Peru, Reynoso, Paolo and five answers about the immediate future of the national team

1. What is known about Juan Reynoso’s immediate future?

With the score 2-0 closed and confusion set in at the Nacional – the popular ones shouting against Reynoso, invading teenage Messi fans handcuffed by the police -, Agustín Lozano looked for Juan Reynoso in one of the stadium’s passageways and had a brief conversation with him. selection technician. The political and football officials responsible for this crisis. It didn’t last long, ten minutes. Even two sources to whom DT had access agree that it was a brief conversation, in which the biggest message would have been that “this is the time to be with the group.” They did not talk about individual performances or specific changes. Neither tactics nor strategy. Of course, they agreed to have a working meeting in the next few days to start the November Plan, that is, the double date against Bolivia -in La Paz- and Venezuela -in Lima-. Lozano does want to know some things there: 1. The relationship with the players. 2. The Sonne case. 3. Conclusions about the game plan, that is, what will be Peru’s seal.

DT is in a position to affirm that Juan Reynoso’s continuity will be discussed, as we have already anticipated here and here, after the matches on the next qualifying round. There is a kind of mantra that has been repeated in the FPF offices in recent hours: “Not even Bianchi has resisted bad results.” Today, Reynoso still has the internal support of the FPF which, in the public absence of Juan Carlos Oblitas, seems to be only the support of Lozano. “Oblitas is missing. He is increasingly distant from the decisions of the federation,” Diego Rebagliati said last night, in Al Ángulo. El Ciego, a conciliator, a long-standing link between the players and the coach, has distanced himself from Reynoso and in his closeness – if he recovers – may be the key to rescuing something of which only vestiges remain: unity, solidarity, cluster.

2. Did the relationship between Paolo and the coach break up?

Hard to know. The information that DT handles has to do with a bond of respect that includes, in case we have forgotten, his return to the national team after 20 months of absence and the automatic delivery of the captain’s ribbon, which until his return was Gallese. Respect back and forth. The night of the 2-0, when the first half was being played, Reynoso decided that the team “needed more mobility” and chose to take out Paolo, in addition to 3 other changes. It would be a normal, practical, functional decision for what the team needed except for the fact that it is the national team’s all-time top scorer (39), who just minutes before had missed a seemingly simple pass, which detonated against and scored a great goal from Messi. More or less, like demolishing a viceregal mansion to put up a Compu Palace. How to replace a Voltaire armchair with an ergonomic chair. It’s hard but it has to be done.

The problem, of course, was not the change but the reaction: Paolo decided to stay in the locker room and the whirlwind of the match against Argentina took just long enough for photographers to realize that the captain was not on the bench. Bad message? Yes. He is the captain. Did he talk to Reynoso afterwards? No, until today when he traveled to Ecuador. Is it normal behavior? Let’s say that Paolo has a difficult character. Sweat naughtiness. He explodes. In fact, before traveling to join the training at LDU, he starred in one of the most chaotic journalistic invasions in recent years at Jorge Chávez. And although he tried to escape without statements, to take a deep breath, he exploded: “Tell me if those who criticize the national team have ever played soccer, have ever kicked a ball…” He didn’t say more because there were only minutes left until boarding. Paolo against the world. What comes next will be, once again, the art of strategy. Diplomacy. Especially because for the upcoming double date, Lapadula must be the starter.

3. When is Gianluca Lapadula returning?

It is the worst news. “We are going to follow him daily, because Juan’s plan is to count on him no matter what,” says a source from Videna, also aware that

The Peruvian Italian striker would have more time to recover. Two or three weeks are speculated, that is, the beginning of November. As recalled, Lapadula underwent surgery on his left ankle, and because of that, he could not be called up to the national team for the first four rounds of the Qualifiers. A few days ago, the newspaper L’Unione Sarda, gave more painful news than the rise of the dollar: Lapadula has been recovering from the operation, however in order to be 100% he would need between two to three more weeks. Will he be able to reach the standards of Reynoso, who is looking for the optimal state for a call-up, or will he have to repeat Guerrero’s title or Carrillo’s reinvention as ‘9’? The days will tell.

4. How many points are expected for the next double date?

Four, at least. It is not a projection resulting from the ninth place in the Qualifiers nor, for example, the good start that Venezuela or Ecuador have had: it is part of the meticulous plan that Reynoso and his technical command have, looking at the end of the year. As before, in the past, the idea was to add at least 50% of the points. Today, of course, the urgency is different. In the FPF, losing to the llaneros in Lima is not even under evaluation and there is even the intention to acclimatize in Cusco a week before the match with Bolivia in La Paz. If the team does not achieve this score and given that a match will only be played again in September 2024 -Colombia in Lima-, there will hardly be arguments to support, from Videna, the Reynoso project.

5. Who has earned a place in the main team after these four dates?

Discounting the fact that Gallese, Tapia and Yotún can never be missing from Peru’s starting team, two young footballers have met all the requirements of the national technical command in their look to the future. The difficult thing is that they don’t have time to fail. Wilder Cartagena (29) and Franco Zanelatto (23). The first was in the four games at the beginning of the Qualifiers (average 56 minutes) and, in the face of Aquino’s irregularity and Tapia’s decline as a back, he appears as a reliable means to support Peru’s midfield. With Zanelatto there is, above all, hope: in this harmless, delayed, cement-legged Peru, his aggressive freshness has won the competition against two extremes that one anticipated with more options, such as Reyna or Grimaldo. In training he kills himself. And according to his environment, in December he will look for an offer from abroad to continue growing. It’s a shame that he can only play 50 minutes (Reynoso said).

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