Opinion – PVC: Eternal tightrope is our modern game illiteracy

The most repeated question in Rio de Janeiro this week was: “Is Paulo Sousa going to fall?”. It’s not funny. It’s tragic. The dismissal of the Portuguese coach after the defeat to Bragantino shows how hasty the conclusion was that the lack of quality in Brazilian football was linked only to the lack of knowledge of our coaches.

Or wouldn’t there be a list of 15 foreigners in Serie A teams who have come and gone in the last three years: Miguel Angel Ramírez, Jesualdo Ferreira, Ariel Holan, Alexander Medina, Domènec Torent, Diego Aguirre, Rafael Dudamel, Sá Pinto, Ramón Díaz, Eduardo Coudet, Diego Dabove, Gustavo Florentín, Hernán Crespo, Jorge Sampaoli…

The Portuguese António Oliveira was fired by Athletico-PR and recently hired by Cuiabá. Now, Paulo Souza.

Everyone contributed, the good ones like Coudet and Sampaoli, the champions like Crespo, even the decadent ones like Ramón Díaz.

That’s not the discussion, but why do we keep asking for layoffs, even with ten Serie A clubs with coaches coming from abroad. Or nine, because Alexander Medina has already fallen to Internacional.

I ask two colleagues, one Italian and the other Portuguese, if there is something similar in the world. The Italian, Enzo Palladini, says no. In Italy, the stages of the work are respected, and the 11 falls in the 2021/22 season were by decision, without inflated spirits in the corridors and stands.

There were 28 changes in the 2021 Brazilian.

In Portugal, they say, there is only similarity with Brazil in countries without knowledge of the game. They are amazed at our need to discuss whether teams are defensive, with three defenders, or offensive, with lines of four. It is the prehistory of tactical debates.

Here, Vítor Pereira’s rotation is contested, without thinking about the reasons that led Corinthians to assemble a squad with ten players over 31 years old. Why hire a coach known for his intensity, like Vítor Pereira, for a calendar with two games a week and a squad of ten veterans?

People close to Paulo Sousa complain about the two football directors, Marcos Braz and Bruno Spindel, arranging meetings at different times and passing diffuse messages to players and the coaching staff. Braz is a councilor. Sousa knows that he is not always present.

There are problems caused by technicians. Others, by the structure of the clubs. The fans charge according to the glories of the past. There is a lack of leaders who know how to speak the truth, adapt expectations to reality. So do we, the press.

Corinthians are not playing well under Vítor Pereira. I also didn’t play with Sylvinho, Vagner Mancini, Dyego Coelho, Tiago Nunes, Jair Ventura and Osmar Loss… All since the 2017 Brazilian title, with Fábio Carille.

“So, is Paulo Sousa going to fall?” He almost twisted his neck from so many turns of his neck, to answer questions from the streets of Rio. He has already imagined a supermarket employee closing the day with a loss in his cashier and hearing, right next door, someone questioning the manager: “Are you going to fire?”.

Only in football.

Grêmio coach Roger Machado visited a gas station in Porto Alegre and heard from the attendant: “Is it true that you are going to fall?”. He said no and politely asked the employee: “Can you imagine if they came here and asked if you were going to be fired?”

Clever, the attendant apologized.

Huge difference between intelligence and culture. We say that pressure is “Brazilian football culture”.

Living on the eternal tightrope is our modern game illiteracy.