The final Brazil squad list for Qatar was announced, and it's creating a lot of noise, but why?
(Take in consideration that I am not a Brazilian.)
Let's take a look at the squad for the World Cup.
Have you checked something wrong?
Let's start to discuss the points that raise many discussions
Number of players playing in Brazil
Only three players who currently play in the Brazilian championship are present in the squad list.
We know that the most competitive/attractive leagues in the world are found in Europe, but the Brazilian championship year after year has increased its quality. This has been noticed when in the last three editions of the Libertadores Cup (“South American Champions League”) in the last 4 years it was won by Brazilian teams.
In addition, of these 4 finals, 3 were between Brazilian teams.
To see Brazilian finals in previous years, we have to go back to 2006, which was the final between Internacional and São Paulo.
If this doesn't make the coach start looking at some players currently playing in Brazil to play for the national team, he simply tells all professionals whose goal is to be able to represent their country will have to leave Brazil and have to play in Europe.
This is something that has created discussion, as this type of movement will remove quality from the Brazilian championship.
But could there be some players who play in the Brazilian championship that could be called up? In my opinion, yes, Gabriel Barbosa, Dudu, Renato Augusto, among others.
Daniel Alves
Daniel Alves, a 39-year-old player, was called up for the World Cup and this call-up has been much discussed and problematic.
Daniel Alves' problem is related to the fact that he doesn't have enough competitive pace or has great performances since he left Paris Saint Germain in 2019.
After this departure from Paris Saint Germain he played for 3 years at São Paulo and adapted as a Central Midfielder instead of playing the Right Defender.
His exhibition level, in these 3 years, was nothing out of this world to the point that São Paulo terminated the contract with the player.
In the 2021/22 season he returned to Barcelona not because of his great performances, but because of the financial issues that Barcelona are facing, but even going to a club that is in trouble he was only used 17 times throughout the team.
At this time he is playing for Pumas, a Mexican club, which is 16th in the league with 2 wins in 17 games.
This leads to the big question, but isn't there another younger player, to start preparing for the transition, who could be called up?
After all, he is not a card in the deck to play, maybe he is summoned only by the environment of the locker room, even because Militão plays both central defense and right defense.
Of course, there were many more possibilities for right-back and to start working on the transition in this position such as Khellven, who is a 21-year-old right-back who plays for Atlético Paranense and who even played in the final in the Libertadores Cup this year.
Fred
This was another name that created a lot of controversy, since we are talking about a 29-year-old player who has not been an undisputed starter at Manchester United.
In the last 3 years, more than 30 games have never been called up in a season, and we know that playing at Manchester United the team has more than 40 games easily counting with European competitions, 2 domestic cups plus the Premier League.
Even this year, Fred was only called up 11 times, having been used 4 times as a starter and played an average of 36 minutes per game.
Does this seem like enough to deserve to be on the World Cup squad? Not.
In this position, he would have better possibilities and with different profiles, such as:
Danielo do Palmeiras, a young profile to start working on the transition of some players, with only 21 years old that last season he was called up for 22 games having started 18 times and with an average of 71 minutes per game and in the current season he was called up 36 times and started 34 starts with an average of 80 minutes played per game.
Renato Augusto, an experienced player, aged 34, is the main organizer of the Corinthians game and 33 caps for Brazil.
Gabriel Martinelli
Gabriel Martinelli was a name that no one expected to be called up to the World Cup.
The season in which he made the most appearances for Arsenal was in the 2021/22 season, in which he was called up for 29 games and started in 21 of them, having scored 6 goals.
If in the positions of Daniel Alves and Fred there were clearly alternatives, then in this position there is no shortage of better alternatives than Martinelli:
Gabriel Barbosa, an experienced 26-year-old player, who in the last 4 years won 2 Libertadores Cup and the season in which he was least called up, he was called up in 25 games.
In 2019, he scored 25 goals in the championship, in 2020 14 goals, in 2021 he scored 12 goals.
In this last season he left and was adapted to another position (winger) and even so he continued to be a decisive player in the Flamengo team.
Dudu, a 30-year-old Palmeiras player, who in the last 4 years as Gabriel Barbosa won 2 Libertadores Cups and the year he played fewer games was 2021 (21 games in which 17 played as a starter).
For me, a fantastic player with an above-average vision of the game and clearly that he should be in the squad for the Brazilian national team.
What is your opinion?
Do you think the coach could have called up other players?