Reds’ New Defence Shows Promise in Pre-Season Victory

The Reds’ rebuilt defence took its first real steps together on Sunday – and it looked sharp.

New arrivals Jeremy Jacquet and Ronaldo Araujo, the latter in on loan, both pulled on the shirt for the first time in a pre-season win over Como and wasted little time showing why the club moved for them.

Jacquet started on the right side of the backline and immediately set the tone. He snapped into challenges, read danger early and finished his 45 minutes with more tackles than any other player on the pitch (three) and joint-most duels won (seven). For a defender coming off a long spell without competitive football, it was a demanding shift.

By half-time he was out of breath and off the pitch, but not because he struggled. His work was done; Araujo took over.

The Uruguayan stepped in after the break and picked up the intensity. On his home debut he won five of his seven duels and registered the second-most tackles in the game (two), backing up the early impression that he relishes the physical side of defending.

“It’s a start, a good start so hopefully he can crack on,” came the assessment from within the camp. The message was clear: the foundations are there, now comes the hard part – turning solid individual displays into a reliable partnership.

That, everyone accepts, will only come with minutes.

“You build relationships by playing games. I won’t say it’s the only way, but games are totally different than training,” the voice from the dressing room continued. Training drills can shape positioning and structure; matches expose communication, instinct and trust.

Language is part of that story too. “Jeremy’s English is, I would say, a bit better than Ronald’s but at the end of the day we are all pretty good footballers. We can see and smell some moments on how to defend certain situations.”

On the pitch, the ball moves quicker than words anyway. What matters is that defenders recognise triggers, step up together, drop together and sense danger at the same time. That doesn’t happen overnight.

“It’s pretty clear that you need to form a connection together and that takes a bit of time. In my opinion that’s absolutely normal but hopefully we can get that going as quickly as possible.”

For Jacquet, the next step is simple: recover and go again. “Like I said, I think [Jacquet] did well. I think he came out of it a bit tired, but it’s absolutely normal when you’re playing your first 45 minutes after such a long time. Now it’s down to him to recover.”

One game, two debuts, plenty of encouraging numbers. The question now is how quickly this new-look backline can turn promising pre-season cameos into a hardened unit when the real stuff starts.