Retrô Futebol Clube Brasil had a solid maiden Série A title defence after a couple of star players displayed a disturbing lack of loyalty. But manager Robinho Lazaró was keen to keep developing a young side for another tilt at glory in 2034.
Lazaró’s 11th season in Camaragibe began with major change as the club’s president eventually stood down and was replaced by Wellington Falzoni. The new man immediately cut ties with Retrô’s long-time affiliate club Palmeiras, which made a lot of sense, and swiftly agreed to Lazaró’s request to improve the youth facilities.
That was boosted by a massive clearout, led by offloading wantaway idiot Marcelo Martínez, who amusingly had a terrible season on loan at Coritiba, to Universidad de Chile for a club record £14m. They also sold a mass of players to Mexico, including winger Fabao to Pumas for £2.4m, striker Raimundo, whose promise was curtailed by an ACL injury, to Mazatlán for £2.3m, midfielder Breyner Preciado to Santos Laguna for £1.7m without playing a game for the club, and defenders Marcos Rabelo and Mateus to Atlas for £1.4m and £325k. While the club’s Série A TV rights were more than doubled to £46.22m for the forthcoming season. That put the club in a very strong financial position, with £88m in the bank, a transfer budget of £40m and only spending £142k of a £590k weekly wage budget.
However, Lazaró saw no need to go crazy in the transfer market, bringing in a few decent prospects led by solid centre back / defensive midfielder Luis Tamayo for £2.6m from Universidad de Chile. He also promoted Peruvian striker Luis Chávez, rapid right back Carlos Eduardo, who won Young Player of the Year on loan in Uruguay last season, midfielder Rafinha and 17-year-old goalkeeper Cleciomar Velho.
Lazaró felt it was time for a change from his well established 4-3-3 approach, instead instilling an unusual looking formation that aimed to shoehorn promising attackers Matheus de Oliveira and Alex into the starting 11. In possession, it’s a 3-5-2 with Eduardo and Howar Menjura bombing down the right and Ricardo Cavalcante on the left, with Ricardo playmaking in midfield ahead of André, who drops into a back five out of possession. Homegrown Wesley Martins steps up to start in rotation with Nicolás Pino, Tamayo and Roberto Cuero, who pushes across to left back out of possession.
Four Successive State Titles Before Série A Battle
The new approach looked pretty decent in the Pernambuco State championship as, despite losing several players including de Oliveira and Alex to Brazil U20 duty for the Campeonato Sudamericana, they strolled to another unbeaten campaign. The front two returned in style for the semis, as an Alex brace and de Oliveira header earned a 3-0 win at Santa Cruz before winning 2-0 at home. And a 4-1 aggregate success over Náutico bagged Retrô their fourth successive state title, which saw Lazaró anointed as the club’s first true legend by his adoring supporters (Cavalcante is an icon and André is the only favoured personnel). Cavalcante won Best Player with 4 goals, a new record 8 assists and a 7.64 rating in 11 games, while de Oliveira won Best Young Player with 4 goals and a 7.56 rating in 5 games. Additionally, the U20s won their state title for the third time in a row.
The bookies boosted Retrô’s Série A chances, predicting them to finish 10th with title odds of 33/1, down from 50/1 last season. Palmeiras remain Evens favourites, followed by Flamengo (9/2), Gremio (15/1), holders Bahia (16/1), Botafogo (20/1) and Vasco da Gama, Corinthians and Santos (25/1).
Série A began with a de Oliveira brace inspiring an entertaining 3-2 victory at home to Cruzeiro, before the striker scored the only goal at Gremio and another double in a 5-0 hammering of Vitória. A first defeat followed at Sao Paulo, but Alex, de Oliveira and Ricardo downed Corinthians 3-0, and the impressive start, including a huge 3-2 win at Palmeiras, took them top of the league by 3 points after 14 games.
de Oliveira continued to impress, including back-to-back hat tricks in 3-0 and 4-1 wins over Cruzeiro and Sao Paulo in July, while Alex won the player of the month award. The same month, Lazaró moved on wantaway left back Sergio Carrizo to Atlético Mineiro for £6.75m, which took the club’s bank balance beyond £100m for the first time. However, slightly disastrous news saw Godinho, now 24, return to Brazil with Flamengo for £16.75m on £89k per week! Lazaró stuck to his guns, promoting promising 17-year-old winger Ézio Pinto and signing midfielder Criss Forbes for £1.3m from Junior FC and striker Nicolás La Luz for £1.5m from Danubio.
La Luz scored twice on his debut to earn a wild 3-3 at Fluminense, which left Retrô trailing Palmeiras by 2 points with 10 games remaining, but with a game in hand. Retrô were held 0-0 at Vitória in that game in hand before drawing 1-1 at Internacional and 2-2 at home to Coritiba, which handed the impetus to Palmeiras. They got back to winning ways 2-1 at Vasco before a potential title decider at home to Palmeiras, for which they ludicrously had 7 players on international duty at the U23 Pan American Games. And that unsurprisingly affected them, as a Vitor Roque brace earned the visitors a likely title-clinching 3-1 victory.
A change in formation saw a decent conclusion to the season, which included hammering Sport Recife 5-0 away and Alex scoring the only goal at home to Flamengo on the final day, saw them close the gap on Palmeiras. And they ended up finishing just 3 points behind the champions but a huge 19 clear of 3rd-place Sao Paulo. Retrô finished in 2nd place with a new club record 85 points, which would have been enough to win the title in all but 2 previous seasons, after another club record 25 wins, 10 draws and just 3 defeats, scoring 80 goals and conceding 35.
de Oliveira was the 3rd top scorer with 24 in 21 and Alex was 5th with 18 in 33, and the pair had the 6th and 7th best conversion rates (29% and 27%). Menjura had the 2nd most assists with 15, and the impressive Eduardo was 3rd with 12, and the winger made the most key passes (135) and created the 2nd most chances (29). Cuero made the most interceptions (125) and the 2nd most clearances (62), while Tamayo had the 4th best header won ratio (79%) and Danilo Rodrigues kept the most clean sheets (18) and had the highest save percentage (85%). While Pino was named the league’s Best Foreign Player with an impressive 7.11 rating, de Oliveira won Young Player of the Year and Lazaró was named Manager of the Year for the 2nd time.
Team-wise, Retrô had the 5th lowest possession in the league (45%) but kept the most clean sheets (18), won the 4th fewest tackles (396), had the 5th lowest tackles won ratio (69%) and made the 4th fewest blocks (159). But they won possession the 2nd most (3,074), made the 4th most clearances (545) and the most interceptions (1,091) and gave up the most completed passes (22,673). However, it has to be remembered that Palmeiras spend £77.5m per annum on wages and Flamengo spend £58m, compared to Retrô’s mere £9.9m, which is the 4th lowest in the league.
An Immediate Reunion in Copa Libertadores
Retrô got an interesting Copa Libertadores group that would reunite them with Martínez against Universidad de Chile, as well as Argentinos Juniors and Paraguay’s Club Olimpia. They began at home to UdC, for whom Martínez scored twice amidst a flurry of goals by Alex, de Oliveira, Eduardo’s first for the club, Cuero and Ricardo inflicting a 5-2 defeat on their traitorous former teammate. They struggled to a 2-2 in Paraguay before Alex nicked a tight 1-0 win in Argentina. de Oliveira and Joílson earned a 2-0 win at home to Argentinos, before losing 2-1 in Chile, but Alex and Ricardo helped them to a 2-1 win over Olimpia to top the group on 13 points.
Cruzeiro followed in the second round and Joílson scored the only goal away before losing 2-1 at home, but Danilo Rodrigues saved 2 penalties to send them through 3-1 in a shootout. Argentinian giants Boca Juniors were up next in the quarters, and they went behind early at La Bombonera but played well and Joílson’s strike earned them a draw. But a 2-1 defeat at home saw them exit at the same stage as last season.
Again Playing Second Fiddle to Palmeiras
Lazaró was really pleased with his youngsters’ progress, as they managed to push big-spending Palmeiras close. The improvement of de Oliveira had been a critical factor, as he led the goalscoring chart with 29 in 38, while Alex pushed him close with 25 and 12 assists. However, arguably the star of the season was right back Carlos Eduardo, who delivered 11 goals and a club-high 18 assists. Menjura scored 11 with 16 assists, Joílson scored 10 with 7 assists, Cavalcante delivered 13 assists and 9 goals and Ricardo had 11 assists with 5 goals.
Rafinha made it to 12th on NxGn 2035, with Mourad Chaoui 41st and right back Promise Godwill 49th. And they had a better intake with two potentially elite talents in striker André Fubá and full back Álvaro, along with top talents midfielder David, right back Fábio Brechane and centre back Juliano. Those youngsters joined the ranks in Lazaró’s Ginga tracker, which continues to be led by Menjura (80), followed by new boys La Luz (75) and midfielder Isaac Ismail, Ricardo (74), Chaoui (73), Pinto (72) and Cavalcante (71).
The squad was definitely making impressive progress and they had plenty of exciting youngsters coming through the ranks, leaving Lazaró excited for the future. However, their progress would very much be reliant on keeping hold of their best players, with the likes of Menjura, Chaoui, de Oliveira, Martins and Tamayo all attracting interest from big European sides.
So could Lazaró keep his best players at the club? And could they go one better than this season to lift their second Brazilian title? Join us next Monday to find out!
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