Corinthians were eliminated from Paulistão, in the crowded Neo Química Arena, by an Ituano that, until the last round, had chances of being relegated.
The truth is that this Corinthians team without Renato Augusto becomes just a good team, but without creativity, technical leadership. The personality of this group is also lost without the number 8 shirt.
The squad is limited because there is no one in the squad with the same characteristic, and without Renato the team changes the way of playing.
Paulinho played in Renato’s place in that 1-1 draw and ended up scoring in his style, as the fans had already seen a few times – does anyone forget the 2012 Libertadores?
But Paulinho is not a creative player. He is a great second midfielder, who appears as an element of surprise, scoring headers of this type.
Fernando Lázaro’s team was very bad and gave chances to the team coached by Gilmar Dal Pozzo to put pressure on and threaten Cássio’s goal.
Ituano had more personality and cautiously attacked the Corinthians team until lateral Raí landed a strong, long-distance kick. In my opinion, there was a big failure by Cássio in the goal.
Corinthians drew, as I said, with Paulinho heading in an Adson cross and the 1st half ended 1-1.
In the second half, only the Parque São Jorge team attacked, pushing the opponent back and pressing the whole time. Had chances, ball on the beam, goalkeeper saves, but with forced and uncreative plays.
Lázaro took a long time to change because Roni is great at marking, but he can never be the guy who changes the game or creates something.
As Ituano threatened very little, he should have quickly put Vera or Maycon in order to have more time with technically better players, but he didn’t.
Other than that, Corinthians missed many chances and was unlucky in others, and then the game went to penalties as Ituano wanted.
Among the top five for each side, four scored and one on each side missed. But when it came to alternating, the errors increased.
Fagner and Gil hit very badly and Ituano managed to advance to the semifinal.
I don’t think it will be a reason to create a crisis or put Fernando Lázaro’s work in doubt. But he makes it clear that to try for titles, the squad needs to be more qualified, because the options are limited and the team cannot run out of creativity when Renato is not playing.
He needs to go to the market to technically strengthen the squad to be able to fight for real, because here in Brazil there are already Palmeiras, Flamengo, Fluminense, Atlético-MG, Athletico, who are ahead as a team and squad at the moment.
And the most difficult and important tournaments will start in a little while and, in my opinion, with this squad, Corinthians will not fight for the title in the Brazilian Championship, Libertadores and Copa do Brasil.
When Fernando Lázaro is complete, he has a great team, but few players on the bench have the quality to replace or be the team’s starter.
This elimination for Ituano was only the first sign. If the board does not move, the fans will not be able to dream of something cool in the year 2023.
Congratulations to Ituano for qualifying for the Paulistão semifinal.
