The River Plate coach, Martín Demichelis, does not find the team working after six official matches, where despite four wins and two losses, he failed to leave a good image of collective play.
With an irregular football in all presentations that was evidenced in the last defeat against Arsenal at home by 2-1, Demichelis’s team will try to offer a better version on Saturday against Lanús.
Demichelis, who had almost two months of preseason and in addition to maintaining the base of the squad added four reinforcements, is not satisfied with the team’s performance and had to make changes in almost every game.
The most accurate data is that only Franco Armani played every minute of the games played and that only Milton Casco, Enzo Pérez and Ignacio Fernández have had a full presence since the start of the season.
In only one game, after the defeat against Belgrano on the second date, Demichelis repeated the formation and has already used 22 players with five different formations.
In addition, he rehearsed with three different pairs of central defenders. Enzo Díaz, with five games and 450 minutes on the field despite having been incorporated as a left back, was the one who played the longest.
The DT did not find regularity in the attackers either, since after starting playing with the duo Miguel Borja-Pablo Solari, against Arsenal they started playing Lucas Beltrán-Salomón Rondón, with Solari as midfielder.
The same constant changes occurred in the gestation area, since only Nacho Fernández remained, and then Agustín Palavecino, Rodrigo Aliendro, Esequiel Barco, Santiago Simón, José Paradela and Franco Alfonso rotated.
After the 2-0 victory against Central Córdoba in Santiago del Estero, Demichelis was unable to keep the 11 due to the injury of Emanuel Mammana and Enzo Díaz entered, who was the surprise against Belgrano.
The 2-1 defeat against Pirata Córdoba did not make him change the team to DT against Argentinos Juniors, but at halftime of that game -when he fell 1-0- he reached out and Barco and Robert Rojas entered, who would start against Tigre .
Against Matador de Victoria, he kept the team that started playing the second half against Bicho, and again gave Venezuelan Rondón minutes to win 1-0 in the previous tiebreaker against Banfield for a place in the Champions Trophy final.
In that match there were a couple of surprises such as the entry of Simón (who, if he did not play for a minute, started and scored two goals), the departure of Paradela -who was one of the best- and the offensive duo of Rondón with Borja that had not added minutes.
Despite accumulating three wins in a row, River did not play well in those matches, and the data of the three goals conceded and an average of 12 attacks from the rival in each game forced DT to continue changing teams.
Thus, against Arsenal, the surprise was the Beltrán-Rondón duo, the departure of Maidana from the team and above all the loss of Simón, who had been the star of the match that River beat Banfield 3-2 with his double.
In relation to the tactical systems, the team also changed and from playing a 4-1-3-2, it went to the 4-4-2 scheme and was even seen with a 3-2-3-2 with Casco playing almost next to Enzo Pérez in the middle.
In favor of Demichelis is the factor that he could not count on two key players from the Marcelo Gallardo era such as Nicolás de la Cruz -he returned on Sunday- and Paulo Díaz -he went to the bench in the last two games- because they were injured.
Likewise, he also suffered the losses of Matías Kranevitter, who fractured in the friendly against Unión La Calera, and Bruno Zuculini, who tore ligaments, making it impossible for him to balance the midfield alongside Enzo Pérez.
After the break this Tuesday, the team will have continuous work for a week and a half, since after visiting Lanús, they will travel to San Juan on March 8 to play the Argentine Cup against Racing de Córdoba, and then receive Godoy Cruz.
The idea of DT is to achieve the best performance in March, since in April the great bet of the year begins, which is the Copa Libertadores, where in a couple of months the move to the final round is defined.
With this outlook, the squad will train this Wednesday at the Ezeiza property awaiting the medical discharge for Mammana, and between Thursday and Friday there will be details of the team prior to the concentration.