Unfortunateley, he is not in good physical shape
"Unfortunately, he is not in good physical shape," said the member of the Blanquiazul Fund regarding Christian Cueva.
Hernán Barcos, one of the leaders of the Alianza Lima team, commented on the statements of Salomón Lerner, a member of the Blanquiazul Fund that caused controversy when referring to the physical condition of Christian Cueva, the star signing of the victorious team.
"We have to defend our teammates. At Alianza, we all try to do our best for the club, if someone wants to come and harm or destabilize the group, they won't succeed, we have a strong, united group, and that's why I defend Cuevita," he said.
"No one knows the situation he is in, how he has been working, in what situation he played the game, and criticizing a player like Cueva in a game doesn't seem fair to me," added the 'Pirate' for Fútbol en América.
For Hernán Barcos, Lerner's statements were "ill-advised": "If you have a problem or think that about a player, come and talk about it internally. Any director or any person can come and talk internally, so publicly we are exposing or trying to harm the club."
What did Salomón Lerner say?
In an interview with El Comercio, Salomón Lerner, one of the members of the Blanquiazul Fund, referred to Christian Cueva's performance since his return to Alianza Lima.
"The person we had high hopes for to perform better is Christian Cueva. Unfortunately, he is not in good physical shape and has not had the performance we expected for the Copa Libertadores," he said.
"He has not performed. Maybe he needs more training, more physicality, more cohesion with his new teammates, but what he did was not what we expected. That's why the coach decided to take him off the field and replace him," added Lerner.
Finally, he ruled out seeking out Christian Cueva for a conversation. He affirmed that issues related to the sports aspect are handled by the respective management and that members of the Blanquiazul Fund only provide opinions.
"We should not intervene in those conversations. The coach, his technical staff, and the sports director are in charge. We are like any other fan who goes to the stands to watch the game and can give our point of view, but that does not mean that the coach or sports director have to agree with us. They already know the objectives with Cueva and will try to correct what he couldn't do with Paranaense and give him more opportunities in other games to play with his teammates or improve his physical condition," he said.