Gallardo and the most difficult thing about being a coach

“The most difficult thing is managing the egos of the footballers and we have sustained ourselves in competing. With mistakes and successes, I end up deciding who are the ones who are there to play”.

If something characterized Marcelo Gallardo throughout his cycle, which in a short time will reach eight years, is to put the players that he considers best to face a game. Regardless of your name, achievements and experience: if a juvenile is in better shape than a consecrated one, the juvenile plays. Simple. And that is what led him to have to deal with the egos of the footballers, who -logically- always want to be starters.

The key is in how he faced that: the structure never suffered and everyone always joined. “We are a team, beyond the fact that some play more than others. Each one assumes the role they have. There are guys who are still there for their sporting quality, for their competitive quality. If not, they wouldn’t be here. If the greatest (Pinola, Maidana, Enzo Pérez) were not mentally available, they would not be here“, extended the DT of River at the press conference after victory against Platense.

Of course, his phrases were motivated by what Javier Pinola He had said minutes before he spoke: “Everyone experiences it more sad or angry because they have fewer opportunities, they are logical things because the coach has to decide. But we are a human group that accepts and today (for this Sunday) we had that opportunity to show ourselves and not detach ourselves so much from the level that those who always play have been having. We must be an option for the future and show the coach that he can count on us”, had said who was captain vs. Platense.

“That a player like Pinola says that speaks of the spiritual quality of the team. I know of the quality and commitment of everyone to play. That everyone is committed speaks very highly of the team”answered Gallant some minutes later. If something characterized him, it is to manage in a great way those logical egos that players have, of always wanting to play…

All the phrases of Gallardo

-“From where I am, in the quick play it looks like a penalty. Later, observing it, I see that there is an intention of the Platense player to pick up his legs, but he touches it. I asked Gómez if he had touched it and he said yes It’s a penalty. Over there in the slow-motion replay it may seem like it’s not, but the player recognizes the contact. It’s a penalty.”

-“It’s not easy to change the team’s payroll in its entirety. There were some things that I liked at times, we were fine until the equalizer, I think we got a little out of place there, but we tried to continue, so that we didn’t get out of focus. It went through that a bit. In the second half we took control and Platense played a few meters further back. There weren’t many chances to enter, we tried to be patient, it was good for the team, many came without continuity. The victory was fair, even without generating too much.

-“One has to be prepared when it’s time to play, football is like that. 11 play and the squad is 30. In that management of players who sustain themselves with good performances and the team works, the one who is not prepared and does not he prepares to play, he misses his chance. I understand that it is not ideal not to have continuity and suddenly go out and play with an alternative team and have a good performance. Any of them can be an alternative to the team that plays. The fact of preparing mentally when you don’t play it’s more difficult, but it’s part of the game. The important thing is that they feel they made merits”.

-“Mistakes are part of the game, mistakes are made because it is a game and it is not perfect. The good thing would be not to make them, you play to minimize them and enhance your virtues. If you make the mistake and stay there, we are facing a problem. You have to get out quickly. Who doesn’t make mistakes? We all did. The issue is not to stay there. You have to keep working to minimize mistakes and enhance virtues. It’s part of the game. One who played it understands that you will always be there. exposed in errors”.

-(Line of 3) “I had players to do it, they knew the system, without much work but they knew the system. I thought that for this game it was something that could give us facilities”.

-(Midfielders with goal) “We work on that. The player has to understand that he can do everything. Offensive players have to step into the area and I love that our midfielders score goals. It is very important not to leave that task only to the forwards. I think of football as a whole.”

-“Tigre is a very good team, it’s going to be tough. Although in these last four games they couldn’t win, they made merits to pass in three quarters of the tournament. They’re going to be very excited about coming here and having a very good game , but we have to be prepared and we should prevail. Luckily we were able to give those who had been adding a lot of minutes a rest and they will be fresher to come back up in a game that is going to be quite intense”.

-“There were good moments for all of us who qualified, I think they have made merits to play this final stage. If we let ourselves be guided by the table, Estudiantes made merits to lead their zone, Racing did the same, we were there… The others They fought until the end, that speaks of a great parity”.

-“It should be defined how it is going to play these days to make it neat. These temporary formats are fine for a moment, but you have to give it a little order. If not, we will continue to see how we accommodate the thing. We will see when the crosses end up being It’s 12 o’clock at night and we don’t have any precision about when we play, it should be known and it remains to be seen. In serious things, it shouldn’t happen. We have to prepare the match preview”.

-“The most difficult thing is to manage the egos of the footballers and we have sustained ourselves in competing. With mistakes and successes, I end up deciding who are the ones who are there to play. We are a team, beyond the fact that some play more than others. Each one he assumes the role he has. There are guys who are still there because of their sporting quality, because of their competitive quality. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be here. If the greatest (Pinola, Maidana, Enzo Pérez) weren’t mentally available, they wouldn’t be here. I I know everyone’s quality and commitment to play. Everyone’s commitment speaks highly of the team”.

-“I gave Centurión peace of mind, he was solid enough to have his chance. It’s never easy to make his debut in front of 70,000 people. He didn’t suffer any anxiety, beyond the loss of concentration of their goal. It could have made him doubt, but it wasn’t like that”.