After victory over Cruzeiro, this Wednesday (15), Flamengo's interim coach, Zé ​​Ricardo, spoke to the press. In the press conference, he analyzed the players' performance, praised the debutant Réver and already spoke about the next match, next Sunday (19), against São Paulo.

Check out the main excerpts from the interview:

Teamwork in defense
Despite it being Réver's first game, he was very involved in the communication – just like Vaz. This was done to speed up the team's understanding and, in a way, it already showed results today.

I wanted to strengthen the flanks of the field. Fernandinho was capable of covering that area, since Cruzeiro was attacking a lot. He's also a player with the speed to start plays. In a game like this, both wingers end up getting quite tired, as does the striker, who tries to challenge the defenders. Since Cirino is very powerful, I put Pará in the game because of his marking ability, to help Rodinei. At the same time, he has speed in starting plays so that we could find an attack.

I rate Réver's debut as very good. He's an athlete with a lot of room to grow. He has a great deal of experience. He's very successful, having played for the Brazilian national team. This experience will be a valuable addition. He will help us not only defensively and offensively, but also with leadership. Despite the criticism, Flamengo's team is a young group, and Réver will be a help in that regard.

The Brazilian Championship is extremely competitive; if not the most difficult, it's certainly the most competitive in the world. Ideally, we should have consistency. There will be ups and downs, but we hope to reduce this fluctuation. We have to start from the principle of the athletes' commitment. We see this constantly. Since training sessions are scarce, we have to recover them very calmly. In training, we introduce our ideas, and they absorb them. I believe we are on the right track.

Having to play against big teams every 4 or 5 days, naturally the results are always very close. That was the case today and we hope it will be the same on Sunday against São Paulo.