Tite: I do not expect Neymar to carry Brazil
in Moscow
They need only avoid defeat by Serbia to go through to the second round, but as Brazil approach their final group game, the pre-tournament confidence that their coach Tite had solved many of the problems evident at their home World Cup in 2014 is starting to fray.
It was not just the look-at-me tears at the end of the Costa Rica win from Neymar or the injury to Dani Alves before the tournament that deprived them of one the key figures in their team.
On top of all that, Tite is now looking at juggling his resources to make up for shortcomings across the team where some of the big names are not performing, and the challenge of taking just a point off the Serbs has forced Brazil to assess some of their weaknesses.
One of them is at right-back where the Corinthians player Fagner has deputised after the injury to Danilo but his relatively small stature makes him a concern for the Brazilians who recognise they are up against a taller and more physical Serb starting XI. Another concern is Willian, who was thought to be in danger of losing his place to Renato Augusto but will stay in the side now, with the team likely to be the same who beat Costa Rica.
All these concerns pale in comparison, however, with the hope that Neymar is in the right frame of mind to do the business now and in the later rounds of the tournament. Tite defended his star player in his press conference at the Spartak Stadium here yesterday, though as ever there are suggestions that Neymar operates under different rules to his team-mates.
Brazil have been based in Sochi, once the Soviet Union’s summer capital on the Black Sea, which went into decline in the 1990s before the huge investment for the 2014 Winter Olympics. The players’ families have been staying in a hotel nearby, including Neymar’s father, Neymar Snr, and the player’s girlfriend, Bruna Marquezine.
Having come back from a fractured metatarsal in February, there are doubts as to whether the Paris St-germain striker can carry his national team again but Tite said he should not be expected to do so. “There’s an excessive responsibility [on Neymar] in terms of success and that is not the way to go, and the coach is not going to do that,” he said.
“Each one of us has our own responsibility. We should not place it all on his shoulders, the whole that reason and emotion have to be balanced and adjusted.
“We mustn’t think that a moment of emotion is a sign of emotional imbalance,” Tite added. “I understand that there has to be a balance between reason and emotion, and there is a moment when you need ice, calm and lucidity.”
Tite is unlikely to have Douglas Costa back from injury unless his team reach the final and perhaps not even then. Before that, Brazil face a potential second-round meeting in Samara with Germany, to whom they lost 7-1 in that infamous Maracana semi-final in 2014. That would certainly focus minds on past embarrassments.