The leaders and the millions of River fans agree on something: Marcelo Gallardo’s cycle as technical director is going through the worst moment since its beginning on July 27, 2014. None of the objectives that were set when the coach renewed his one-year contract at the end of 2021 have been achieved. Eliminated by Tigre in the quarterfinals of the League Cup, by Vélez in the round of 16 of the Copa Libertadores and by Patronato in the quarterfinals of the Argentine Cup, nine points behind the leader Atlético Tucumán in the championship and loser of the two Superclásicos of the year against Boca, 2022 will be the first year in which River and Gallardo will not celebrate any title.
River only has one goal left to fulfill: to qualify for the Copa Libertadores. And you still have to fight for it: with 61 points in the annual table, he is third, only three behind Argentinos Juniors, fifth placed and the first to enter the Copa Sudamericana. There are 18 left to play considering this weekend’s date, so an eventual oversight can make it difficult to access the 2023 Cup. And finish rounding off, a year in which everything went wrong.
Gallardo could not rearm River after the departure of his two best players. The sales of Julián Alvarez to Manchester City in England and Enzo Fernández to Benfica in Portugal enriched the treasury. But they impoverished the team that was not strengthened in the last two transfer markets either. Neither the returns from China of the Colombian Juan Fernando Quintero and from Russia of Emanuel Mammana, nor the loans from the American MLS of Esequiel Barco, Tomás Pochettino and Leandro González Pires, nor the purchases of Elías Gómez, Andrés Herrera, Rodrigo Aliendro, Pablo Solari and the scorer Miguel Borja nor the playoff of Colón by the youthful Lucas Beltrán brought solutions to Gallardo that would allow him to compensate for the transfers. Without the pressure on the front line and the goal that Alvarez contributed, nor the volume of play and the category of Enzo Fernández in midfield, River has lost reliability: it wins and loses like anyone and against anyone.
One piece of information reveals to what extent Gallardo was also won over by disorientation: due to the lack of individual and collective responses, injuries and a certain apathy that was particularly visible against Boca in La Bombonera, he never presented the same team twice in a row. moved the pieces back (tried 21 different formations in 26 games)in the middle and forward and could never achieve defensive solvency, game generation or goal power. He did not even manage to build a strong localía: Tigre and Vélez eliminated him in the Monumental where Godoy Cruz, Sarmiento, Banfield and Talleres de Córdoba also came out winners. After glorious years, River is going through a dark moment. And she doesn’t know how long it takes to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
