Coach Martín Anselmi, winner of two international titles at the head of Independiente del Valle, reacted strongly to the criticism directed at the club by the public for the decision to place up to seven foreign players in the starting line-up at the beginning of 2023. season..

One of the detractors is Carlos Tenorio, president of the Association of Footballers of Ecuador (AFE).

And the Independiente del Valle youth school? Against Flamengo, none of the main players were born in the club

Anselmi told television ESPN that he hopes that “this custom” of titles won by Independiente “is not conformity”. “We have five championships this year, we have already won two (Supercopa Ecuador and Recopa Sudamericana), and we are going, step by step for each one.”

Regarding the process of the match itself, he pointed out: “In the end, we always knew, both in the first and second games, that they play with four midfielders in the middle, and we took a risk in the first game to play with three midfielders and they have one less, and try to adapt to one of the lanes on the opposite side; It was quite far, but we wanted to play with two strikers”.

“In the second leg, with the advantage, we realized that the striker was good for the two central defenders (of Flamengo), scoring four flights against their four midfielders, and from there trying to tie the game,” he added.

Anselmi reflected that the key to Independiente’s success as soon as the year began was “the team, the group; Since June of last year, we are a family that we are building”.

As for the criticism about the number of foreigners he puts in the starting eleven, he replied that the comments “do not make sense”, and recommended the detractors to speak better “about what kind of projects Ecuador has”.

“Criticism makes no sense, because criticizing Independiente is ridiculous”started Anselmi, 37 years old.

“Independiente has a fifteen-year history, I don’t have enough time to list the number of players we have sold, that we have trained. 150 boys who are at the farm every day and have breakfast, train, study. We have a top school where we give resources to the children of Ecuador (…) The teams are fully represented by our players. I wish there was a project like this in my country. Instead of talking about foreigners, let’s talk about the projects that Ecuador has”he emphatically said yes ESPN.

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