Cuca explains Sánchez and Soteldo’s irritation with Santos and says that playing against Sampaoli “motivates everyone” | Saints

At a press conference after Santos’ 3-1 victory over Atlético-MG, Cuca said that facing Sampaoli “motivates everyone.” The Argentine commanded Peixe last season, succeeding Cuca himself, and returned to Vila Belmiro as a visitor this Wednesday.

– Playing against Sampaoli motivates everyone. He is a great coach, full of new ideas, he has blood in his vein. He and his commission, the preparer, were angry today. Imagine, I calmed him down (laughs). But they know they have a team to fight at the top, and of course they sell defeat very dearly. And you have to savor it because we beat a great team with a great technical commission – Cuca celebrated.

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The Santos coach also explained the irritation of Carlos Sánchez, who left the field looking like few friends when he was replaced, and Soteldo. The Venezuelan wanted to hit the penalty scored in favor of Peixe at the end of the game, converted by Marinho, but Cuca did not authorize.

– Of course I already spoke, I do not leave it for tomorrow. The player gets angry because he wants to play. Sánchez is a person I respect a lot and I really like his football. At that moment I understood that I had to remove it so that it would be more consistent with Ivonei. A player comes out with a hot head, but he is gone, he is an important player that we have – said Cuca.

– Soteldo is 23 years old, he wanted to hit the penalty. The batter’s name was Marinho. Soteldo: “Wow, I haven’t scored a goal yet.” So I said that there is no need to score, the important thing is to win with the fight and the commitment you are having. The player wanted to score, you can’t be angry about that. We have to know how to manage this, I’m not leaving it for tomorrow, everything is ready – completed the coach.

Santos’ next game is the classic against São Paulo, this Saturday, at 7:00 p.m. (Brasilia time), again in Vila Belmiro. The match is valid for the 10th round of Brasileirão.

The cast of Peixe is re-presented at CT Rei Pelé this Thursday and the preparation for the classic begins.

– It is difficult to scale the size of such a victory. It was very difficult to choose the team, whenever there is improvisation it is a difficulty, especially with some improvisations that we did in the game. It is always very risky. I had the option of playing more tightly waiting for the counterattack, but we took a risk playing, knowing that Atlético is a more prepared team today than mine. The pieces are more familiar, but we still choose to play. Atlético had important plays, well made, with long diagonals, so my defense came out with problems at the beginning.

– We understand the game and beat the team. There we balanced, we had chances to score the goal even when it was eleven against eleven. After the loss of the Atlético goalkeeper, they did not yield in the attack. What was left in the game was a steering wheel, nothing more. I had to take advantage of the steering wheel to turn someone in front. Sometimes we leave it behind, heads up, for them to do it too. And we, in that sense, were happy. In the first half it was an open game, in the second half we had no big scares in the past.

– We had two goals canceled, we knew how to control the game. It was a very tense game. A dangerous game. I am very happy and proud of this team, these children. Finishing the game with the guys is a great taste we have.

Is Marinho the best active player in Brazil?

– Because it is ours, we will always appreciate it. I would not make this comparison with other players. But it is a great satisfaction to play with a player who is very committed, doing everything possible to win the games, not only scoring goals, but also leading. Today the team ended up full of guys, it needs someone to shoot. That is why it is being a very important reference for us.

Best moment for Santos at the Brasileirão?

– It’s the best because we won two in a row and the way we won, with the difficulty of putting together the team. It was very difficult. I set it up the way we understood it, putting in a different player and it worked. Very dangerous game, I think everyone is happy, the fans must be happy with the boys’ fight. I had everything to make everyone happy, back wages, I’m not going to play, but nobody says anything. We are all united, the people chase us to organize ourselves better, the board and the president, and in a short time we will improve even more. The main thing is: the union of the group ”

Return of absences and marathon

– Today we have to savor this victory. It would be nice if I only had one game in about a fortnight to rest on two wins in a row, but the championship is very difficult. Today is Wednesday, midnight, and Saturday already has São Paulo. There he rests for a day and on Tuesday there is Olímpia. It is very difficult, that’s why we beg to pay our debt that we have with Hamburg, to update our things at home so that we can have a full body in our squad, because nobody can take it. It is very thrown.

Madson and Alex performance

– Play hard for them. They have to be tactical, read the game to understand the positioning. We often shout insisting on fixing the position, but they are to be congratulated. They haven’t been training together, they don’t have a sequence of games and today they got on a very dangerous boat, but they did well.

– They entered well, okay. It is always very dangerous. We don’t know what the boy is in the game, we know it in training. But the game is different. And they did well. This is precious to us. A victory against a great team, a candidate for the title, with a great coach, but we faced each other, even with all the losses we had, and we played a great game. I think the result was fair.

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