Before starting to talk about Vitor Pereira and Flamengo, perhaps it would be necessary to explain the title above.
In November 1965, the young American reporter Gay Talese, then 34 years old, was commissioned by Esquire magazine to go to Las Vegas to interview Frank Sinatra.
Talese – now, at 91, one of the most renowned literary journalists – could not get Sinatra to give him an interview.
Pressured to deliver a text about the singer, he decided to go to the bar frequented by Sinatra, sat at a table and watched from afar.
He watched Sinatra play pool, drink and, between sips, blow his nose.
Knowing that he would not reach his object directly, he spoke with dozens of people who were part of Sinatra’s daily life to draw a profile of the artist and compose an article.
Talese then wrote what would become one of the most classic and brilliant texts in literary journalism: “Frank Sinatra has a cold”.
That’s the story of the borrowed title.
I say these things to let you know that I am going to talk about VP at Flamengo based on observations and intuitions.
And, of course, without having any intention of comparing myself to one of the greatest literary journalism stars, or even trying to do something similar here (by the way, in your book “Vida de Escritor” I found one of the most beautiful narratives of a knockout during a fight of boxing).
It would be good to reinforce that, contrary to what Talese did with Sinatra, if you want information, it is not in this text that you will find it.
To the text.
Vitor Pereira has a plan.
And I would say that it starts with the explosion of old pacts that reign in Gávea.
Leaving Gabigol and Everton Ribeiro on the bench and handing over the captain’s belt to Davi Luiz would be methods for carrying out his mission.
I think few people doubt VP’s technical competence.
He arrived from Europe with a high rating, did a decent job at Corinthians and, leaving through the side door, gave himself up to Flamengo, I guess, already knowing what would lie ahead in terms of compactness between athletes.
There has been no coach since Jesus who could face the coalitions established by the squad.
And much less a coach capable of helping the team play for music again.
There were, indeed, coaches who either aligned themselves with the squad’s pact and functioned as a good square uncle, or opposed and were eliminated.
Dorival found a space between the “chapa” and the “coach” and did his job with dignity.
It wasn’t a team that put on a show, but it was a bad team to beat.
They all seemed satisfied, but we would know at the end of 2022 that the board wanted more.
The dream of football played to music is really hard to let go of – especially if it happened so recently.
VP may have a plan – judging from the amount of notes he takes on the sidelines – and I’d say it comes down to “putting everyone in their place”.
Whether it will work is another chapter.
Against Fluminense, after looking like it was going to fail, it worked.
Until the beginning of the second half, when the goal came out, what was perceived was a red-black crowd more willing to criticize than vibrate with what they saw on the field. In fact, it didn’t look good.
But the goal was achieved in an inspired night by Airton Lucas.
A robust, important – and fair victory.
But football is not just what we see happening on the pitch.
Positional analysis will never be able to reveal the greatness of the game or capture the essence of what actually happens to that team.
Football is, above all, a system of human relations.
How to transform the group of people who make up a team – from the wardrobe to the players passing through physiologists, doctors, nutritionists, interpreters of statistics and performance – into a winning group, that is the question.
Flamengo’s squad would be a dream for any team, I would say, in the world.
The search is for the coach who will make a symphony with so many artists at his disposal, but also who will be able to explode old agreements and partnerships made between players who participated in the conquests with Jesus.
VP has a plan and, as we saw this Saturday, he doesn’t seem to have a cold either.
#Vitor #Pereira #cold