2016 was a troubled year for Fluminense. With the hiring of Levir Culpi, the Rio de Janeiro club had high expectations for the season, as they hoped to improve on their 13th-placed finish from 2015. Finishing in exactly the same position in 2016 was not, therefore, what the club’s directors had in mind. Although they lost some stars, most notably the Roma-bound Gerson and the Atletico Mineiro-bound Fred, Fluminense did reinvest some of their cash in signing forwards Wellington Silva and Henrique Dourado from Arsenal and Mirassol respectively. Yet that didn’t help them to climb up the table, nor did the fact that they spent the majority of the season without a home. Due to the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, Flu were exiled from the Maracana until the final month of the season. Given that they only lost five of these home-away-from-home games, that didn’t prove to be quite as costly as some had feared, but the fact they went undefeated in their three matches played at the Maracana at the end of the year demonstrated that it was somewhat of a disadvantage to have been on the road all year. The most striking part of Fluminense’s season, though, was just how dramatically they collapsed towards the end of it. They had been playing fairly well and were even in the top six with just ten weeks to go. Yet they failed to muster up a single victory in those final ten matches, with Culpi sacked and with the team dropping like a stone all the way down to 13th spot.
In terms of their star performers, the main man for Fluminense this year was the uber-talented 22-year-old Gustavo Scarpa. He had a coming-of-age season as he scored eight goals and provided ten assists, which meant that he played a part in 40% of Fluminense’s goals. Given that the summer signings Wellington Silva and Dourado only managed two league goals each, Scarpa’s emergence was especially welcome, as Flu could have really struggled without this surprise star. He was aided in attacking midfield by the veteran Cicero Santos, who quietly put together a fine campaign of his own with his nine goals. In defence, Fluminense were helped by having a reliable and consistent back four, one that suffered few injuries, with Wellington Nascimiento Silva, Gum, Henrique Buss and William Matheus all featuring regularly. They were rarely brilliant in defence, but they were never terrible and the fact they only twice conceded three goals or more meant that Fluminense stood a chance in every game - if only they could find a way to score at the other end.
Finding a centre-forward must, therefore, be Fluminense’s main focus in the transfer market, as the defection of Fred hit them hard last year. Abel Braga will manage Fluminense for a third time as he has been the man chosen to replace Culpi and he’ll be knocking on new director of football Alexandre Torres’ door for whatever money the cash-strapped club can muster together. More likely, though, is that Flu will lose talent this off-season, with Marlon, for example, set to complete a permanent move to Barcelona after spending time on loan in Catalonia.
