Diniz denies base selection, despite a call-up identical to the first list

With the exception of Vini Jr, called up after recovering from injury, and the big surprise Gerson, the list of players called up by Fernando Diniz for the next two games for World Cup qualifiers is identical to the first. Thus, there is an indication that the (interim) coach of the national team already has a base, but he himself makes a point of putting this into perspective.

“I didn’t think much about it. Although I maintained a base, we always try to call up the best players possible. We finished our last game period, I think it was two weeks ago, a little more. The sample is still very small”, he considered the coach.

According to Diniz, it wouldn’t make sense to make a big change in the player list in such a short period of time, unless the team had done very badly – and there were two victories in the first round, including a thrashing against Bolivia.

“The selection is open, there are many players who have the possibility of being called up”, declared the coach. Diniz recalled that the squad list does not have any major changes in relation to what was already done in recent years. “This base of the selection, basically, if you take the last World Cup there are many players who were in that cycle, and half were in the World Cup”, he commented.

The coach declared that the team does not have any player who can always be called up. “There is no absolute starter or player who is always called up 100%,” said Diniz. “It’s kind of natural for us to look for a base. But I’m not going to force it.”

With the squad practically repeated, Fernando Diniz now wants the team to consolidate. “What I hope is that we will be able to be more and more consistent. We hope to reproduce our game idea better and better. That we will have more and more protagonism and be able to be very consistent in defense”, he pondered.