Luis Castro

O Botafogo is leader in Brazilian championship and in group A of Copa Sudamericana and decides the confrontation of the round of 16 of the Brazil’s Cup against Athletico-PR, this Wednesday, at Estádio Nilton Santos. The internal planning, mainly of the technician Luis Castroearned praise from the commentator Paulo Nunes.

– It calls my attention how Luís Castro is working in the three competitions, in which he is doing well. He has a chance of reversing against Athletico, he is very much at home, he depends on himself in the Sudamericana and the consistency in the Brazilian Championship shows that he will go very far. Luís Castro knows when to take a player off to rest, like wingers, he gives speed, dynamism. If you look at the midfield, it’s completely overhauled, with Tchê Tchê, Marlon Freitas and Lucas Fernandes. And yet he continues to give the same dynamics and style of play. Luís Castro said he would go as equals, but he doesn’t just say it, he demonstrates it at work – he praised Paulo Nunes, on the SporTV program “Troca de Passes”.

Botafogo’s next two games will be against Athletico-PR, a fourth at Nilton Santos for the Copa do Brasil and the other Saturday at Arena da Baixada for the Brazilian Championship.

Technician of Botafogoleader of Brazilian championship, Luis Castro participated in the program “Boleigem”, on SporTV, on Monday night (15) and gave details on the planning for the marathon of games. The coach said that he always likes to think about a package of three games at a time, but he highlighted the difficulty of sustaining that due to absences due to injury or suspension.

– I usually grab a three-game package and launch those three games in my head, knowing that this planning suffers permanent deviations. I don’t like to look at one game at a time, I like to have a plan for three games, but I already know that this plan will not be fulfilled, I know that there will be suspensions, injuries, players that will be more worn out and less capable of the next game… But I also know that if there is no planning, this is more penalizing for all of us. The plan is done, I know which teams I will put. What has happened is that there is always a deviation of two or three players – said Castro, revealing that matias segovia would hold against Goias if it weren’t for the fracture in the hand:

– For the last game we had predicted Matías Segovia, who then suffered an accident on the eve of the game, and these unforeseen events keep happening. I hear a lot from the physiology department and the players. Clearly what worries me the most between each game is recovery. There is one fact that guides us the most towards the next game, which is the capacity that each player has to develop a job in each game. You know… Play a game like we had yesterday, then we’ll play Athletico-PR on Wednesday, Fluminense on Saturday. Therefore, playing games every two days, we have to listen to the player, understand how he slept, how he ate, these are very important data for the next game. This is decisive, clearly, but there is a plan.

Luís Castro also said that Botafogo’s second half in the defeat to Goiás disappointed him and mentioned that the mental factor weighed.

– It always surprises (the defeat), because we always expect the most from our teams. No matter how good we are over several games, we always think that we can give more than what happens in each of the games. Despite the first half with an acceptable quality, our second half fell short of what we should and can do. We know that the championship is very difficult and tight, especially this year all the games are very difficult, tremendous, in which any team that goes to the game thinks about winning it. I wouldn’t be lying if I said I expected more from what our second half was, fundamentally. We stopped doing some things we planned in the second half, we tried to walk more along the side corridors, not so much exploring the diagonals in the central corridors, where the spaces were more empty. The second goal right at the beginning of the second half showed us some inability to pursue the game in mental terms. We move on, we already have a game on Wednesday, then on Saturday, there is not much time to regret it. We are ready to move forward,” he said.