Botafogo – Palmeiras: Ancelotti’s son is beaten by a reactive strategy (0-1)

After the FIFA Club World Cup, Botafogo decided to dismiss coach Renato Paiva and look for Davide, son and assistant coach of Carlo Ancelotti – now head coach of the Brazilian national team – to become the new coach of the Rio de Janeiro side. On matchday 20, they managed to dominate the game at home, but lost to Palmeiras, who set up a more defensive strategy and knew how to take advantage of the best counterattack opportunity.

Tactical analysis and match report by Marcus Arboés.

Davide Ancelotti, who is beginning his career as a coach, has been trying to find an ideal team, but still lacks some definitive answers for his starting XI. Due to the tight schedule, the coach chose to use only four starting players in a 4-2-3-1 outline: John, the goalkeeper; Barboza, who stood out in the FCWC, one of the center-backs; the left fullback Alex Telles (former Manchester United); the holding midfielder Marlon Freitas. Apart from these, all the other players are either not starters or part of a rotation, with highlights for some known outside Brazil, such as Marçal (from Lyon) and Joaquín "Tucu" Correa (from Internazionale).

Palmeiras was coming from a very negative moment, but in the last match, they switched to a 4-4-2 positional shape, making better use of their striker duo: Vitor Roque (former Barcelona) and Flaco López. After winning by a big margin in the Libertadores, they repeated the formation, resting some starting wingers and two defenders. The starting XI was composed of Weverton (Olympic champion goalkeeper); Khellven, Gustavo Gómez (Paraguayan national team), Murilo and Piquerez (Uruguay); An . . .