Minutes before the start of the match between Alianza Lima and ADT, Pablo Guede addressed the return of Kevin Quevedo to the ‘blanquiazul’ team’s lineup. The winger had been excluded after engaging in misconduct, which led to fan demands for his reintegration.
In a conversation with L1 Max, the Argentine coach defended his initial decision to leave Quevedo out of the team and questioned the external pressures for his inclusion. “It’s good that you ask me this because, when I got here, I was told that the first thing to establish was discipline. And when I enforce it, I am required to make them play. So, there are things that don’t align. Because if I impose discipline, the worst thing I can do to a footballer is not let them play. As I did with Kevin, because I believe he wasn’t at the physical or training level we consider for the group,” Guede expressed.
Guede confirmed that Quevedo acknowledged his mistake and apologized to both the coaching staff and his teammates. From that moment, the player resumed his participation in training. “There’s a reason he’s apologizing; you don’t ask for forgiveness if you haven’t messed up. Are we in agreement? Perfect. So, he messed up, talked to his teammates, spoke with me, apologized to everyone, and from that same moment, he started training,” he added.
The coach indicated that the plan was to allow Quevedo to play after the FIFA date, but the team’s absences and the reduced roster for the match against ADT expedited his return to the lineup. “I agreed with him that he would return to play if he continued training after the FIFA date, when this match was over. The issue is that we weren’t reaching 20. We were 19, and I’m not going to go with 19 on the bench,” he commented.
Guede emphasized that although the winger has yet to reach his best physical condition, he has shown improvement in training. “He’s training; he started training well. He’s still not at 100%. He lacks everything we will train during the FIFA date, which is what we need to focus on.”
Kevin Quevedo’s return to the lineup is also due to multiple absences in Alianza Lima. Paolo Guerrero, Piero Cari, Mateo Antoni, Alessandro Burlamaqui, and Nicolás Díaz were unavailable for the match. Guede detailed that many of these absences are situations beyond the coaching staff’s control. “There are many injuries we can’t control. If you tell me we could control it due to physical loads, we would certainly do our best to manage that. But we can’t control it because what happened to ‘Burla’ (Burlamaqui) the other day is incredible. It happened during a jump: you don’t understand how, after preparing for all these months following the injury he had in preseason, he gets hurt when landing. What happened to ‘Nico’ (Díaz) was a blow to the head. Mateo (Antoni) had the same issue,” he concluded.
Alianza Lima will face ADT on Friday, September 18, at the Alejandro Villanueva stadium at 20:00 hours. The ‘blanquiazules’ will attempt to recover after losing the classic match against Universitario de Deportes, facing the last team in the Torneo Clausura. The match will be broadcasted on L1 Max and Liga 1 Play.
Source: www.infobae.com
