2024-02-27 23:55:04
06:55 PM
Another representative of Nacional who joined the criticism of the team’s moment was León Darío Muñoz, who stated that the great responsibility falls on the managers and also that it is an obligation to beat Nacional of Paraguay this Wednesday (7:30 pm). He insists that sporting shame is necessary. Here is the dialogue we had with the former purslane striker.
Where is Atlético Nacional’s problem?
“The managers realized that young players are the ones who finance the club’s finances and therefore do not invest in great or good footballers. They focus more on economics than on football and that, obviously, ends up affecting the results, history and greatness of the club. They reinforce the team with any type of player. Before, to play for a team like Nacional, you had to have something different, a player with a lot of quality and that is what the managers have not understood in recent years.”
What do you think about the instability of the technicians?
“That’s like hiring a construction official and not giving him tools to build. How is it possible that they hire a technician and not give him material to work with? If you really have good players, in name, with the National profile, it is easier for a coach, but as long as the managers are still the ones who command the hiring, above the coach’s concept, it is very difficult. In Nacional any player is hired and we can list dozens of these footballers in recent years who have passed through the club without any merit to wear this shirt. Furthermore, with young people who are just emerging, what coach can they bring in to give the club performance with these players? There may be good footballers, but not for Nacional, because the ones the club has had throughout history were all different and made a difference. The same thing will happen to the coach they bring in, because he does not have the players of the appropriate level for the team. It is not convenient for the managers to bring in a high-level coach, because they will require players of weight and experience, and those who exist do not have it. They bring in a coach who has no name, who can manipulate him and manage the hiring and that affects the team’s performance.”
What to do to change course?
“The managers already screwed up a long time ago, because they cannot change this present with the players that there are and those they already hired. The team is psychologically affected, the fans are dissatisfied, the pressure increases, the young people cannot stand the pressure of a big team, the reinforcements are not responding. Nacional lost to the bottom of the Paraguayan soccer table and, this Wednesday, victory is an obligation, but the problem is not that they beat them, the problem is that the situation is going to continue and rivals of much greater weight are going to come and Nacional does not have players to overcome them, nor a coach nor a good environment. The team has been carrying the full weight of those errors that affect it today. The only thing you can do is go out with the players who are in a better moment and try to reverse the situation, at least this Wednesday, leave a good image to try to improve a little.”
What is Nacional’s biggest flaw?
“It is very difficult to decipher it. These directives seem like they don’t know about football, because who told them that one hires a big and slow center back (Bernardo Espinosa) if there are no great headers in Colombia? Most of our forwards are fast and skilled, so it’s easy to analyze that you need speed centre-backs to counter these players, but they don’t. The same thing happened to Cristian Zapata. The slow and big center backs who come to play Colombian soccer fail. It is nothing more than looking at the defenders who have made history in Nacional such as Iván Ramiro Córdoba or, more recently, Carlos Cuesta. They were fast, but it is very difficult to understand and see that simple part.”
They hire based on data and statistics…
“A footballer cannot be hired like that, you must hire him for what you see of him on the field and not what the numbers tell him. I really don’t understand who the person hiring at Nacional is, what relevance it had to hire Chipi Chipi or that Cantera midfielder, they don’t make a difference to Nacional. They hire Chipi Chipi for a good tournament in Pereira or they hire Espinosa because he already finished his process in Europe. One must hire for the characteristics one has to face the tournament in which one plays. Since when is a good player hired based on statistics? It’s like if Messi, Cristiano or Mbappé don’t have a good season then they are no longer useful based on what the numbers say. “A good player doesn’t stop being good, it is the coach who enhances him.”
Does the Nacional shirt weigh a lot?
“It is a great responsibility, it is the name of Atlético Nacional, but it seems to me that the question of performance is more about discipline, dedication, commitment. Today young players focus more on other things than on sports discipline and when that does not exist, nor sports shame in a soccer player, they will never have an adequate performance. The first thing the Nacional player should do is be ashamed of sports, ask himself: how can he contribute to the team? How do I make him better than he is? How do I contribute to his greatness and the titles? Today the mentality to join a team is different and the managers, with the type of hiring they make, send the wrong message that anyone can join this team, because anyone plays and that is not the case. In Nacional it cannot be like that, in the big teams the big players must play. Bringing anyone is disrespectful for the institution, for the fans and even for themselves.”
Green at home against Paraguayans
Nacional has played 33 matches against Paraguayan clubs, with a balance of 14 wins, 10 draws and 9 losses. At home they have eight wins, six draws and two losses. Nacional from Paraguay is the eighth club from that country that faces the Antioquia team in the Libertadores and in the Copa Sudamericana. Olimpia (Libertadores 1989, 1990, 1991, 2022 and 2023), Cerro Porteño (Libertadores 1990 and 2006, Sudamericana 2016), Sportivo Luqueño (Libertadores 2008), Guaraní (Sudamericana 2013, Libertadores 2021), General Díaz (Sudamericana 2014), Libertad (Libertadores 2015 and 2019) Sol de América (Sudamericana 2016).
Datasheet
Event: Second leg of phase 2 of Copa Libertadores
Stadium: Atanasio Girardot
Referee: Wilton Sampaio (Brazil)
Time: 7:30 pm
TV: ESPN
National: Reds; Ocampo, Mosquera, Espinosa, Velásquez; Mejía, Sierra, Pabón; Palacios, Perea and Ramírez.
Technician (e): Camilo Pérez
National (PAR): Silva; Blasi, Nunez, Ojeda, Conge; Alfaro, Orzusa, Gaona, Duarte, Knight; Arévalo.
Coach: Pablo Pumpido.
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