres? Although they can stop in the same way, when it comes to defending and attacking, are the characteristics of the players the same? Are Valoyes, Garro and Sosa identical to Gudiño, Pata Castro and Gauto, the three Globo attacking midfielders in the match against River? In his football answers, Demichelis talks a lot about numbers of tactical systems. He also does it on the conditions of the players, but the scheme of the scheme prevails.

And the context is not taken into account? After the victory against Fluminense, he also made a great theoretical reference to the fact that with the 3-3-1-3 you could beat the rival 4-4-2, but you were behind in the draw at the Maracana against the best team in Brazil at the time and two of the three remaining defenders were full-backs and the only centre-back had a yellow card.

Against Talleres, River seems to have made the same mistake of not fitting into the context of the match. And even if he had moments of good football based on quick associations between 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 pitch well. If the plan devised 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 made it very difficult for us at times, which hadn’t happened to us. We have to congratulate Talleres who, in the face of a minimal mistake, got us out of the wayDemichelis noted. Not only that. The Cordoba team, which was one of the few to attack River, highlighted the league leader’s shortcomings and drew his attention.