TITE AND URUGUAY COACH THINK DIFFERENTLY WHEN IT IS ARRASCAETA AND DE LA CRUZ TOGETHER

Coaches Tite and Marcelo Marcelo Bielsa disagree about the roles of De La Cruz and Arrascaeta. This is because De La Cruz and Arrascaeta play together at Flamengo, while in the Uruguayan national team they compete for the same position.

Tite sees De La Cruz capable of playing a more defensive role alongside Pulgar, giving Arrascaeta freedom. At Fla, De La Cruz plays as "8", while Arrascaeta is "10". Bielsa plays with two legitimate wingers and prefers two midfielders plus scorers. In this scheme, there is only space left for one point guard. And De La Cruz has been the starter, with Arrascaeta on the bench. They never play together for Celeste.

De La Cruz has already alternated between midfielder and midfielder since River Plate and handles these different roles naturally between Uruguay and Flamengo. The lineup with greater freedom in Uruguay is reflected in the numbers. He provided three assists in 25 games for Flamengo this season, while in the Copa América he already has two in three matches.

Arrascaeta, with less scoring ability and without this versatility, is waiting for his chances. He started the Copa América as a starter, but became De La Cruz's reserve and didn't even start against the United States.

With De La Cruz among the starters and Arrasca on the bench, Uruguay will face the Brazilian team this Saturday , at 10pm, in Las Vegas, for the quarterfinals of the Copa América.