I have a theory, and I admit that it is somewhat perverse: that Brazilian coaches are not good. They are incomplete.
I believe the coaches are to blame, but the system is bad, as Captain Nascimento would say. The Brazilian system is very simple: there is no patience to plant good football and reap good results. You have to bring home your daily bread and, without time to work and implement something similar to a game idea, the important thing is to win anyway.
The coaches understood this and… started playing anyway. That’s why we come across something that I’ve already mentioned here in previous columns: low goal average, little time with the ball rolling, lots of fouls. Brazil leads all these negative statistics when compared to the main leagues. Brazilian football cares much more about results and doesn’t ask itself “how to win”.
In ten rounds of Brasileirão, ten coaches have already been changed. After more than 30 rounds, Spain and Italy had 11 changes in each league and in the English Premier League there were 12. The Brazilian rotation does not invite coaches to know how to develop good football or even overcome crises. Because in the first crisis, or even before it, the line was already moving.
This “firing” culture led to anxious coaches and poor play. Some still try to do something different and propose original ideas. Among them, Fernando Diniz, Libertadores champion with Fluminense and the following year delivering the team sunk into the relegation zone.
Diniz is one of those incomplete technicians. He is not satisfied with just having his daily bread, he tries something different, but he also finds it difficult to overcome crises and make adjustments to his route.
In the last ten years, he has had 12 jobs at 9 different clubs and also the Brazilian national team. Only three times did he win more than half the points he played for: at Fluminense, in 2019 (1.52 points per game) and in 2022/24 (1.76 points per game), and at São Paulo, in 2020 (1.66).
One of the most promising coaches in our football, the one whose ideas are considered revolutionary by our standards —often for simply doing something basic in modern football, which is playing with the goalkeeper—, has never managed to complete a job with 60% success rate.
Corinthians choose Fernando Diniz to replace Dorival Jr. trying to find good results and also some good football. The problems will be the same as always: on the one hand, the urgency for points and the pressure from fans and the press to immediately deliver a game identity and victories; on the other hand, a coach who has not yet achieved the necessary game balance to establish himself as a more or less safe bet.
The example of Fernando Diniz and the many dismissals of coaches in Brazil make me think that, without asking ourselves the right questions, we will never get the answers we are looking for: why did we win? Why did we lose? How do we want to play?
The managers who choose the coaches don’t ask themselves this question; the press seems more concerned with calling for dismissals as a solution to all problems; the fan loses his critical sense and embarks on the immediate wave.
We will only see the level of our football improve when we set out to think about it. And by firing coaches every week without knowing why, we’re doing everything but thinking.
LINK PRESENT: Did you like this text? Subscribers can access seven free accesses from any link per day. Just click the blue F below.
