It’s true that football isn’t brilliant. But which team is playing flashy football this year? It’s not Palmeiras, not Atlético-MG, not Inter, to name the biggest squads together with the red and black. There are flashes and slips here and there from everyone.
In this scenario, Tite has assembled a solid team defensively, which creates attacking plays, obtains results and is evolving. It was bad in the first part of the Libertadores group stage, yes, but nothing desperate. Losing in La Paz, for example, is almost standard for Brazilian teams.
The problem with the coach has two possible explanations:
1) there has always been ill will towards Tite from a wing of the red and black fans because his methods, less bloodthirsty and more pragmatic, don’t really fit in with the nature of the club. Let’s remember that he was even booed when his name was announced in a State game without much reason.
2) There is a section of Flamengo fans who have lived in Narnia since 2019. Narnia is an enchanted world separated from reality, created by Irish writer Clive Lewis in a novel. In red-and-black Narnia, the team can never lose again and has to beat all their opponents because one day they lived the happiest six months of their lives. Other than that, it’s a failure.
And this wing is fed by opportunistic influencers who live off clicks around supposed crises at the club. These are people who go to a press conference and ask Tite about this “new thing in science”. Cláudio Coutinho, possibly Flamengo’s greatest coach, pioneered the use of scientific data when preparing teams. He put together the red and black squad of the 80s. Fla-Alucinado doesn’t know about it.
