It may be hyperbolic to suggest that Maxi Salas kept Marcelo Gallardo in a job last week. The River Plate coach certainly enjoys more protection than most of his peers in the Liga Profesional de Fútbol, and deservedly so given his past triumphs as both a player and in his two spells on the bench. But Salas did manage to keep the jeers from rising too loudly in what has been a dismal last few weeks for Gallardo and his employers.
There is a fair dose of irony in the fact that the one thing River have had to celebrate over the last month was greeted in muted fashion by their hero. Salas got the Millonario off to a winning start in Thursday's Copa Argentina quarter-final against Racing Club and refused to celebrate the strike in deference to his former club, from whom he had a rather acrimonious split just three months ago. That single goal was enough to deliver victory for River in a game which started brightly and degenerated as the minutes went on.
It was a rare oasis in what has become a desert of football at the Monumental. Just before the Racing game, River were humbled 2-1 at home to Deportivo Riestra to mark their fourth straight loss – the worst run Gallardo has faced in either of his two spells on the bench going back to 2014. Among those defeats were two losses to Palmeiras, sealing a 5-2 aggregate reverse and elimination from the Copa Libertadores. And the euphoria garnered in Rosario against Racing proved short-lived: three days later River returned to the Gigante del Arroyito to face Central and went down 2-1 to suffer their third consecutive league defeat. Gallardo's job is probably safe for as long as he wants it; but it is fair to say the decorated coach and club idol is finding himself under unprecedented scrutiny.
As we are usually obliged to point out in these sorts of cases, it is admittedly a curious crisis. The club is still within the top three in the Liga Profesional's annual table, a ticket to Copa Libertadores football next year. It is also comfortably inside the play-off positions for the current tournament and, given the vagaries of how Liga defines its champions, there is no reason to think that the Millonario could not go all the way in what is a shallow pool of competition in 2025. Even getting to the Copa quarters and losing out to the most formidable, consistent team in South America over the last five seasons barely constitutes a catastrophe. But given the sky-high expectations at River, everyone involved can be forgiven for wanting more.
The Millonario lived up to their nickname this year in spending an incredible amount of money on what was supposed to be a two-pronged attack on domestic and international competition alike. Figures of up to US$100 million have been mooted for a series of expensive imports like the aforementioned Salas, Colombia international Kevin Castaño and River's perennial prodigal son Juan Fernando Quintero, not to mention the four World Cup winners Gallardo has accrued in his vast squad – Marcos Acúña, Germán Pezzella and Gonzalo Montiel have joined Franco Armani in Núñez.
River have a breadth and depth of talent unmatched by any team in the Argentine top flight, but save for some sporadic moments they have rarely shown off that superiority on the field. The Copa Argentina remains a welcome distraction for fans, with a semi-final up next against Independiente Rivadavia, while the Liga play-offs are also a valid goal. It is not quite enough, though: The Millonario want more from this expensively assembled group and the man charged with leading them, and a failure to get the team going would start to make Gallardo's position on the River bench uncomfortable for the first time.
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