Odair Hellmann explained the reasons that led Santos to seek the signing of Luan Dias, Bruno Mezenga and Gabriel Inocêncio, highlights of Água Santa in Paulistão. The statement was given by the coach after the victory of Peixe over Botafogo-SP, for the Copa do Brasil this Tuesday (11).
“These three players had a good Campeonato Paulista in collective terms and individually stood out. That’s why they were sought and hired by Santos, so that we can have options within the group and these options are very important. We have three competitions, we have one game Thursday, another Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday, Tuesday… They are all decisive. So, only a good quality group, regular and with good internal dispute, will make a difference”, began saying the coach.
“It will make a difference in this moment of substitutions, injuries, cards and the return of these players who are returning to form who have an important characteristic, which is speed and dribbling. All this for us to form a strong group, to have these spare parts at all times for us to use and that we can, collectively, respond, and they, individually, can be blessed here in Santos and can bring that energy from going to the Paulistão final”, completed Odair.
What else did he say?
winning streak: “It’s the third victory in a row. It’s important. One more game without conceding goals. I think we evolved in some important aspects in order to evolve. In others, we have to seek this evolution. The game is not decided. It’s a decision of 180 minutes, we had a good first half, but we need to complete it indoors in a game without our fans, unfortunately. Victory generates confidence, generates a good atmosphere, but that will not enter into our game. It’s the Championship debut Brazilian, another game away from home. We debuted in the South American away from home, we debuted in the Copa do Brasil away from home, but these away wins are important because Santos had this problem away from home. We know about the team from Grêmio. It’s very strong, it also comes with confidence. It’s going to be a great game. We’re going to study the situation well so that we can repeat these things we’ve done, we’ve evolved and corrected some moments that we need to improve.”
team performance: “Daniel [Ruiz] played a good game. We all played well. In the first half, I think we played a good game and were effective in what we created, with control of the game, pressing high, with a lot of pressure, we didn’t let Botafogo build. We came into the break talking about maintaining this situation so as not to change our posture because Botafogo would rise to the attack and open up more spaces. But we would need to have control of the ball, and that’s what we didn’t have. We continue to have good defensive organization, commitment to marking, but when we regain possession, we needed to make that transition with passes or through spaces that we had to increase the score. At the end of the match, we kept the ball, exchanged passes, created a goal situation, but we could have created more with possession. Either by exploring spaces or through imposition, as we did in the first half. In general, a good game, concentrated, organized, firm and with a good score, but divided in times.”
Goal plays: “Not only in today’s game, we tried and we really managed to make the movements and a good pass, but we’ve been working on this movement where we try to create these different movements to evolve in the offensive part, to have moments to stay with the ball, running around looking for this construction, but we needed that moment of aggressiveness, giving an option to the past head-on [para a jogada], uncovered, with a field of view. We needed to make these moves. This we sought in training, not just for today’s game. Today, training with the characteristics of the Botafogo-SP team really hit. We passed this on in the lecture, we showed the movements so that we could look for this execution.”
Results as an answer: “It’s our search, it’s not even an answer. It’s a search for evolution in the game. We need to have an understanding of the whole. In the Campeonato Paulista, the game of Ituano was an exception of all the games we played… better and others not so much, but it was the exception. I spoke about it and that gave us the disqualification. It made us uneasy, generated pressure on us, because the club also comes from a difficult process in the technical part. When a defeat like that happens, There is a greater charge because then the whole comes into the process. We came before the Ituano game with good games, good performances, we achieved victories and that game came and brought a question mark and that is what we try to erase.”
game features: “We need to talk about all the embezzlements, all the pieces we lost in this training process, that we ran out of players with speed, dribbling and this brings a unique characteristic of the players we had up front, more technique, more passing. brings a different characteristic to the team. Today I managed to repeat the idea, I only changed Daniel [Ruiz]. This is the quest for us to continue growing in performance.”