“When we compete, we are unbeatable”: How Fabio Matias transformed Botafogo | com.botafogo

“When we compete, we are unbeatable.”

This was the phrase used by Fabio Matias in the nine matches in which he managed the team. Botafogo As interim coach. The permanent technical assistant completes Alvinegro's 10th match against Junior Barranquilla, at 7pm on Wednesday, in the first appearance of the Conmebol Libertadores group stage.

Following the sacking of Thiago Nunes, the club's defeat in last year's Brazilian championship was still a recurring theme. Fabio Matias's first action was to put an end to any topic related to 2023.

The result was positive: in the interim period, Alfengro surpassed Aurora and Bragantino in the preliminary part of the Libertadores and reached the group stage. There are eight wins and a draw at the top of the team, and the farewell will be specifically against Junior, as the club has already signed Portuguese Artur Jorge.

-You can expect an aggressive team, but with very high emotional control. A team that will give everything it has throughout the match, but it will compete. There's a really great phrase here, and I've been using it a lot, which is, “When we compete, we're unbeatable.” When we compete, we win duels, and hardly anyone beats us. It's a phrase we use a lot internally because the game of football is very much about duels. The more duels I win in-game, the more advantages I will have. This is what can be expected. The team that will donate from the first moment to the last – he said this in an exclusive interview with ge.

You can watch the full interview with Fabio Matias in the Wednesday edition of GE at 12:45

– Feet on the ground. It's part of it. There are no unbeatable teams. This phrase is just a metaphor. Defeat may come at an opportune moment, such that you can afford to lose it. He added: “This is one of the goals we have here, which is to achieve a good result.”

Fabio Martins expressed his appreciation for the relationship he created with the players in almost every press conference he held in Botafogo. When “selling ideas,” as he likes to say, the coach analyzes the importance of having a present attitude.

Today, 50% of work is related to management, and this is not a fad. Management is not knowing how to manage, but rather knowing how to deal with people. The other 50% is knowledge. If an athlete looks at you and doesn't trust you, forget it, it won't work. The athlete has to see that and say 'damn, that's it, that's good'. That's the point of training, you have to insist on saying the guy is good. Then there is a match, and the player does the same thing he did in training. It is a battle of conviction, to make a man convinced that everything will work out. If you talk a lot about coaching and management, I'm a more direct guy, and I always like to talk rather than detail or create big scenarios. It's 50/50. Those who have a lot of management, some lack knowledge. He said that anyone who knows too much may lack management.

Matias's relationship with the players began on January 7, the first professional day in Botafogo. The captain came after spending time in the lower teams of Bragantino and was recommended by Andre Mazzocco, former director of football, and Alessandro Brito, chief scout.

-I really admire this group of players in terms of work. We divided the actors into groups and ended up with smaller groups. Men train hard, get to the end, and ask for more. Training ends and they ask for more things. This is the commitment to the club. “Ah, but you get paid, and you get paid well…” Come on, commitment isn't just about being here. A lot of people come and they're just present. It's happening inside. I'm a fan. I don't say anything more than that. I've seen popular groups that do much less work than this, and the guys here are popular. He concluded that this was a favorable point.

Fabio Matias' inspiration and idea for the game comes from the Netherlands. Having had a professional footballing career since 2001, where he started as a goalkeeping coach and quickly moved into the technical side, the professional's tactical thinking ranges from the historic Johan Cruyff to the concepts of Pep Guardiola. The priority for the 44-year-old Sao Paulo native is only one thing: attacking.

– During a period of my life when I was working in Desportivo Brasil, I had the opportunity to travel outside Brazil. It was a very good thing in my career. I knew a lot about that Dutch school. Cruyff, Ajax, Rinus Michels… It is the basis of the attacking game, the structure, the 4-3-3 positional used in Guardiola's Barcelona. I got a lot of that from that period. Today it is very difficult to operate in the grassroots arena because there is a lot of visibility, as television broadcasts grassroots games. Imagine, in your first U17 game, you had two 4-0 defeats, and you were already in danger of being sent off. Often, because of this, the coach stops doing the things he believes in – he analyzes them.

The numbers show: Under Matias, Botafogo have scored 25 goals and conceded six in nine matches.

-I always kept the game ideas very clear, and even more so because I drank that water. There are concepts related to tactical periodization, planning and positional play that are talked about a lot today, but it is not possible to apply everything. The main thing is your DNA. This copy and paste thing is a fad. Since the epidemic, many spirits and events have appeared. He joked that the guy in the corner was talking about football, the guy selling bread was talking about career structure, the doctor, the engineer… The information was very easy, but it's not all the information you have to absorb. Everyone knows a little about football, it runs in their veins (laughs). He added: “I have a family that is very attached to football. My parents, my uncles and my cousins, if I let them, they would want to join the team.”

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