Neymar's tears and tactical calculations

Neymar's tears fell after the match Photo: AFP

Immediately after the match against Costa Rica ended, the television cameras turned to Neymar, who was crying with his face in his hands. When the pressure of being one of the pillars of the team that has won the World Cup five times was relieved by the goal scored in the last seconds of the match to help Brazil win 2-0, he cried heartily.

too much pressure

To be present in Russia and play the full 2 ​​matches, Neymar had to struggle with injury for 3 and a half months. In a football-loving country like Brazil, every activity of this star is scrutinized by the press every minute.

"Being a representative of the Brazilian national team comes with a lot of joy, satisfaction and pride," coach Tite told the press.

"Neymar has responsibility, happiness, pressure and courage to express those things. We all have our own way of expressing ourselves. Neymar is only human, he needs time to regain his form," Tite shared. But Brazil is in need of goals, after the first match, statistics show that the Selecao star was only fouled 10 times, only lower than Alan Shearer in the 1998 World Cup (11 times). In the first match, he dribbled 28 times, lost 14, scored 0 goals.

On the field for the Costa Rica match, he first cut his hair neatly, continued to wear torn socks for luck, and was less fussy when dribbling. More importantly, this number 10 inspired his teammates. Before coming to Russia, Brazil was in very good form, unbeaten in the last 11 matches and only conceded 2 goals in that series.

Teammate Coutinho played aggressively and stood out in the match against Costa Rica, with 6 assists, 6 shots and 1 of which became the opening goal. Neymar, before scoring his first goal at the 2018 World Cup, the PSG striker continuously moved down the left wing. He even fell in the penalty area and was awarded a penalty by the referee, but VAR technology denied him this penalty.

Neymar's winning goal against Costa Rica gave Brazil his 56th goal for the team.Select,thereby moving up to third place on the list of the best scorers in Brazil's history. At the age of 26, Neymar is full of hope to break Pele's record (72 goals). More importantly, he has relieved the enormous pressure when he scored, extending the team's record of 13 matches without losing.

Back to the bench

Having 4 points after the first 2 matches, people still haven't seen the familiar Samba, the main reason being the unsatisfactory appearance ofNeymar. In the match against Costa Rica, they had 69% possession, 10 corners (Costa Rica 1) and 23 shots, 9 on target but only 2 goals, quite struggling. When Neymar was injured and not in good form, Coutinho was put in to fit Neymar's left winger position in Tite's 4-3-3 system.

Now that Neymar is back, Coutinho is playing deeper on the same wing as the No. 10 and has less access to goal. The Barcelona star has scored 10 goals in his last 10 games (club and international) and is considered to be in better form than Neymar himself in the left wing role.

Will Brazil “sacrifice” Neymar to make room for Coutinho? Photo: AFP

At that time, the left midfielder position will be handed over to Renato. He was the number 10 player in the very successful Corinthians team with Tite. He transformed Renato from number 10 to a creative midfielder in a lower position, and put him on trial in the Brazil U23 team. Renato was one of three players over 23 years old called up to the Brazil U23 team and this experiment was very successful when Renato helped Brazil U23 win the gold medal in football at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Since then, Renato has been a regular in the Brazil squad.

Tite has used these three midfielders for most of the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign. Renato has been good at organising play from deep and linking up the lines, both of which were lacking in Brazil's game against Costa Rica last night.

World Cup 1994, after 3 group stage matches, when discovering the imbalance, coach Carlos Alberto Pereira took the team's brightest star number 10, Rai (Socrates' younger brother) out of the starting lineup, put Mazinho (father of Thiago Alcantara, current Spanish midfielder) on the field to have more balance and Brazil won the gold cup of that tournament. Tite will not ignore this detail after the group stage.