Managers in Brazil: Rogério Ceni, the modern one

All around the world, people may know one of the most important players in the history of Brazilian football. Surgical in free kicks and penalties taker, Rogério Ceni was a remarkable winner at the pitch and left his playing path right to walk into the managerial one.

When such a great player leaves the boots behind to hold the clipboard, it’s fair to assume that people will have high expectations. Specially someone winner as Ceni.

2017 started and it took circa six months to the Brazilian gaffer face his first sacking. “Sadness. I think that is the word that suits the most that moment. Not rageness, just sadness”, he said in an interview to Cléber Machado in the Globo Esporte TV show. In the end of that year, a surprise: Rogério Ceni was named as Fortaleza EC’s new head coach.

The Northeast side had just lost the third division final to CSA, and it led Antonio Carlos Zago and Fortaleza to part their ways — leaving the job empty. So, the Leão de Pici (club’s nickname) decide to make an offer for the former São Paulo goalkeeper and, in November of 2017, it was officially announced.

Obviously, it didn’t take many years to Rogério Ceni flourish into the the label of one of the most promising managers in Brazil. Yet, his abilities wasn’t just a promise, Ceni has developed into the main responsible for small budget side to play such a thrilling and enthusiastic football — despite their own technical limitations.

The story denouement will not come soon because he is only getting started. Nevertheless, he is one to watch closely and it will be briefly covered in this piece.

CHAPTER 1 — from a bumpy start to being the name on everybody’s lips

Two years after the announcement of his retirement, Ceni came back to his beloved São Paulo. This time, yet, as the first team head coach. This was the legendary goalkeeper first job — a top flight experience in Campeonato Brasileiro Série A.

However, this time the team couldn’t count with any of his 131 goals. And at that time, the discourse from São Paulo’s board was based around the word “rebuilding”.

After a controversial final against the Argentinian side Tigre, São Paulo was crowned as 2012 Copa Sudamericana champions. Since that trophy, the Tricolor Paulista didn’t grabbed any silverware at all. The club was beaten by the rival Corinthians in 2013 Recopa Sudamericana and in the 2019 regional state championship (Campeonato Paulista). Also, the club only got into the top four in domestic league twice: 4th in 2015 and 2nd in 2014.

São Paulo was a disaster in the institutional sense of it. For instance, in 2015, Edgardo Bauza was the head coach until his resignation to take charge of Argentina national squad. He was replaced with a caretaker, André Jardine. Jardine was assistant manager and was hold in high regard by the board. However, the results didn’t come shortly and soon enough Ricardo Gomes was brought as new head coach.

In the late November (three and a half weeks with matches to be played) and… another change. Pintado was appointed as caretaker this time until the end of the season. But the big news came some time after that: Rogério was the back to command the club in the 2017 season.

Supporters went crazy while pundits were betting if he was ready and if he was really the right man for the job. The suspense over what was to come was intensified due to another fact: the board decided to cut expenditure.

Therefore, Ceni decided to dedicate a good amount of time to watch the youth sides so as to bring hot prospects to the first team. The result was Felipe Araruna, Brenner, Éder Militão, Júnior Tavares, Lucas Perri, Luiz Araújo and Shaylon stepping up to the major leagues.

Yet, the gaffer saw some of the most thrilling promising youngsters and some important players leave the club in the first semester. David Neres to Ajax, Luiz Araújo and Thiago Mendes to Lille, Lyanco to Torino and Maicon to Galatasaray.

São Paulo was beaten in three competitions: Regional Championship, in a 3–1 aggregate against Corinthians, Copa do Brasil, in a 3–2 aggregate against Cruzeiro, and Copa Sudamericana, in a 1–1 against Defensa y Justicia (away goals).

In Brasileirão, Rogério Ceni was a little bit more than 1 month on Tricolor Paulista’s touchline. After 3 wins, 2 draws and 6 defeats, he was sacked and replaced by Dorival Júnior. The Brazilian crowd was able to see him only in the 2018 season, when he became Fortaleza EC’s manager.

The union between Fortaleza and Ceni made the team perform the best Northeast club campaign in the Brazilian second division (first champion from the its state, Ceará), and the top 10 in the competition history. The Leão de Pici managed to reach 71 points (21W, 8D, 9L), 54 goals scored and 33 conceded.

With Gustavo, a traditional nº 9, scoring 14 goals in the league, Fortaleza was sort of a workmanlike team. The engine was built around pivotal players who made the whole thing work out really well.

Tinga was a fuming right back that was frequently getting into the last third, Nenê Bonilha performed mainly as a ball carrier and Dodô as a playmaker. Marcinho lacked technical ability but was a speedster and one of the best dribblers in that Série B edition — which helped the ball to get to Gustavo, the goalscorer.

The Leão de Pici was so thrilling that 9 out of 10 biggest attendances were on Arena Castelão, the club home. Even though they only trashed Goiás (3–0, H) and Juventude (4–1, H), the northeastern side monopolized the championship and imposed fear in all adversaries.

After this major success, supporters and members of the board were worried about the squad-building, since some important players (like Tinga, Marcinho and Gustavo came by loan transfers probably would not stay one more season). Ceni and Fortaleza started to seek for signings and overcame the limitations.

Wellington Paulista, an experienced nº 9 arrived to assume form of the new goalscorer and leader. Osvaldo, another veteran player, added finishing and 1v1 to the left wing. Juninho left Bahia to be probably the most important midfielder in the squad — turning to be another leadership at the pitch.

So, the team succeded in 2019 also, they’ve embelished their football, tactically more mature to fight against the best teams in Brazil. And thus they did it. Fortaleza were crowned with two regional trophies and exceded expectations in the domestic league.

In April, after beating twice their archrivals Ceará by 2–0 in the first leg and 1–0 in the second, Fortaleza reached the Campeonato Cearense (a regional championship). Furthermore, the Leão de Pici won two times against Botafogo (from Paraíba) by 1–0, then the club recieved the Copa do Nordeste silverware (regional cup).

By the end of the season, Fortaleza was top 10 in the first division, sat at 9th place and qualified for the 2020 Copa Sudamericana.

However, Ceni left the club in the middle of the Brasileirão Série A to take charge of Cruzeiro — a giant club who was struggling to fight against relegation. It was the biggest challenge Ceni could have in short-term.

Notwithstanding, things didn’t work out. There were some confrontations between the manager and the dressing room leaders publicly, the results didn’t improve and the end was the decision to part ways with Ceni — in other words: Cruzeiro ship had already sailed towards second division. He soon was back do Fortaleza and finished the season with good performances.

Important thing to say: Fortaleza struggled big time without Rogério Ceni. Zé Ricardo replaced him without brilliance and was sacked after 7 matches.

And then it was 2020. New players arrived, specially two wingers, David (from Cruzeiro, permanent move) and Yuri Cesar (loan from Flamengo). They were champions of Campeonato Cearense, but were knocked out from Copa do Nordeste.

Despite the fact that Independiente — one of the biggest Argentinian clubs — threw Leão de Pici out of the 2020 Copa Sudamericana, the Brazilian club managed to win one of the legs. After losing the first by 1–0, from the touchline, Ceni watched his team 2–1 win in the second leg.

Even though they were beaten, the supporters went crazy and the discourse inside the club was: “we are on the right path”. Needless to say, in two years, Fortaleza went from third division runner-up side to play a continental competition.

Fortaleza had been performing really good. The team was playing a superb football despite the individual limitations. Romarinho form ignited the team attacking output with his dribbles and sprints, Yuri Cesar, Osvaldo and David provided speed to counter-attack and Wellington Paulista was better than ever, clinical finisher.

The team’s tactical aspects were symptomatic — that will be covered latter in the piece.

In the mid-season period, the Northeast Tricolor was fighting for their mid-table place until one event changed the whole championship: Flamengo announced the sacking of Domènec Torrent. How this was related to Fortaleza’s campaign? Well, it is easy to imagine who was Flamengo’s main target.

The name on everybody’s lips? Rogério Ceni. Big name and overcoming the expectations since day 1 at Fortaleza, he was seen by everyone as the future Brazilian best manager and there was half season to be played. Be it surprising or not, it took less than two days to official announcement, Rogério Ceni was now manager of Clube de Regatas Flamengo.

Ceni’s spell started very bumpy — the team was knocked out in Copa Libertadores by Racing (1–1 home and 1–1 away, losing by 5–3 in penalties) and in Copa do Brasil by São Paulo (1–2 home and 3–0 away). And, of course, the press changed its discourse from “he is the most suited man for the job” to “is he really ready for the challenge?”.

The thing is that Flamengo had showed from the first months of the season until its last ten games defensive problems. Flamengo sold Pablo Marí to Arsenal and all the following partnerships didn’t work out as they expected. Gustavo Henrique and Léo Pereira came but their form was far from those expectations and Rodrigo Caio absences due to injuries prejudiced him and the team.

After many games trying to solve this problem, Ceni made a bold move. Inspired by Guardiola, he deployed William Arão into the defensive back four as a centre-back. Arão had already played as centre-midfielder, defensive midfielder, and right back. Now it was time to make Flamengo’s back line solid again.

Guardiola shifted Mascherano and Yaya Touré into the centre of the defense (in his spell at Barcelona), at Bayern, Javi Martínez and Kimmich were deployed from midfield to centre-back. And during his time in Manchester City, Kolarov and Fernandinho played in the back four as central defenders.

Flamengo did a very good run and beat Internacional in 37 round of the league, paving their way into the title — distancing themselves by 2 points. In the last round, the team travelled went to Morumbi to duel against São Paulo to secure the title. And it was done — Flamengo lost the match but Internacional draw at home. This was his first major silverware.

CHAPTER 2 — From Fortaleza to Flamengo, influences & tactical preferences

Fortaleza

To be fair, it’s hard to determine what Rogério Ceni specifically favors as a manager in terms of squad-building, just like his whole understanding of “the best football”. That’s because he has only been a manager for a little big longer than 4 years.

Yet, his three seasons at Fortaleza show us that he can definitely emulate characteristics of his two major European influences. And they are well-known managers. In 2019, Ceni was interviewed by Globo Esporte, and he cited two Champions League winners as references: Carlo Ancelotti and José Mourinho. However, they are not the only references.

Ceni was trained by Muricy Ramalho and (Ramalho’s mentor) Telê Santana — two of the same type. They both overcome all others due to the time they’d spent in São Paulo.

Their names is written in Brazilian and São Paulo FC football history not only because of their many titles, but their dominance. They are the biggest manager names in the club’s history in terms of time spent and titles conquered.

And all four of them can be described as pragmatic gaffers (that’s totally not a bad thing at all). They’re different from each other, but they had and have presented different faces of pragmatism.

Michael Cox said in his column at The Athletic UK that, the system is based on the players (and their availability). Telê Santana too, but in a different way —for example, in 1982 FIFA World Cup, he changed the formation after Falcão classy debut (Toninho Cerezo was suspended and missed a match). As told by Jonathan Wilson in the book Inverting the Pyramid, because of that, the starting line up was adjusted in order to have Falcão and Toninho Cerezo.

Muricy Ramalho shared many beliefs to his mentor — Telê Santana. And it could be seen in four of his major spells at Internacional, São Paulo, Palmeiras, and Fluminense.

Whereas Mourinho is known because of his philosophy of adapting the system to (basically) every adversary , therefore his team can play in the most suited way against the opposition— and so on.

That can be seen in Fortaleza. Despite using the same starting formation in most of the matches, Ceni set his team based in the opposition blanks. For example, the wingers could be seen tucked inside to run diagonally wide, such as deployed wide to cut into the middle to make through passes or shooting from outside the box.

In other words, the attacking transition moves — just like the ball possession phase — is based on the adversary weakness and gaps. While the defensive phase and transition is more consistent in terms of style. Ceni favors holding midfielders and less mobile defenders so as to secure a defensive structure and provide dangerous counter-attacks.

Since he did not have large budget and classy midfield options, Ceni opted to choose midfielders to shut the adversary’s passing lanes. Furthermore, the aim was to deny passes through the middle and to reduce space in the last third.

However, the holding midfielders played an important part to transitions — specially Juninho. Players with some technical repertoire were vital athletes to make the engine running. This specific player was the main responsible to progressive passes and linking the lines.

It can be said that Ceni favors rapid transitions (direct football) and passes from the middle to the flanks in order to be an aggro side when the time comes around. By building from the back to linking with speedy/dribbling players (the wingers) and the finisher (Wellington Paulista), that made Fortaleza one of the most thrilling teams in Brazil.

Actually, building from the back is a main thing to the manager. That became clear when he signed Felipe Alves. Felipe Alves played under Fernando Diniz guidance (who understands sweeper keeper as pivotal role). The goalkeeper arrived in 2019 and has been the man on the stick since then — always participating in the build-up phase.

Flamengo

When Rogério Ceni travel to take charge of Flamengo, the Southeast press was expecting a manager philosophically closer to Guardiola — a possession-based gaffer. Yet, that is not Ceni at all, as it was described all over this chapter.

Ceni arrived in Rubro-Negro and chose to play in a 4–2–2–2. “We play with two nº 10 players — and, currently, we are the only side that plays with this disposition in Brazil”, he said in different moments. That was symptomatic.

The gaffer wanted to provide room for creativity — as a way to rescue what Brazilian football was known for: goalscoring, dribbling, and inventiveness.

This is an odd subject of discussion. That’s because the press and the nostalgic people always compared the 70s and 1982 national squads with nowadays sides— yet, not in a tactical perspective. They only praise the entertaining aspects of those teams. Ceni (smartly enough) decided to underline those nº 10 players in his press conference. Specially because he intended to play direct and attacking-minded football.

However, instead of a Cruyff mentality (individuality above collective), Ceni thinks that individuality glows as a part of collective game — closer to what Louis van Gaal-esque.

It meant that Pedro (arguably the best nº 9 in Brazil) and Gabriel Barbosa couldn’t play together. It would compromise our defending structure and marking power. “If we play both together, we loose defensive strength, it can strike the team balance at the pitch”, he said in different press conferences.

Such as those words, the initial oscillation on results and the decision not to play Gabriel and Pedro in the starting line up made the press go crazy against Ceni. From the promising one to is he ready for the challenge?

Flamengo has had the biggest budget in Brazilian football for ages. After organizing the dues, the club invested big time in high profile players. Gabriel Barbosa, Pedro, Rodrigo Caio, Diego Alves, Isla, Rafinha, Filipe Luís, Gerson, Diego, and the list goes on.

Notwithstanding, the criticism over the team was increasing due the underachieving seasons. It took a while, but Jorge Jesus came up… and his spell just revolutionized today’s Brazilian football.

Emphasis on transitions (kind of Portuguese school trademark), direct and attacking-minded football. Flamengo was so dominant that made other teams chase “a philosophy” and to plan better their investments so as to reduce the gap between teams. Rubro-Negro had became the side to be beaten.

With his 4–2–2–2 changing in-game to a 4–2–3–1, 4–2–4, 2–4–4, and 3–2–5, Flamengo was rapid and aggressive. They had become all about offensive transition.

Rubro-Negro was playing superbly with two ball-playing centre-backs (Rodrigo Caio and William Arão), versatile and adaptive Filipe Luís filling the blanks, Isla as a wing-back pushing high.

In the midfield area, Gerson played as deep-lying playmaker providing dynamism, and oiling up the engine. Gerson may be described as the most important player in the system. He was bold, physical and dynamic. Solid in the back and vital to attacking transition.

Without Arão in the middle, Diego became more of an 8, and improved the team passing repertoire — and shots from outside the box. His nº 10 skills were more useful in the centre-midfield position in Ceni’s system.

While Éverton Ribeiro and Bruno Henrique pushed wide and forward so as to become true wingers. They would also step into the box to finish or to pass it to Gabriel or De Arrascaeta. The Uruguayan midfielder mostly had started as a left attacking midfielder, but tucked inside to be the team’s second striker.

For example, in the 2–1 victory over Inter, he invaded the opposition box to be a surprising finishing weapon. By coming from the back, he would run with some freedom in the box to smash the ball into the net — like the first goal.

Whereas Gabriel Barbosa started his career as a winger, he has been deployed as an agile centre-forward. In this Flamengo, he tends to move in the last third between the lines to beat defenders when receiving through passes. And suddenly, Flamengo was back to their consistent winning days.

When Isla push high, Éverton Ribeiro can cut inside (like a second striker) such as he can position himself as a 10, or stay wide in order to make plays with other midfielders and Isla. On the left flank, Bruno Henrique would try to pin at least one defender away from the others so as to stretch the defensive line and to push it.

This way, Flamengo can surround the adversary’s box and outnumber them in the second third — weakening their transition. And, of course, they would harm every gap left out by the defenders by through balls, dribbling or even aerial balls.

CHAPTER 3 — The final whistle

Ceni career is not long enough to determine which style he’ll be known for. Nevertheless, he definitely can be described for direct and attacking minded football approach. His sides can be described as intelligent, tactically self-aware, and harmful.

Even though Ceni didn’t had really active transfer windows — unless in a minor budget club — , he needs to be praised for his achievements. The former goalkeeper brought the best affordable players (or went to a club a no-transfer part of the season) and have excelled in terms of results and performances.

Truth be told, when he was announced as São Paulo new head coach, the club also declared that Ceni wasn’t alone. Michael Beale and Charles Hembert came alongside him as assistant managers. At that time, it’s what the press was looking for: a reason to label him as the modern one. The pedigree that they wanted to impute on him.

The narrative suited the expectations and graced newspaper sports section covers, TV shows etc., all pre-season long. After spending a year preparing himself, the great idol of the club was now characterized as the promising modern head coach that panned from Liverpool youth academy coach and football related company two European lads.

Of course, it didn’t last long because of the lack of the results. However, Ceni turned the table and got back to the top. It’s impossible to deny that his sides play football based in three pillars: the German verticality, the adapitve-pragmatist vein (seen on both Ancelotti and Mourinho, his references), and, the most marquee one, the floodlights pointed to the nº10s — the Brazilian trademark.

Currently, his biggest problem is the lack of motivation towards his own public image. Ceni does not try hard to be a likable person in the media image sense of it. He has always been grumpy and without patience, which can backfire. Also, the gaffer hasn’t controverted narratives that don’t suit him, instead he just sighs and answer questions like he was doing a favor to someone he dislikes. Thus, eventually, Ceni will need to deal against an already built narrative from the press from the start — and that may not be good with the supporters.

Moreover, Rogerio Ceni has been maturing himself as a manager over the last years, finding his own style and aquiring tactical acumen so as to be a part of greatest managers shelf in football history.

Finally, he definitely has brought with him a modern understanding of the game — and it means that the manager is more than just a dad or something like that. And his strenghth has been proved all over his managerial path until now.