Dorival calls for excess midfielders and a possible rhythm player – 03/04/2024 – The World Is a Ball

In his first call-up as coach of the Brazilian national team, Dorival Júnior significantly changed the look of the squad in relation to the previous list, made by Fernando Diniz for the matches – two defeats – against Colombia and Argentina in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

No less than 12 of the 24 were excluded from the current list, which has 26 names. They are: Alisson, Lucas Perri (goalkeepers), Emerson Royal, Renan Lodi, Carlos Augusto (laterals), Nino, Bremer (defenders), Joelinton, Raphael Veiga (midfielders), Pepê, Paulinho and João Pedro (forwards).

Of these, three are injured (Alisson, Joelinton and João Pedro, all playing for English teams), so they would not be called up anyway. The remaining nine stayed by Dorival’s choice.

In my opinion, only two of those excluded are missing: Paulinho, from Atlético-MG, who has declined in relation to his 2023 performance, and Raphael Veiga, from Palmeiras, who continues to play very well.

I’m more unhappy with Veiga’s absence. He was called up a few times and played very little with the national team’s shirt, just three games, always coming on during them.

The friendlies against England, on the 23rd of this month (a Saturday), and Spain, three days later, both in Europe, would be an excellent chance for Veiga to be tested as a starter, as the team’s articulator, the third man in midfield. .

For this role, if Dorival opts for 4-3-3, of the current squad, two can try to play the role: Lucas Paquetá, who was Brazil’s starter in the 2022 World Cup, and Andreas Pereira.

Paquetá, however, does not have the necessary characteristics to act as a rhythm player, a term used by Tite, who coached the team from 2016 to 2022, to refer to the organizer of the central court.

Someone like De Bruyne (Manchester City), Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United), Modric (Real Madrid), Odegaard (Arsenal). An athlete who operates from area to area with intelligence, with precision in passes and throws, an ace in set pieces and who finishes efficiently.

Paquetá, despite having recently stood out with assists at English club West Ham, is more of a ball carrier than a “thinker”, a distributor of plays.

This characteristic is much more of Andreas Pereira, a Brazilian born in Belgium who had little space in the national team. He was called up only once, for post-2018 World Cup friendlies, and only came off the bench to play 20 minutes in an already defined game against El Salvador (5-0).

Andreas, who played for Manchester United and was Flamengo’s villain in a defeat to Palmeiras that cost them the Libertadores, currently performs this role at English club Fulham.

It is essential that Dorival spends more than a few minutes in friendlies so that he can show whether he is capable of supplying the attackers and full-backs with competence when they attack.

The ideal would be for Andreas to start one game and Veiga, the other, in an equal competition in order to check the performance of each one as a rhythm player – a role that should be Neymar’s when he returns to playing.

But Veiga won’t be there. It could, as there are too many midfielders on the list. Dorival called no less than six. An exaggeration, as only two are likely to start each game.

Casemiro, Brazil’s captain, is an absolute starter. Douglas Luiz, in a stupendous phase at Aston Villa, and Bruno Guimarães (Newcastle) compete for the other spot. The others (André, João Gomes and Pablo Maia) will hardly have playing time to show anything.

One or two of them would not need to be called – João Gomes and/or Pablo Maia.

The fact is that Brazil is well served with midfielders (there is also Zé Rafael, from Palmeiras), but there is a lack of quality midfielders, and one that should be remembered by Dorival is Alan Patrick, Internacional’s rhythm player, who played a lot in 2023 and remains at a good level.

He never had an opportunity in the main team. Did age take a toll? Maybe, but Casemiro and full-back Danilo are also 32 years old.

Reinforcing: in Brazil’s current squad, Andreas is theoretically indicated to be the “brain” of the midfield.

That’s if Dorival doesn’t give up on this type of player and uses a 4-2-4, with two midfielders and four attackers, one open on the right (Raphinha), another on the left (Vinicius Júnior) and two in the middle (Rodrygo and Richarlison ).

In this scenario, possibly one of the central attackers, in this case Rodrygo, would constantly retreat to receive the ball. He can do that, but it’s not what he does best, and it would be wasteful, as a goalscorer that he is, to take him away from the area.

Furthermore, regarding the call-up, it is sad to note that Brazil – which already had Cafu, Jorginho, Maicon, Roberto Carlos, Marcelo, among others – is experiencing a prolonged off-season of good full-backs, on the right and left.

So much so that Danilo, who has played as a defender at Juventus for some time, continues to be called up to the right flank. And on the left appears Wendell, also in his thirties, from Porto, called up just once, in 2016, accumulating zero minutes on the field for the national team.