Gallardo’s moment of tension when asked if he had made a mistake in the formation of the River: “Make a mistake, I can make a mistake”

His face said it all. That walk in the end to go from the visiting substitute bench to the sleeve that took him into the locker room must have been one of his worst moments as a River manager. While the fireworks thundered behind the pits, the Boca players celebrated in the middle of the pitch and the Xeneizes fans cheered in the stands, Marcelo Gallardo came out almost alone from the Bombonera pitch, where until recently he knew how to celebrate. But this time he came out defeated and with a long face.

Gallardo showed his face before leaving the Bombonera. And beyond his anger, he tried to explain what happened on the pitch. “It was a game with few plays by the two teams, from mediocre to down, where the details ended up defining the Boca game with the ball stopped”, Gallardo analyzed in the first instance.

Why did the doll kick the board and change patterns and various names to play La Boca? What will you have seen in the week to decide to play with a 3-4-1-2, as he did in the first Copa Libertadores final in November 2018?

“I train it all year and I have smart players to apply it, and then it comes out or it doesn’t come out. As we lost, it will be said that it was not good, but sometimes it comes out and doesn’t come out. And then we lost it in the second half when we had the line of four, so much so that they don’t accommodate it as it suits you best, but that’s the way it is when you bet strategically “, Gallardo threw himself into a furious tone.

And on what he was looking for he commented: “The idea was to have two game planes, in the first half we wanted to have exits on the sides, to have a connection, we could not execute it and in the second half I planned to make changes and move on to play as let’s play. ”And if the starting line-up left doubts, much more were the three changes in the first half (with Rodrigo Aliendro, Miguel Borja and Esequiel Barco) where he tried to change with a pure slap but the team’s performance was worsened.

In the continuity of the analysis, Gallardo recognized the team’s apathy. “After their goal we didn’t want to look for him, we have to do it, we had approaches but you don’t arrive”, he said. And he added: “It was very little what we did, they were very light approaches. We take care of ourselves, we couldn’t play as we were supposed to play, it’s not bad. “

In any case, perhaps due to the brevity of the press conference, which lasted less than five minutes, there were no answers from the technician to some questions that had remained suspended in the Bombonera.

Why was the pair of forwards Pablo Solari and Matías Suárez? Neither was in optimal physical condition. Especially Solari, who no matter how slight his muscle injury was, it was very evident that he was not ready to play. And with Suárez from the start he lost a key card for the second half.

And why did Lucas Beltrán, who came from good games, go to the bench and ended up being the fourth substitution? Cordovan entered well and with more minutes on the pitch could have been more efficient.

And why was the defense he seemed to have found altered?

And why were three changes made to the interval that looked like slaps?

Many questions and few answers for a strategist who this time got nothing of what he thought …