Menezes’ Brazil start with impressive victory
Brazil's starting line-up
One suspects that getting the Brazilian public onside with good attacking football was Mano Menezes’ first priority as Brazil manager, with a result in his opening game second on the list. With a 2-0 win over the US, he managed to achieve both.
Dunga’s reign as manager will not be remembered fondly by the majority of the Brazilian public – even before the World Cup exit he was disliked for the perceived negativity in his side’s football, and for constantly selecting his ‘favourites’ ahead of established stars like Ronaldinho, and younger, emerging talents such as Neymar and Ganso.
He was criticized too strongly (and too personally at times) because for the vast majority of his tenure as coach, Dunga’s Brazil played a very successful and not particularly defensive brand of football. His fascinating formation was of interest in itself, and he created one of the most disciplined and tactically-aware international sides in history.
But even those few who were fond of Dunga’s Brazil will have to admit that Menezes-spec Brazil’s opening performance was a wonderful exhibition, that saw the side playing a more ‘classic’ Brazilian type of football. It may have been a friendly, and it may have been against a US side who seemed to be playing at half their usual pace, but it was still a hugely impressive win.
Four out of 23 remain
When announcing his squad, Menezes (more on him here) retained only four players from Dunga’s 23-man roster that competed in South Africa. Dani Alves, Thiago Silva, Ramires and Robinho were all named – of them, only Robinho was considered part of Dunga’s first XI for their opening game against North Korea.
Instead, he turned to a new generation of Brazilians. The Santos pair of Ganso (a central playmaker relatively similar in style to the injured Kaka) and Neymar (a skilful wide forward) were the most eye-catching inclusions, that guaranteed the immediate backing of Brazilian fans. Milan’s Pato also returned to the fold, playing ahead of Robinho, Ganso and Neymar.
Liverpool’s Lucas Leiva joined Ramires in the middle, whilst Benfica’s David Luiz and goalkeeper Victor of Gremio were handed debuts alongside more experienced names at the back.
An extra attacker
The most notable aspect of the display was simply that Brazil attacked in greater numbers than in South Africa. There, it was generally the Luis Fabiano-Kaka-Robinho triangle that made things happen – if that wasn’t working, they would generally play it back into midfield and start again. Here, they still tried to make triangles in the final third, but the addition of another forward gave them more options – with three attackers, there’s one potential triangle, add in another and you have four potential triangles.
There was also width on both sides, which stretched the game and was a major factor in Brazil’s attacking play. Both wingers looked to come inside and create space for overlapping full-backs, though this occurred more on the right, as Robinho drifted inside and Alves made typical forward charges.
However, it was Andre Santos’ forward run that created the first goal, with his excellent cross finding Neymar (who had temporarily switched with Robinho) and his header went back across the goalkeeper and into the bottom corner. Pato thought he had doubled the lead with an extremely similar goal coming from the opposite side – but the referee disallowed the goal as Pato had impeded Tim Howard.
Mano Menezes
Although those chances were created thanks to the fairly basic method of getting players wide and telling them to centre the ball, Brazil were at their most dangerous with quick one-touch passing in central positions. The understanding between the front four was wonderful at such an early stage – a romantic would put that down to Joga Bonito, although a more accurate explanation is the fact that the Neymar-Ganso-Robinho axis spent the first five months of 2010 playing together at Santos.
Attacking possession football
Ganso played deeper than Kaka did at the World Cup – perhaps logical considering he has one additional forward to work with, and dropped into midfield to look for the ball, it was difficult for him to become free in build-up play, thanks to the US’ use of a double pivot consisting of Michael Bradley and Maurice Edu.
This essentially created a 3 v 2 situation in midfield and Brazil found it very easy to keep possession of the ball. The player with most time was Lucas, who had a solid game simply receiving and distributing, and getting through his defensive work well (although there was little threat from the centre of the US midfield). Alongside him, Ramires played more of a box-to-box role, getting forward in possession to create something more like a 4-1-4-1 system. Indeed, with Ganso dropping deep, Ramires often found himself ahead of the 20-year-old – a situation that was most obvious when those two combined and Ramires slipped Pato through for the second.
In truth, it could have been many more. Brazil had plenty of chances in the opening period of second half, with Robinho hitting the post and Pato blasting into the side-netting from close range. The inevitable substitutions meant the game lost its momentum, but Brazil had done their job in the first half, and Menezes had done his simply with the team selection.
Conclusion
We should not get too carried away – the US were playing the game half-heartedly, and yet still created chances. The defence was not as solid as under Dunga (as we would expect from Menezes’ first match in charge), and Lucas and Ramires weren’t tested properly defensively.
But regardless, this was the Brazil that so many know and love – with two new superstars. Ganso and Neymar’s quality shone through and justified the hype. But unlike many international friendlies, this game was not about individuals seeking to impress, it was about Menezes setting out his stall. “What we saw tonight was based on players’ individual qualities and a good tactical organisation. This is how coaching works; organise this aspect and let the players bring their best onto the field”, he said after the game.
New faces, but the old Brazil.
Full highlights below.
Menezes’ Brazil start with impressive victory
I Didn’t like the style that brazil has played, unfortunately i live in this country, and the people just talk about ‘beautiful football’, ‘joga bonito’, football for me, is more than dribbles and passes, i really hate possession football, Teams like Mourinho’s Inter is more acceptable to see winning something.
For me Brazil is a Scale up Futsal team. ^_^
^_^ when play againts Brazil all you want to do is score more than them.
You can’t stop those superior personal technique while they attack
but they are just a regural player when they play defense.
Compare to those world cup winner teams Brazil defense is quiet average.
(sorry for my english)
Ganso, Neymar and Pato are the future of Brasil
I don’t know what the problem is with “Dunga’s Brazil”. Okay, it was not big magic. But have other teams showed us great dribblers at the WC? Have other teams played ‘joga bonito’? No.
We have seen some good football (not much), and Brazil was one of the teams showing the better football. I don’t say Brazil was perfect, but it was not Rehhagel football.
The Brazilian and foreign press and most Brazilians, I think, don’t really get it. I mean, I’m Brazilian, but there are other ways of winning. Dunga put up a great starting line-up and played very well during most of his tenure. Getting eliminated in the WC takes one bad bounce…and advancing sometimes is with one good bounce. It’s how it goes. Sucked that Dunga didnt have Ramires or Elano for the Netherlands game. That likely would have made the difference — would’ve given us more depth. Oh well. But many people want to implode this team and start new, which isn’t always right. I think there’s a difference between the end of WC06 and this WC. Brazilian needed a change in mentality after 06. I don’t think we need a change in mentality for the future. We need some newer players. And well, you have to have an eye for the future. It’s a risk bringing young players to the cup as it is also a risk to bring an older team. The gamble can pay off, as it did with Germany with a young team…or an older team like Italy’s in 06.
As for the game…I was at it. Gorgeous stadium, although very chaotic since it was the first major event. I was pretty pleased with the way we played. Some poor finishing on our part. A lot of great chances. While the US team may have been tired, they still had most of their WC team. Brazil was using a team that had only 2 practices to get to know each other. So, both teams weren’t quite ready. And I think the tactics were good for a friendly. But the Brazil’s lack of defense at the wings as well as no true defensive midfielder give me some pause. Alves was awful. I dont really think it’s that he’s tired. It was just a bad game. His passing was off. Same with marking and positioning. He made some good runs but that was it. I really wanted to see Rafael come on to see if we could fix the right side.
As ZM rightly says, Ganso played further back, which I think kind of wastes his talent. He has to play further back because Ramires and Lucas arent true d-mids. So Ganso has to cover more and he’s decent at that. But I think he’s just as effective a bit further up, which is where he plays at Santos in a similar formation.
I do think that at least in the immediate future, Menezes will bring back some Dunga players — obviously Maicon. Potentially Nilmar. Juan and Lucio might be given a send-off in a friendly — if we had to qualify for the cup, I’d like to see them feature more, but the fact that every game counts for us for 2014, they may not get many chances. Bastos I think will get better. Melo, despite his disciplinary issues, is too good of a passer and defender to not be re-integrated. He’ll return from exile soon enough I think — maybe for the upcoming France friendly. Fabiano I think is still a top forward and he definitely deserves a role at least through the Copa America. I prefer him to Pato right now but I would love to see him play for a few more years and bow out in style.
Victor,
I too feel that Ganso needs to play as a pure No.10/enganche/meia-de-ligação/trequartista, whatever you prefer to call it. I think he is unlike Kaká in that he has greater patience and vision, whereas Kaká is very vertical, objective and explosive ( a forward playing in the skin of a playmaker)*.
By playing Ganso in a 4-3-3 with Robinho and Neymar stationed so high, Mano effectively ended up with a very ambitious 4-2-1-3, which, like you say, puts a lot of strain on the central-midfield pairing of Lucas and Ramires – both of whom are more ‘box-to-box’ than positionally-disciplined holders.
I reckon that Mano is testing his standard 4-2-3-1 and a 4-3-3 with last night’s system being a hybrid of the two, or something he might try whenever Brazil are chasing a goal or else cruising against inferior opponents.
For instance, when Ederson came on you could see that he played closer to the midfield. All that was needed was for Robinho to drop deeper alongside Ganso and the system became more of a 4-2-3-1.
As for the configuration of the volantes; like I said, if Ganso is to continue playing with freedom in the 3/4 role then it’s better that at least one of the two volantes is more defensive and positionally sound = Sandro perhaps?
The other one could still be a box-to-box (Lucas or Ramires) although I would prefer the passing game of Hernanes.
On the other hand, in the 4-3-3 (in the absence of Ganso) you could compensate for this lack of fantasy by stationing two contrasting players slightly ahead of Sandro(e.g. playmaker Hernanes + dynamic Ramires/Lucas, or even Ederson for emphasis on creativity).
* On Sport TV, Andre Rizek was saying that once Kaka re-emerges from his injury he will have to adapt his game, become a truer playmaker than the dynamic force he was.
What do you reckon?
Kaká has already started becoming more of a playmaker since joining Real Madrid. For me personally, I think Kaká would be amazing in that role. I watched every single Real Madrid game last season. The bashing of Kaká was unreasonable. Every single game he hit at least 3 passes that should’ve resulted in goals. His vision, his timing, his technique, they are all top, top-class. You can also see that his groin injuries has seriously hindered his dribbling since he’s scared of making the injury worse. Now he’ll have time to rest both his knee and his groins so hopefully he can come back to old form.
You could already see some evidence of this in the World Cup. His assists (I think there were 3 assists for goals) were just amazing. And no offense to Madrid fans, but their critiques of some players is pretty ridiculous. Kaka played well when he actually played. Sucks that he was injured for half of last season, but he was still good. He’ll have to adapt, no doubt. The speed isnt quite there anymore.
“Dunga put up a great starting line-up”
Great? With Gilberto Silva, Felipe Melo, Michel Bastos (who’s not been a full back at his club in a long time)?
Felipe Melo is a brilliant, brilliant player.
Watch his assist to Robinho in the Dutch game and tell me he isn’t. People blame him for their loss which is terribly unfair.
Brilliant? Really?
“Watch his assist to Robinho in the Dutch game and tell me he isn’t”
Only one thing to tell you: Every dog has it’s day.
Great point about Neymar-Ganso-Robinho. In hindsight, the US would have to be on top of their game to stop them, even if the necessary hard running and tackling wasn’t precluded by the hot humid weather and the friendly nature of the contest.
As a USA fan, I’m curious about evaluations of the performance of the center back Omar Gonzalez, a 21 year old getting his first senior cap.
A more in form or more talented side would not have ceded possession in the midfield so easily. Without the huge majority in possession, Brazil’s lack of a true holding midfielder and lack of a powerful target man might have caused concern. The lightweight line of Neymar, Pato, and Robinho showed terrific movement and combination throughout, but might have struggled had they been more starved of possession. Obviously still a work in progress, but the Brazil side commanded possession and created far more chances. An encouraging start.
Thanks for the great analysis once again. FYI, “game” in Portuguese is “jogo” (not “joga”).
are you going to do anything on the france match? nasri supposedly played wonderfully.
wow! people here in Brazil are just insane about this “new” brazilian team. Theres a euphory rarely seen even in WC games. Its common people saying that Menezes team played more against USA than in the whole 4 years of the “era Dunga”! and its difficult not give them some reason.
ZM, can you do a feature on why the US national team sucks so much? I am frustrated because it seems that the US team hasn’t advanced at all since the world cup was hosted here in 94. I read an article before the world cup on coach Bradley saying that he was a tactical genius who had studied so many teams and still watched vhs tapes of 80s and 90s teams looking for inspiration. If that is the case why is the US always playing 4-4-2 and hitting 60 yard balls praying for a miracle? Why is the defense always getting split wide open by obvious through balls? What do you think US soccer needs to advance? These are not my only concerns of course, but you get the idea. Growing up in the US, the mentality is that the coaches feel that a good coach can take any good athlete and turn him into a good soccer player in 4 years or so. One part of the problem is the competition is getting kids doing simple soccer specific movements since they are 5 years old and by the time they get to the age to compete internationally they don’t have to think about performing pinpoint passes and feints. But obviously the issue is more complicated and unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any discussion of the team at all in the media or anywhere else (with a couple exceptions right before the world cup). I wish we had the passion of Brazilian fans in this country.
Let’s not be too harsh. After all, in ‘02 we advanced to the final 8, losing to the eventual runner-ups (Germany) on a controversial non-call (handball). Bradley seemed to concede tactical mistakes in several of the WC games–as this site has quite astutely noted–but his overwhelming failure was personal (three out of the four games, making an early substitution at the holding midfielder position).
The problem with the US is they need a good trequartista, at least somebody to supplement Altidore who isn’t a second striker. As the announcers noted during last night’s game, it’s not somebody on the current squad, especially neither Dempsey or Donovan; instead we’ll have to find this playmaker.
The problem with the articles you read about Bob Bradley are that they are written by one of two types of journalists, Americans or foreign. The Americans don’t really write anything critical and most foreign journalists still think that the US has no talent so Bradley must be a tactical genius to get them to where they were. Only recently have some of those journalists (Tim Vickery on SI) realized that Bradley hurt the US by sticking rigidly to 4-4-2 to start most games. If you look at the success the US had in the World Cup it generally took place after half time when Bradley would bring on Feilhaber/Edu and switch to a 4-5-1/4-2-3-1. He would then go back and repeat his mistake in the next match though.
At the same time, not all of the blame lies on Bradley as the level of youth coaching in the US is not great and it is very limited to players who can afford to pay a large chunk of change to continue to play. US Soccer has also been very poor in their judging of talent (see Neven Subotic and his being left of rosters by the buffoon Rongen). Claudio Reyna has been put in charge of revamping the youth development so hopefully something will be done there.
To Jeremy, I don’t think the US necessarily needs a playmaker as long as we adapt and play a 4-2-3-1. With Donovan, Dempsey and Feilhaber/Torres this is enough creativity to do without that type of player although Torres has the potential to develop into a playmaker with his range of passing.
The biggest problem was the U.S. playing scared/lazy in midfield when out of possession. For most of the game the U.S. central midfielders stood 10 yards off of whatever Brazilian had the ball and let them pick their passes. That sets the defense up for trouble, and may have demoralized Gonzales in his first international cap. No playmaker can solve the problem of midfielders not pressing in their own half.
Surely it was an extremly convincing and exciting win by Brazil, and probably the best football we have had in a lot of time. Much of it is because the US played poorly, but as soon as they got the ball on the final third, one of David Luiz and Thiago Silva would regain possession with a prcise tackle. The “new” Brazil must be treated like a side coached by Bielsa, it always looks to attack and to control their matches. Surely they will have a hard time against anyone who can starve them of possession, but that is exactly the hard pass.
One of the reasons why Mano’s Brazil side is different from Dunga’s is actually the wide DIFFERENCE between the two playmakers – Kaká and Ganso. The dynamic and less tricky Kaká provided his side probably the most lethal counter-attacking displays on early history and this had been largely recognised as Dunga’s main (repeatedly the only) gameplan.
Ganso has the ability and the intelligence, although so young, in guiding a team to switch between fast breaks and play possession football. He has skills to play in very space-limited areas (wich isn’t Kaká’s ‘explosion-style’ case) wich combine with the defensive football Brazil often faces. If only Dunga had the obvious vision to see it coming…
Back in the 1970’s, 1980’s and maybe early 1990’s, following brazilian football tradition, Ganso and Kaká would be described as a classic number 8-number 10 duo respectively. One, a natural playmaker; the second, the closest a midfielder could get as being considered an extra foward.
Filipe:
“…Back in the 1970’s, 1980’s and maybe early 1990’s, following brazilian football tradition, Ganso and Kaká would be described as a classic number 8-number 10 duo respectively. One, a natural playmaker; the second, the closest a midfielder could get as being considered an extra forward…”
You’ve just given a fine illustration of how in Brazilian football the No.10 was traditionally an auxiliary striker (Pele, Tostão and later even Zico to an extent) whereas the No8.(like Rivelino and later Sócrates) was a roaming playmaker or regista…(all this originates in the unique tactical evolution of Brazilian football which I will soon describe on my blog at ‘Santapelota’).
The globally-accepted definition of the NO.10 role seems to have come to us more from the Argentine and Italian tradition; in reality, the ‘enganche’ was essentially an amalgamation of the No.8 and No.10 roles in Brazil.
But even more interesting is how during the past two decades or so, Brazilian football has even started employing the Italian/Argentine criterion for describing the likes of Diego Ribas da Cunha or P.H. Ganso as ‘classical No.10′, seemingly oblivous to their own tradition in this area.
I guess the litmus test to see whether a modern Brazilian trequartista is really a No.10 or an ‘8′ would be to imagine how these modern guys would have positioned themselves within the older tactical systems such as the 2-3-5-cum-3-3-4 Diagonal, the 4-2-4 and then 4-3-3.
Futile, but hey, it’s fun!
ganso is more of a rui costa than kaká hehehe
and he can play in 4-3-3 as a midfielder
This is likely the only time I’ll ever be able to say it about a Brazil-USA match, so I think I’ll take my chance: this match was much more important to Brazil than the USA.
I wanna hear more about USA. ^_^
I do not understand. Everyday the world is bombarded with information about the USA. Isn’t that enough?
Or, perhaps you mean the performance of the USA football team in this match?
Yes. Every team learned a lesson from WC
wondering what have USA learned ^_^
Horrible news that Neymar has gone to Chelsea. He won’t do well there. ENGLAND IS NOT THE RIGHT LEAGUE FOR HIM OR GANSO!
I agree with a lot of guys here.
First, Kaká and Ganso are really different. Kaká is really pacey, although very smart. If he plays in the Hole, he needs very deffensive-minded holding midfielders to go with him. And he can also play as a supporting striker, like in UCL 06/07. Ganso, on the other hand, has really learned to play behind three strikers, including the capability to join the defensive line at midfield and help. It is really the No8/No10 difference. Ganso is more cerebral than Kaká, and just like Kaká isn’t able to help defense so much, Ganso can’t play in a support striker role. That’s why Ganso fits better in the playmaker role of the 4-2-3-1 Mano Menezes is so used to. Kaká is better of contesting for one of the spots in the wings. Either way, he’ll have to work very hard.
Second, the main difference between Ganso and Neymar – aside the style of play – is that Neymar is haunted by what happened to Robinho, even having the same agent. Ganso, in the other hand, is considered to be much more centered and smart. That’s why the No 10 shirt of Brazil is with him.
Third, in the other positions we’re are yet to see Nilmar(Villareal/ CF/ LW), Hernanes(Lazio/ CM) and Sandro(Tottenham/ CDM) contesting for a spot in the team. I think it’s over for Lucio, Juan, Maicon, J. César, G. Silva, F. Melo, L. Fabiano, and maybe even Kaká. You also have to consider that the renovation rate is very high in Brazil, and we have 4 years still to close the list.
Fourth, I don’t think it’s true to say that Brazil only knows to attack and are just fine in the defense. It is just a matter of gameplan. Dunga showed that you have players to choose in Brazil that can make defense look like an art. Sad for him, many brazilians despise defense footballing. In the case of the current team, Mano Menezes is also very aware of the importance of defense, and just like the Santos philosophy this season: “Attacking is the best defense”. That doesn’t mean we don’t have top-class defenders.
How can it be over for probably the best goalkeeper in the world?
And why Maicon and Lucio?
I’m not the owner of the truth, but in Brazil we only think about one title: The World Cup. Copa America and Confederations Cup are hardly worth for us. That said, the teams that’s beeing built by Menezes is looking straight to Brazil-2014. And by that time, Júlio César will be 34, Maicon 33, and Lúcio 36. And having the renovation rate we have, it’s a waste to bring many over-30 players. In these three positions, look out for Victor, Renan, Diego Alves, Rubinho, Felipe(goalkeepers), Daniel Alves, Rafael, Jonathan, Rafinha(right-back) Thiago Silva, David Luiz, Miranda, Alex Silva, Léo, Réver, Breno(centre-backs)
I thought Brazil played something akin to a 4213 – which Wilson had suggested is the coming formation, but I thought his examples were flawed, whereas this one seemed much more like it – with it occasionally falling back to a 4312 and I thought tactically it was very sound for this particular game. Ganso was continually picking the ball up facing the goal with space to run into, and was constantly involved thanks to having no-one shadowing him, and he looked excellent to me. Firs time watching him but I thought he shone more than any other player, he never looked troubled and constantly went for the forward pass keeping the play flowing.
The two wide players were generally higher up the pitch than you’d find in a 4231, although that could be purely because of the amount of time they spent in possession, and Neymar in particular rarely came out of the attacking third to pick up the ball which I thought would be very uncharacteristic of a winger in a 4231. With Robinho nominally at right wing it was never going to be a rigid formation, so naturally he drifted as he pleased, but when he did Ganso would either swap with him and push out to the right wing or drop deeper into the midfield while Robinho would drift from the middle – in the latter making it a 4312, which was significantly more often than the former.
The one thing that somewhat confuses things is that the 2 in either formation refers to two DMs as we all know, which neither of Ramires or Lucas played. Ramires as you rightly mentioned was very positive in his running and often tried to break through the lines on and off the ball, but even Lucas got forward occasionally – and they synchronised their runs very well – so they were very much box-to-box, as Tim Vickery suggested Brazil would be couple of years ago in the article about Lucas and Anderson going against the traditional midfielder produced, with Ramires following the same trend.
All in all was very impressed, a very attacking line-up but one that worked well in the particular game and given how little preparation was done I think it’d be very harsh to criticise them on any level – tactically fine, plenty of youthful exuberance and it might be a bit knee-jerk to say…but Samba is back.
P.S Should add I was a big fan of Dunga’s Brazil, tactically fascinating and they were probably the most successful international side in that period, and they were very unlucky to not go further in the WC.
P.P.S Only recently found this blog/site/whatever but I’ve read up on nearly 100 articles over the past few days, very impressed I must say.
I can’t see Lucas-Ramires working in the long term, I’m not sure either are solid enough. Ramires needs someone like Gilberto, Lucas needs someone like Mascherano…a true holder is needed.
From too many holding midfielders, to not enough, eh?
And thanks for all the comments. Some great stuff here.
Maybe Denilson would be someone who could play with Ramires?
I don’t really rate Denilson (at least right now), but he strikes me as a “Gilberto Silva” kind of player. As he gets older, he might grow into that kind of role well.
Nah, Denilson is more technically gifted, has better vision and has always played some kind of midfield role whether holding, box-to-box, playmaking etc. throughout his hitherto short career to this day.
Gilberto was a reconverted centre-back.
You could make the argument about Sandro being a reincarnation of a younger Gilberto.
I think Sandro will definitely feature more, particularly once he joins Tottenham. That team is stacked and I think the newly competitive EPL will do wonders to his game. I hope to see in 2014 a Ramires-Sandro pairing.
I’d absolutely agree, as I said I think that was more of a game-specific tactic and not an indication as to how they set up long-term, although it was refreshing all the same. Melo’s most likely the first in line to come in but I’d argue he’s more suited to being the Mascherano rather than the Gilberto, so that’d mean out of the two he’d be better partnered by Lucas. Lucas is a better player than he’s given credit for but he’ll have to improve dramatically – although not unheard of, many similarities between him and Fletcher in terms of career progression – and I’d be surprised to see him improve to a level above Ramires, so I can see Sandro very possibly playing alongside Ramires in the not-to-distant future. I’ve not seen a whole lot of him but stylistically he fits and he looked very decent on first viewing for Internacional last season I thought.
Will be interesting to see all the same.
As a reader of Zonal Marking for the last 6 months or so, I was particularly excited to see a write-up of a game that I had the good fortune to attend.
Just a few more comments to add:
As Conor mentioned, Brazil’s wide players (Robinho and the excellent Neymar) switched positions more than a couple times.
Every time Neymar had the ball in an offensive position it seemed like he had an intent to score. As a fan of the US national team, he was the Brazilian player that scared me the most.
Ganso seemed to shine more in the second half. His off-the-ball positioning was excellent, and he always seemed to be open for passes. Once he found himself in an open position (but before receiving the ball) he would quickly look back to survey 1-2 outlets. You got the feeling that he was planning out what he would do before he got the ball and this allowed for some great one touch football.
Not sure how much the TV broadcast captured this, but the Brazilian players were all smiles after the first 15 minutes or so. You could see the joy in many of the young players faces. They really looked like they were having fun (in contrast to the American side who looked a bit flat).
An underrated aspect of Brazil’s play was how quickly they pressed and closed down the US side.
What will be really interesting to see is how Mano Menezes incorporates Kaka into his formation. If he plays him in an attacking midfielder role, where does that leave Ganso?
I don’t know how you play both in a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 type formation. But an interesting shape for this group that might have its uses would be a 4-1-3-2, like Benfica or Czech Republic. Then Kaka could be the second striker, Ganso the playmaker, but it probably sends at least one of Neymar or Robinho to the bench.
Mano Menezes was the coach of Lucas in Gremio when he was chosen the best player in the Brazilian Championship in 2006. I don’t think there’ll be a true CDM in here, the most close to it likely to put a fight for the spot are Sandro (Internacional -> Tottenham) and Denilson(Arsenal), but, just like Germany in the WC10, there’s likely not to be any true holding midfielder here.
Sandro is a holding midfielder – and an extremely defensive one at that. Tall, strong and composed – not a great passer but that shouldn’t be an issue considering he will be surrounded by deep-lying passers.
Lucas can be an auxiliary holding midfielder, though he is naturally more of a box-to-box player.
Denilson is naturally a creative ‘interior’ or ‘apoiador’ (postionally somewhere between the posts of ‘volante’and meia) – he can also double as an auxiliary holder though unlike Lucas he brings greater subtlety and vision to proceedings; I guess it depends on the requirements of any particular game which one would be more suitable.
Hernanes is a regista, an interior (like Denilson above except he can also dribble), an auxiliary holder (like an Alonso but one that can also dribble!). His game starts deeper than Ganso’s.
Hi ZM,
This new Brazil sounds very familiar. It has Arsenal written all over it formationwise and everything. At least Arsenal employ Song as a holding mid. All Arsenal problems could be replicated (in fact they were during the match) if Menezes is not careful. He will definitely need more tactically aware defenders and midfielders. I like Ramires who played the Diaby role in Arsenal but Lucas is a no hopper in defensive midfield as you pointed out. May be he will improve which I doubt as he does not play that role for Liverpool. The wide players (Neymar and Robinho) too must learn to track back, not to imitate Arshavin and Walcot, otherwise Brazil will not realise their potential. Also more importantly is the discipline of the wingbacks- Alves and Santos. I think Ceasar of Inter is a great keeper, its stupid to overlook him simply because he was the darling of Dunga. The same can be said for quite a few in the Dunga squad e.g. Maicon.