Fernandinho had just made his debut for Athletico Paranaense in the 4-1 victory over Atlético Goianiense, in a duel for the Brazilian Championship, when he was asked after the match if his team had played like Manchester City, where he played for almost ten years before returning. to the team that revealed it.
The steering wheel promptly rejected the comparison. “No, it’s still a long way off,” he said, surprised by the question. “Any comparison between one team and the other we have to disregard because they are two completely different contexts”, he argued.
Two months before the first game on his return to Athletico, the midfielder played his last game in the English Premier League, the Premier League, considered the strongest league in the world. His farewell came with a 3-2 victory over Aston Villa, a result that gave City their eighth English title, their sixth in the last ten editions.
The Brazilian was part of five of these conquests, being a key player in the most victorious era in the club’s history. From 2013 to 2022, he won 13 titles for the Manchester team.
There, since 2016, he was coached by Pep Guardiola, who considered him indispensable for a team that is characterized by ball possession, pressure on the opponent’s exit and the construction of plays based on circulation and quick passes.
At Athletico, at 37 years old, Fernandinho is needing to get used to a new style. Under the command of Luiz Felipe Scolari, the team from Paraná is more reactive, values possession of the ball less and seeks to be effective in counterattack plays.
That’s how he reached the semifinals of Libertadores, stage in which he will face Palmeiras. The first leg will be this Tuesday (30), at 9:30 pm, at Arena da Baixada, with broadcast by SBT and Conmebol TV. The return game will be on the 6th, in São Paulo. These are clashes in which the newly repatriated foresees difficulties.
“It’s a difficult opponent, complicated to face, he’s come from two Libertadores conquests recently. It’s a group that’s been together for a long time, a coach who’s been in charge for a long time, has a defined way of acting, is used to this type of game “, he highlighted. “It will be two great games, and I hope our team is inspired.”
The midfielder reinforced the team from the quarterfinals onwards, a stage in which the red-black club overcame Estudiantes, from Argentina, with a goalless draw at home and an away win, 1-0.
In all, for the time being, the athlete has played eight games with the athletic shirt since his return. Still without scoring any goals, he accumulates a defensive statistic that helps to understand his new behavior on the field.
On average, he went on to commit more than twice as many fouls as he did at City. For the Brazilian team, there were 16 fouls in 8 duels, an average of two infractions per match, according to the Footstats website, in clashes for the Brazilian Championship, Libertadores and Copa do Brasil.
In the 2021/22 season, he made 27 appearances for the English team in the two main tournaments played by Pep Guardiola’s squad. There were 19 games in the Premier League and eight in the Champions League. On average, he committed 0.5 fouls per match, according to information from the official website of the English competition and SofaScore.
The precision in the tackles added to the leadership ability made Guardiola surrender to the Brazilian, treated by the coach as an indispensable piece.
“He can do everything,” praised the Catalan recently, just before he knew he would lose him. “What we’ve achieved so far would be impossible without him. He’s fast, smart, strong in the air and can play in several positions. As soon as he sees an empty space, he runs there to fill it. If a team had three Fernandinhos, would be champion.”
In Guardiola’s team, the Brazilian accumulated fewer fouls because he needed to be less demanded in the defensive sector, especially because the team values possession of the ball. In the national championship, for example, City’s average possession per game was 67.9%. In Champions, the mark was 60.3%.
In comparison, in duels for the Brazilian Championship, Athletico spends less than half the time in possession of the ball, 45.5%. In Libertadores, the number reaches 55.5%.
Fernandinho, however, was ready to face this change of style in the game, after all, he knows Felipão’s work well. The coach of the Paraná team was responsible for giving the player the chance to play in the first of the two World Cups in which he was present, in 2014.
Like a good part of that squad, the midfielder ended up being marked by the failures committed in the fateful 7-1 defeat to Germany, in the semi-final – the fourth goal, for example, came out with his decisive contribution.
Even so, he managed to regain his prestige and was also part of the squad that represented Brazil in the 2018 World Cup, in Russia. Again, however, he was heavily criticized after the 2-1 defeat to Belgium, in a game in which he scored an own goal and was easily dribbled into the opponent’s second goal.
“The blows of life make us mature,” said the player, who is now trying to make his experience make a difference at Athletico.
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