12/10/2024 01:06hs. Updated on 10/12/2024 01:45am.
Uruguay fell 1-0 to Peru on the hour this Friday night, within the framework of the ninth day of the South American Qualifiers. And all the focus was, of course, on the press conference of Marcelo Bielsa, who was at the center of controversy in recent days due to Luis Suárez’s strong criticism of him and his ways, and the subsequent support of those directed on those statements. “I don’t link what happened this week to how we played,” The Fool made it clear at first, before beginning to develop his view on what happened.
“It had no influence. I thought the team’s dedication was very generous, regardless of how we played. I don’t think it has had an effect that it has been a week with a lot of effervescence. Regarding how the whole situation operated on me, I am not ignorant of everything that happened and I know that my authority is affected in some way, “But I prepared for the match with the utmost seriousness and the response I found in the players was the same as I have always found since I started working here in the Uruguay national team,” he added.
“It did not alter at all the conviction with which the match was prepared. The professionalism and functioning of the group and the coaching staff for the preparation of the match was the same as always, so to summarize, What happened had no effect on the performance, on the preparation for the game, on the attitude with which the game was approached. And we all act with maximum seriousness, But of course I’m not ignorant of everything that happened,” he commented.
Regarding one more question about this situation, Bielsa avoided providing more details and clarified that these issues are from the “private sphere” and explained that situations like this must be resolved internally and not be exposed: “They are things from the private sphere and I am not going to respond about the content of the meetings that took place and the topics that were reviewed. I can’t tell you more than that, because I would have to describe aspects that were covered that I understand correspond to the intimacy of a group that the episodes that you should review, from my point of view, you should do it internally, not by broadcasting it.
“In football we all know when things are positive. The one who is in question is me, so evaluating the effects of all these issues involves referring to them, going through them, explaining them, and I don’t like to do all that. I prefer not to do it. Yes, I tell you that the way in which I lead the group was clearly evaluated,” he concluded on this topic.
Bielsa in the match against Peru. (Photo: EFE/ Paolo Aguilar)
Bielsa and the analysis of the defeat against Peru
Regarding the match, which marked Uruguay’s third consecutive match without winning or scoring goals, El Loco described that it was even and that it should have ended equal: “The match was even, with practically no goal situations, we had more of the ball but we did not create danger. Peru did not create danger either, but the sensations they had when they attacked were better than ours. It was a match that should have ended tied, but our team’s performance is the same, the assessment is the same if we had lost as if we had tied. “Not having created danger is something that, in some way, defines the performance as not being positive.”
Asked about the few changes (he brought in Facundo Pellistri for Cristian Ibarra and Luciano Rodríguez for Nahitan Nández), Bielsa explained that he did not consider that he should have made more variations because he did not want to burden the responsibility of turning the game around on many young people he had on the bench. and that it didn’t seem bad to him, “as the game went on,” to keep a 0-0 lead.
“Uruguay has individualities to generate goal situations or create danger. I sincerely feel responsible that with the players we have from the midfield forward, the proportion of goal plays that we generate in the last period is so low. You tell me that I should have changed proper names to reverse the lack of arrival, my feeling was that I did not consider that I could bring in players who would improve what we were developing, although what we were developing was little,” he said.
“Our offensive players have a potential for goals or offensive aggressiveness that I particularly doubt a lot when I have to replace players of that level. In this case I didn’t do it. Maybe it’s a mistake, but it seemed appropriate to me. It seemed to me that the players who had options to enter to generate offensive football were going to receive a very difficult game to turn around, or to reverse, and I don’t know, they are young players, that also made me think that it was not the ideal time for them to have the responsibility of reversing a procedure that took many minutes without being able to unlevel our team. I also have to say that as the match went on, I thought that preserving the result was not a bad possibility,” he mentioned.
“Every time we play, the team’s formation is prepared to have the ball, and through having the ball, create danger. That is costing us and as I explained just now, it seems to me that my responsibility in that situation is important,” he concluded.
Finally, he explained that at no time did he feel that Peru had been superior: “The definition of ‘better feelings in attack’ (definition made by the journalist who asked him) does not translate into having generated scoring chances, but rather having been closer to finishing the attacks closer to our arc. I believe that in the match one rival was never better than the other, there were small segments of superiority of one team over the other alternately, but I believe that I am not the one and it is not my place to evaluate how Peru played. My feeling is that I do not link the unevenness to which I referred to any situation that I can describe in which they have clearly surpassed us.”
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