A River less and less similar to the River: why does Gallardo find it difficult to orient himself in the team?

The river suffers another defeat and the times are shortened. Despite still missing 16 dates and a good race could put him in the fight for the championship, the signs are not positive after losing at the Monumental to Sarmiento de Junín. It is that beyond the fall, Marcelo Gallardo finds no answers.

“It takes time to put together a good team. Sometimes it happens with the preseason, sometimes with the games. We have to solve those situations. We will work on it.”, said the coach of River after the match against Sarmiento. And there is the question. The Doll puts on, takes off, changes, but the equipment does not appear.

The river is disoriented. And beyond the poor individual performance, the manager’s decisions also explain this poor football present.

After Esequiel Barco’s injury, Gallardo opted for the double 9 with Borja and Beltrán but to supply them he lacked depth on the flanks and the midfielders centralized the game. In between, the interpreters they have to generate never cease to assert themselves. And performance suffers.

However, the biggest problem right now is perhaps the middle back. Although Gallardo claims to be one and that the defensive problems are of the team, the reality is that little gets to River and they convert a lot.

“I can’t blame the defense when they score or the attackers when we don’t convert. We are one and the same. And we don’t work in all of this. We took a step back.”the Doll expressed about it.

But it’s not about blaming but about analyzing performance. And Gallardo himself realizes that there are problems in that area of ​​the pitch due to the changes he has been making in recent times.

Since Robert Rojas injured him, he couldn’t secure a right back. Neither Andrés Herrera nor Emanuel Mammana have managed to establish themselves in that sector. And he had to resort to Milton Casco, who pays a lot more on the left side, a band that was left to Elías Gómez, who doesn’t come out of his ups and downs.

In the second leg against Vélez for the Copa Libertadores, Gallardo had to rely on expert Jonatan Maidana to put together the defense with Paulo Díaz given the low level of David Martínez.

Chilean is also not a guarantee. And with him injured and Maidana and Pinola not quite fit, Gallardo gave Mammana a chance as first center scorer since Leandro González Pirez was sidelined due to his recurring unforced errors.

Gallardo changes and changes and does not find the defense. And recent history shows that it’s not just about collective functioning. The defenses of their champion teams in the Americas came from memory. And the strength of those quartets in several games was decisive. The four in the 2015 Copa Libertadores were Gabriel Mercado, Jonatan Maidana, Ramiro Funes Mori and Leonel Vangioni. And those of 2018, Gonzalo Montiel, Maidana, Javier Pinola and Casco.

In addition to not finding the defense – the most worrying – he does not even find a return to the team. And it no longer seems a matter of concentration, as he pointed out at a press conference, in which he also referred to work.

“We have to use these long weeks to put the players in better physical and football condition. And I will work on that. I have no other way of seeing things than with work.” Gallardo said.

And he added: “From there we will continue to try. We have to adapt to see if we can form the best team possible, whether it is a team that feels that competitive dynamic again, of a team that is tough when playing, when attacking and when defending. We have to try to combine. And this is daily work. Weekdays. Even the result of matches. It has always been like this. This is my way of feeling things. “

This is what Gallardo thinks. That’s how it feels. Can you reverse this time? Time will tell …