Last Thursday, in an interview with Flamengo's official website, Maldonado said he was available to Rogério Lourenço for this Saturday's match against Grêmio at Maracanã. After an intense week of training to regain his best physical condition, the Chilean assured him he was ready. The coach decided to test him in Friday's tactical training session, approved his performance, and the Chilean will indeed start.

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For the red-black commander, Maldonado ended up feeling a bit of the intense marathon of games that Flamengo was involved in when the player returned to the team, and therefore, it was important that he did new physical work for his knee.

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"There was a joint decision with the physical department that Maldonado needed to work on muscle strengthening and post-surgery. He himself was complaining of pain, because he came back at a very strong pace. This had already happened the week of the game against São Paulo, and in my understanding, against La U, he didn't perform at his best. Therefore, we talked about him working hard this week with the goal of playing against Grêmio," said the Flamengo coach, explaining that, in addition, Fernando's suspension and Toró's injury also contributed to Maldonado's selection.

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Rogério also explained Rômulo's absence from the starting lineup. According to him, the player was assigned to perform a different tactical role than the other defensive midfielders. However, since the strategy ultimately failed to yield positive results, he opted to return the lineup to more mobile defensive midfielders.

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"Rômulo has a knack for playing as a third center-back, but the formation didn't work out, and we need time to test it out for a future opportunity. That's why I opted to put two defensive midfielders with greater playmaking dynamism," he added.

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Freedom - Right-back Leonardo Moura also revealed that such changes to the defensive system also have an impact on the way he and left-back Juan play.

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"Rogério always talks to us with the intention of freeing us up to attack. Sometimes one player goes up, sometimes the other, but when possible, it's important that we go forward together to give the midfield more options as well," he explained.

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The tendency is for Flamengo to be lined up with Bruno, Leonardo Moura, David, Ronaldo Angelim and Juan; Maldonado, Lenon, Camacho and Petkovic; Vagner Love and Diego Maurício (Vinícius Pacheco).