Gremio and Renato Portaluppi (known as Renato Gaúcho) are inseparable.
Other than one forgettable year playing for Serie A’s Roma, Renato spent most of his career playing in Brazil’s top clubs.
Although his career began at Grêmio, his playing days are most closely associated with clubs from Rio de Janeiro, including spells at Botafogo, Flamengo, and Fluminense.
In his first few years as a manager, his love affair with Rio continued, with Vasco da Gama and Fluminense alternating as his teams.
His managerial trajectory continued with insignificant stints throughout the country until 2016, when he took over Grêmio for the third time as a manager.
This was the beginning of a historic four-and-a-half-year era, which included a Copa do Brasil and a remarkable Copa Libertadores title.
The two parted ways at the beginning of 2021, and that same year, Grêmio were relegated to the second division.
Struggling for promotion in 2022, Grêmio called a familiar face, and Renato took over the Porto Alegre club for the fourth time.
The 60-year-old led them back to the Série A.
After an incredible transfer window, which included the signing of former Barcelona and Liverpool marksman Luis Suárez, Grêmio have yet to lose in 2023.
In this tactical analysis, we will examine Grêmio’s tactics under Renato Gaúcho and identify how he’s turned them into one of the most exciting teams in South America.
This analysis will not only provide a detailed breakdown of their tactics in possession but also examine how their aggressive defensive system is helping them dominate games.
Renato Gaúcho Structure
Although there are occasional changes to the structure, since 2016, Portaluppi has predominantly used his favourite 4-2-3-1.
One of the most common formations of the last decade, the 4-2-3-1 provides great balance vertically and laterally, and it is perfect for the way the Tricolor play.
As we will examine in the next section, Renato’s tactics are very reminiscent of free-flowing Brazilian football, jogo funcional (functional play) in its essence.
It is not as extreme as Fernando Diniz’s Fluminense, and positional references are still quite significant, hence the 4-2-3-1 mention.
However, it is still very much a jogo de aproximação (game of approximation), where passing distances are much shorter and immediate relations between the players are very common.
The 4-2-3-1, which Diniz also uses, allows for an initial distribution of players that facilitates this multidirectional approximation game.
Naturally, with such an approach, the overall structure tends to be extremely narrow.
Going into individual sectors, we can identify some tendencies.
The double-pivot moves in unison, always close to one another.
The movement of the fullbacks has many variations.
The left-back Reinaldo can move into the midfield as well as provide width.
On the right, former Man United fullback Fábio tends to stay wide more often than not.
The central attacking midfielder is the centrepiece of the structure, always surrounded by various players.
Often the most creative player, he is able to combine and instinctively interact with teammates nearby.
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