Opinion – Tostão: There are good and bad technicians, emotional and rational, ethical and unethical

In the last week, the coaches, who are already protagonists, were even more in evidence, on and off the field. In the London classic between Chelsea and Tottenham, Italian Conte and German Tuchel almost traded blows. The two were expelled. Apart from the great lawn and the sobriety of the VAR, which played little, it looked like a Brazilian classic, due to the fight between the coaches and the complaints and confusion on the field.

The bullshit continued in Brazil. After Atlético’s elimination in Libertadores, Cuca gave a bizarre explanation for the lack of goals, saying that the fact that Palmeiras had ten, and then nine players, harmed Galo, since the opponent was only in defense. . Abel didn’t like it, explained the defensive strategy and nudged Cuca, saying what he did and what the Atlético coach should have done. Cuca got even angrier.

Some Brazilian coaches came out in defense of Cuca, out of conviction and/or because they feel harmed by the arrival of foreign coaches in Brazil. Jorginho said that the Portuguese Abel is aggressive on the side of the field, against referees and assistants, in what he is right, and that he is not criticized. He went further, saying that he wanted to see Abel directing a team with a modest squad, like Atlético-GO. Mano Menezes, with irony, spoke of the classes given by Abel in the interviews, as if he wanted to teach football to Brazilians.

Vítor Pereira, who had been criticized a lot, rightly, for the nonsense he spoke, who was not afraid of being fired because he had a lot of money in the bank, was applauded for his brilliant classification over Atlético-GO. The team that didn’t score scored four, largely due to the return of Renato Augusto, acting closer to the centre-forward, and of Róger Guedes, who stopped being a fixed winger, to enter diagonally through the middle. With that, Yuri Alberto scored three goals.

As in life, in all activities, in Brazil and in the world, there are good and bad, emotional and rational, ethical and unethical coaches. These are human contradictions.

Because of the great importance of so many factors that are present in a football game, technical, physical, tactical, emotional and unforeseen, coaches can only be well analyzed after a long career. Felipão, by the average of successes and failures, is an excellent coach, although he has not yet retired.

Young Abel Ferreira deserves all the praise for his achievements at Palmeiras, but we will only know his importance in football after many years in charge of other clubs and even Palmeiras. There are many examples of coaches with irregular careers, who did very well and then very badly, and also the other way around.

Today there is no longer any place for coaches who are not scientific, who do not have the capacity to lead a group and who do not work together with a good coaching staff. On the other hand, having knowledge is not enough to be a great coach or any other professional, especially in this new world, full of technical and behavioral transformations.

There is also no place for so many commonplaces, clichés, frequent ones, such as those who say that the coach, when he wins, even if poorly prepared, won because the players acted for him and/or because the coach was in charge of the locker room. Athletes play for victories, for careers and don’t tolerate coaches with little knowledge.