Álvaro Gutiérrez Felscher: Who is he and what is the style of play of the new Universitario coach?

This Sunday at the bank academic against Cantolao will be Manuel Barreto, but the new cream coach will already see his new club in the stands. This afternoon the 53-year-old Uruguayan was announced Alvaro Gutierrez Felscher as the new strategist for the Ate team.

The last club where Álvaro Gutiérrez was was Olimpia de Paraguay, where he only directed five games, since he resigned due to the economic crisis that the Guaraní team is going through. The players decided not to concentrate prior to a Copa Paraguay match due to more than seven months of debt, before which Gutiérrez resigned last October.

One win and two losses in the League and two wins in the Copa Paraguay was his last balance with a club that later finished eighth among ten teams in the Paraguayan Clausura.

Gutierrez’s career

But Álvaro Gutiérrez’s career has in his showcase the title of the 1995 Copa América as a player, scoring a goal in the penalty shootout in the final against Brazil. As a player, he began his career at Bella Vista in Uruguay in 1988, moved to Nacional between 1992 and 1995, and then played in Spain, where he wore the Valladolid and Rayo jerseys until 1999, when he returned to his country. He played again for Bella Vista and Liverpool to close his career at Spain’s Sporting Gijon in 2001.

As a coach, he began directing in Athens in 2005 and ten years later he won the Uruguayan national title with the Nacional (2014 and Apertura 2015). After passing through Saudi Arabia (Al-Shabab) and Liga de Quito, he returned to Nacional in 2019 to win the Clausura and achieve the national title.

This year, Gutiérrez had the chance to lead the Uruguayan Nacional again, but he gave up “for strictly personal and family reasons.”, as announced in a statement “at this moment in my life it is impossible for me to lead any type of work project with the energy and clarity that Nacional requires”, he explained.

Regarding his style of play, Gutiérrez himself made it clear when he was presented at Olimpia. “I am a pragmatic technician. I’m not one to believe in just one style of play. Many times you have to attack, other times defend, press higher. I rely a lot on the characteristics of my players and also of the rivals”, he explained, according to ABC Color quote from Paraguay.

In 2019, as a National coach, he also made it clear how he works. , is seen in a video of the charrúa box. In his country he earned the label of a defensive coach, something he doesn’t like. “«The essential thing will be to keep the zero in the goal, because in the team there are players who assure us a goal per game”, declared. “When we have to attack, we attack. When we see ourselves obliged to defend, we will do so. That’s my game ideology”, according to the portal Versus de Paraguay.

“He said ironically after winning the title with Nacional in 2019. Then he assured that it strengthens him to be treated that way.