Brazil have a Neymar obsession
DHere in Russia, the world’s most expensive footballer is playing despite the fact he is clearly not fully fit. That looked like a mistake as Neymar laboured through Brazil’s opening draw with Switzerland at the weekend.
In the team or not, the 26-yearold will always command attention and so it was here yesterday, as Brazil’s coach Tite was forced to deny suggestions that he has told Neymar to be less selfish and play for the team.
‘That did not happen,’ he said. ‘The information you have is not true. The responsibility is there to play collectively but also as individuals. I am not going to take away Neymar’s genius, am I? I won’t remove his intuition. We have to keep an eye on our opponents but our intuition stays.’
The Brazil coach spoke with the air of a man who has heard much of this before. Certainly, his country’s almost myopic focus on one player is strange.
This, after all, is a squad that also includes such magnificent attacking talent as Philippe Coutinho, Roberto Firmino and Gabriel Jesus. Brazil could win this tournament without Neymar in the team but — no matter his state of fitness — Tite either doesn’t wish to or maybe fears what would happen at home if he tried.
Absent for over three months before the tournament with an ankle injury, the Paris SaintGermain forward is clearly still feeling his way back.
‘It is an evolutionary process,’ claimed Tite. ‘We have speeded up the process. But it is technically sound. There is no problem, no handicap. We want to win. It’s the World Cup. But a coach will not risk a player’s health.’
In Brazil, memories of that 7-1 defeat by Germany on home soil at the last World Cup remain. With this in mind, eyebrows have been raised at Tite’s decision to rotate the captaincy once more and hand it for today’s game against Costa Rica to one of the survivors of that tournament, veteran defender Thiago Silva.
‘If we took away everybody who was criticised after the last World Cup we would not have a team,’ said Tite. ‘ Nobody would be playing.’
This Brazil side has a much better look about it than in 2014. It certainly looks less skittish. Against Switzerland they were disappointing and now face an important game against a team who also need a win, having lost to Serbia in their opening fixture.
Tite said last night that he will field the same side today. This means that Neymar, Jesus and Chelsea’s Willian will fill the front three forward positions, with Firmino a substitute.
‘We have to play well and we have to win,’ said Tite. ‘This is the decisive game. Today we have tranquillity but we are human beings. There are expectations and we know what they are.
‘The love of our fans brings us a very emotional component but we must also have a high level of concentration or we will be out of the tournament.’