Gallardo made his debut in 43 youth teams. photo MARCELO CARROLL
And one afternoon, inside River, young people will break down again. It happens that, faced with so many victims due to the FIFA virus, injuries and suspensions, Marcelo Gallardo had to appeal to the Reserve and summoned two boys for the duel this Saturday at 18 against Talleres in a Monumentale that will again appear packed. Who are the new players? Franco Alfonso, 20, vertical right midfielder and dribbler, and Joaquín Panichelli, 19, an area tank with a hook past who has scored 14 goals and given four assists in 55 games in the Reserve.
The call-up was new because Gallardo hadn’t debuted in his youth for a long time, a problem he did and in large numbers in his early years as coach of the Núñez cast. So far in 2022 he has only made his debut Ezekiel Centurion (May 9 in a 2-1 win against Platense), a 25-year-old goalkeeper who last season played on loan at Estudiantes. The last youth footballer to have his first game with Gallardo as DT? Felipe Salomoni, left-back who had a few minutes on August 30, 2021 against Sarmiento.
But more important than taking the first step is to consolidate into the highest category. And River’s youth teams, coaches and technical staff are also missing. A graphic given perfectly the moment: Of all those who debuted in the last 19 months (since January 2021), none have reached 10 games.
It is known that 2021 was special due to the pandemic. Alan Díaz, Tomás Galván and Daniel Lucero made their League Cup debut against Boca and only Galván – on loan to Defense and Justice – had more action (seven games). Tomás Lecanda -in Aldosivi- and Felipe Peña Biafore started the historic match against Independiente Santa Fe for the Copa Libertadores, the night saved by Enzo Pérez. Then the center scorer played two more games and the midfielder eight. The last to appear was Felipe Salomoni.
So far in the award-winning cycle of the Gallardo 43 young people made their debut. Who are the ones who have played the most games? Gonzalo Montiel leads the podium with 138 games and six goals, followed by Julián Alvarez with 121 and 56 while Lucas Martínez Quarta is third with 103 and six respectively. For the sale of the three players River has pocketed over 35 million dollars.
In any case, Alfonso and Panichelli could go on the bench and, if conditions were favorable, one of them would add minutes.
Gallardo had to put together a puzzle because of the victims. Zuculini will replace the suspended Enzo Pérez while Centurión, Javier Pinola and Agustín Palavecino will do so for the selected Armani, Paulo Díaz and Nicolás de la Cruz respectively. The doubt passes through the determination of the replacement of the expelled Marcelo Herrera: David Martinez or Elias Gomez. They will wait for Santiago Simón until the last moment. Otherwise Tomás Pochettino will play.
Source: Clarin
