Racing and Gago, with the usual flaws and merits: why do they now say he’s more of a candidate than before?

The victories are chained like never before in the League and Racing is a candidate. Until the duel with Platense last week in Vicente López, he had not been able to add two consecutive victories in the tournament. With 9 out of 9 points up for grabs, what has changed? There are some aspects that can lead to contradictions. Because, ultimately, the best time of the Academy In terms of results, it’s not the best in terms of performance.

The resultatisti will say that the important thing is that the ball enters and that much more transcendent – the only thing, ultimately – is to win. Others will ask questions. Racing plays worse? Did Fernando Gago burn the books and become a more pragmatic coach?

In Sunday’s press conference, following the painful victory against Unión, the coach referred to the subject before a reporter was consulted. And if the dilemma is to play well or to win, Gago underlined: “When we had the circulation of the game and we didn’t win, they said we didn’t get results“.

And then it extended to a “long shot” question, which usually gets a bad press. In short, with the old and weighted ball you can leave an attacker – or a midfielder who breaks – face to face with the opposing goalkeeper.

“It is one thing to find the rival hand in hand and quite another, a ball. An individual duel consists of putting an attacker in a scoring situation. And it was with a long shot, as happened in the first half with Maxi (Romero). It depends on how you want to see it. Tell me about circulations. Racing plays well for me. And that’s what I want and feel. And another thing is: the team that wins, has arguments to win. Play better than rival, why not? He plays well because no goals were scored against him. If you play well and lose, what do you need it for? We have made a performance throughout the year and that is why we have the points we have “, underlined the coach.

The statistics support Gago’s claims, but not the palpable feeling on the pitch, especially in these last three games won by Racing (Patronato, Platense and Unión). Because it is true that the team suffers from many irregularities, especially in the setback, and suffers too much from matches. He clearly doesn’t win them.

However, Racing is the team with the most ball possession (62%) above River (61.6%) and Boca (59.3%) and the one that generated the most obvious opportunities (46) on Argentinos (43) and Colón (40). It is also one of the teams with the highest passing accuracy (383) under River (417) and ahead of Boca (373). Three characteristic features of the style that the coach has given him. He is also on the podium of the precise long balls, the ones he usually uses to break the mold.

These scattered numbers can be confusing. What happens if you explore the effectiveness rate? It is the team that failed in the clearest situations (30) and he is also the one who has completed the highest number of throws in three suits (4,9). This is the main problem. Then, the setback, the imbalance and the defensive difficulties of him. There the collective functioning collapses. It is no coincidence that the figure is the goalkeeper (Gabriel Arias and Matías Tagliamonte).

The answer, therefore, is very clear. The races are always the same (even Gago), but now he often wins.