Very disappointing ending for a season that promised so much in the first months. Flamengo invested a lot in well known names and they seemed the strongest squad for a while. Before the break on the season for the World Cup, Flamengo was simply flying in Domestic league, having had only one slip up in those first twelve rounds. Flashing an ambitious formation with only one defensive midfielder (only team in the country escaping the two holding midfielders dogma), young coach Barbieri managed to combine the attacking minded Diego and Paquetá in the same formation, with two wingers with very little defensive compromises as well in Éverton Ribeiro and Vinícius Júnior. For a while, Mengão was simply too good for the other teams to cope with.
However, it all changed after the World Cup. Vinícius Júnior left to join Real Madrid, and the rest of the team lost their spirit. Even with the most expensive signing of the Flamengo’s history, Vitinho, arriving to replace the young prodigy, Flamengo was unable to recover that initial form and things went from bad to worse in that fatal month of September: in six league games, Flamengo lost two and tied another, dropping a few spots on the table. At the same time, they got knocked-out from Brazilian Cup by Corinthians and all of a sudden Flamengo was left with almost nothing to fight for. However, Dorival Júnior picked the team in the end of September and had an immediate effect, bringing Flamengo to reach the second place and force Palmeiras to keep on their toes until the very end.
Flamengo had a disappointing early knock-out from Libertadores, still in August, where they couldn’t get past a strong Cruzeiro side. In Brazilian Cup, Flamengo was out on the semi-finals where they had a disappointing defeat to the out-of-form Corinthians. Paquetá was the absolute stand out, even if he had some down periods where the fans even booed him as he seemed to be out of focus at times. The talented midfielder still had a great season that worth him a move to Europe already. Diego, on the other hand, was a bit of a disappointment, as well as the likes of goalkeeper Diego Alves, Vitinho and all the strikers failed to have any positive impact.
