Marked for Pablo Roberto
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings17 May 2027
Luiz Mandaca did the work nobody counts — 6.82
14 combined actions and 6.82. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Player ratings17 May 2027
A performance of 8.08 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad17 May 2027
Words exchanged at Juventude
Gabriel Pinheiro and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout17 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marcos Paulo, and the manager let it.
Match15 May 2027
It needed Marcos Paulo to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against América Mineiro, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout17 May 2027
Half-satisfied: João Silva on the draw
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Market17 May 2027
The Marcos Paulo story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marcos Paulo signs something — a contract at Juventude or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Looking ahead17 May 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ceará in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
The dugout17 May 2027
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Apr 2027
Luiz Mandaca hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Juventude can pretend not to have heard.
Match24 Apr 2027
No end in sight to Juventude's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Juventude has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Kaynan has agreed terms with Aparecidense for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Market26 Apr 2027
Carlos Junior has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Juventude they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Gabriel Taliari was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager makes an example of Jandrei
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match24 Apr 2027
0‑2 to Ferroviária, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
The game went through Pablo Roberto — 6.65
Marked 6.65 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Market26 Apr 2027
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.89 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Juventude
Gabriel Taliari and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match7 Nov 2026
It finished 2‑1, and it was Gabriel Taliari’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Juventude.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Juventude told Gabriel Taliari something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” João Silva on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Fábio Lima gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
Alan Ruschel has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Juventude will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Market9 Nov 2026
The Marcos Paulo story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marcos Paulo signs something — a contract at Juventude or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 11. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market26 Oct 2026
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Juventude, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom26 Oct 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Sasso has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Match24 Oct 2026
1‑2 to Corinthians, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Juventude told Alisson Safira something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad26 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Juventude this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Juventude are still strangers to each other
18 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” João Silva after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Pablo Roberto
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom28 Sep 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Juventude this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Too much change too quickly at Juventude
18 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
João Silva: “We have to be better”
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Pablo Roberto is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
4.84. Every footballer has these and most of them happen away from a full ground; his did not, and he will be aware of that all week.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Fábio Lima gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Fábio Lima is on it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Aug 2026
The phone has started ringing about Gabriel Taliari again, and this time the name on the line is Oliveirense. Juventude are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Gabriel Taliari commits to Juventude for another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Gabriel Taliari was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match1 Aug 2026
Internacional left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
17 new faces, and Juventude are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 João Silva left the room before anybody could ask which.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Juventude training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clébio is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Looking ahead3 Aug 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Marcos Paulo’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Juventude needing him to play as if none of it matters.