'A Selecao': they suffered a stark realisation following Spain’s ascension to the top of the football pyramid in South Africa 2010. Clearly not the first time a team has supplanted the game's historically dominant country, but no other nation has innovated such a cohesive, rhythmic and successful style as Spain, a vision with clarity that expects to subdue the opposition; aside from Brazil at their best.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the country expected reinvention. Particularly so, given their first opportunity at lifting the World Cup once more will be in their own country in 2014. Accordingly Dunga left his post immediately after South Africa, replaced by Mano Menezes, who was tasked with injecting more of the ‘Old Brazil’ into the perfunctory version under Dunga.
It is unjust to lay all the blame at Dunga’s door, though; he sought to work with the tools he was given. In the last twenty years, archetypal Brazilian midfielders have been blessed with industry, strength, determination and discipline, a trend that coincidentally harks back to Dunga [the player] and Mauro Silva in the World Cup of 1994.
A dearth of creative central-midfielders is acute in Brazil’s current failings, though: players without great foresight and imagination, players without acute technical alacrity. For those fans of a romantic bent, reading through the current squad must make it an anathema: Lucas Leiva, Sandro, Ramires. But although pragmatism and protectionism were dominant in the accentuation of Brazilian football towards midfield functionality - a desire to protect the centre-backs –it was not a trend without creative imperatives, too and this, at least, continues to stand them in good stead elsewhere.
The liberation of the fullback is paramount in their game and that aspiration bore fruit in this generation; they possess a surfeit of attack minded players on the right: in the wonderful Dani Alves they have a one-man flank, Maicon and the burgeoning talent of Rafael Da Silva. The left is similarly strong: Marcelo performed like one of the five best left-backs in the world last season; whilst there is also Michael Bastos, Fabio Da Silva, Adriano and Andre Santos. Indeed, Menezes has a defence equal to any permutation in the world to work around, as he rejuvenates the team; myriad talents at fullback and a triangle of Thiago Silva and Lucio at centre-back with Julio-Cesar as goalkeeper.
Whilst in the young strike pairing of Santos’ starlet Neymar and Alexander Pato of Milan, Brazil have two players of class and technique, whom would fit in any national side on their day. And in Lucas Moura, the Sao Paulo number ten, a player of genuine elite potential, one who should be assimilated into the full squad within two years.
And then there is Kaka, the former World Player of the Year. His move to Real Madrid has clearly backfired; Mesuit Ozil surpassed him and the team has become accustomed to the young German and likewise, he to the spaces it generates; and yet, despite serious injury, Kaka’s acceleration remains intact, still an incisive attacking talent, as he showed against Valencia.
Too often, though, Kaka has looked out of shape and stressed during his fleeting appearances for Madrid; and it should be to Brazil’s great benefit if the player found himself a club able to provide him with regular playing time again; enabling him to achieve a better physical and personal equilibrium, once more. But, for now, as at club level, Kaka has found himself marginalized for the progression of youth; and that may be unwarranted by Menezes.
Able to view this year’s Copa America as part of a rebuilding process, the true imagination of this Brazil is still unknowable; but the Santos playmaker Ganso, just 22, seems to have been identified as solely dominant in Menezes’ vision for his new team, the centrepiece [or trequartista] in a 4-2-1-3 formation. A system that bears comparison with their neighbours Argentina’s previous reliance on Juan-Roman Riquelme; by extension, of tactics that can be rendered ineffective at the elite level, if the playmaker can be nullified or has an off day.
Like Riquelme before him: Ganso does have limitations: he lacks the searing pace of a Sanchez; the nimble feet of a Nasri; the absolute range of Sneijder’s passing; or the incisive innovation of a Pastore. There is no doubting the talent of Ganso, though; he possesses something of everything, a game that is far more rounded than any of those counterparts and this may offer a solution of Menezes, should he decide to dilute creative responsibilities.
The manager could perhaps do worse than to mimic the innovations at Milan, where Andrea Pirlo was famously reinvented as a deep-lying playmaker; Brazil has no midfielder equipped to collect the ball from deep and to initiate attacking transitions, other than Ganso. Indeed, when playing for Santos, his desire for involvement sees him consistently drop deep into midfield, benefiting from the pitch in front of him, from the movement of players around him; excellent when slaloming forward, with a natural predilection for one-twos, equipped with strong intuition in interplays.
Moreover, there is resilience and strength to Ganso’s play, he doesn’t shirk physical involvement or the responsibilities of the battlefield; and whilst it is a ceiling that he would likely never reach, the outstanding Argentinean Fernando Redondo would be a marvelous frame of reference for the player transitioning into that position.
No comments:
Post a Comment