You are right. Paulinho is doing very good. Don't forget his positioning last matches is possibly due to considerably weak opponents at the match momentum, not saying Paulinho is not good but I don't think he can get that positioning as defensive midfielder against stronger and stable european sides, nor even Vidal that is another kind of role and much more quality can, imagine Paulinho. Let's wait to see what happens
Nice to wake up in the morning with Brasil as the number one NT in the world. I would however like to see Brasil play a couple European powers. We need a better replacement for GJ. Firmino just isn't cutting it. That is a weakness I see.
The way Brasil is playing, there is no other NT in the world that comes close to how Brasil is playing. The first country to qualify for Russia. The best player in the world today. Not that FIFA rankings mean all that much, but will be FIFA #1. And Neymar is a strong candidate for the Balon D'Or this year.
That's your opinion, of course. CONMEBOL qualifying shouldn't ever be considered a rating to compare against others in the world.
I consider Conmebol as the most difficult table in the world, especially when playing at 4000 meters above sea level in a fuking Calderao. Just take a look at tables that include the European powers.
4 of the top 10 National Teams in the world are in the Conmebol table, not to mention the environment that I described.
Paulinho positioning has been excellent in all 8 of Tite games to be fair. I don't think I would classify any of those opponents as weak except Bolivia at home.
Ahh, I was talking about weak momentum, Uruguay without Suarez = Brazil without Neymar and Tite, for example. Yesterday we saw some nice passing and dribbling from Paulinho, I'm just trying to be realistic, let's see if everything goes well.
Agreed. We nee to play some European teams in friendlies because their style of play is different. About Paulinho, I think everybody is more or less surprised, except for @Guigs Yes, there is definitely a level of joking on the comments about Paulinho here.
Problem is that this June's FIFA dates go from the 5th to the 13th. We already have the SuperClassico in Australia on the 9th and a friendly vs. Australia on the 13th. There are no other FIFA dates available until late August/early September, but that time slot holds the next round of WCQ. We may not face a European team until Germany in Berlin on 3/27/2018.
Not really. Guigs defense of Paulinho in the 2014 WC was that his role had nothing to do with scoring goals and giving out assists. His job was to occupy space and cut off passing lanes while maintaining possession. He actually pointed out how people thought Paulinho played well just because he scored goals in the Confederations Cup, but said that had nothing to do with his "role."
The difference with Paulinho is we have a coach that knows how to properly utilize him and has given him confidence. Paulinho had ZERO confidence heading into the WC. Prior to the Confeds, he was wrapping up his successful stint at Corinthians and riding on an all-time high. Most people who watched the Brazilian league never thought Paulinho was a bad player. I can understand people who haven't have that perception based off his time at Spurs. And Guigs was wrong -- his ideal role has always been to be close to the area and score goals and create. That's what he was known for at Corinthians and that's what he is doing now. I said as much in these posts: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/co...n-group-stage-r.2006155/page-29#post-30450549 Link to the blog changed: http://bcoimbra.com.br/2014/06/25/o-caso-paulinho/ https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/wc-2014-amistoso-brasil-x-holanda-r.2008259/page-2#post-30708372 https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/copa-do-mundo-2014-knockout-rounds-r.2007424/page-26#post-30730610
And my point is that his only role was to occupy space, he was then a waste of space. I re-watched some of those games and he was truly chasing ghosts. Yeah, occupying space, but nothing good coming out of it. Wasn't really expecting goals and assists, just some break up play, which Oscar did much better. You're right that his confidence was low and most importantly, the tactics sucked.
Totally agree, and quite a bit of that had to do with tactics and confidence. Guigs tried to argue he did something of value. Paulinho's play now hasn't proven Guigs was right. His defense has been alright, but he is making a difference on the other end of the pitch and that was lacking mightily along with be a non-factor defensively.
Is the new guy trolling? CONMEBOL is the most difficult qualifier in the world. Being the top team in it is quite an accomplishment. Why, do you favor more the tables that include great teams like Lichtenstein and Andorra?
Are you arguing that Conmebol qualifiers isn't enough of a criteria to give Brazil the number #1 ranking?
Certainly not. I bet we had this same forum users acting exactly the same when Brazil beat Spaniards back in 2013.
There are aspects of CONMEBOL qualifying that are tougher an aspects that are easier. The fact that 4.5 out of 10 teams make it to the WC make it fairly forgiving compared to let's say UEFA or Africa. Then again many groups in UEFA are cake. But sometimes you have 2 or 3 or even 4 teams that legitimately good and that makes the group tough because you can't slip up at all since only the first team advances automatically and the 2nd goes to a playoff. Case in point, Italy and Spain are in the same group this round. Regardless, it's not as much about how tough CONMEBOL opponents can be, but it's the way we are playing. The chemistry between the players makes it easy to tell that we are a top team right now. Obviously that's not to say we are unbeatable.
I don't think there is a belief we are unbeatable. I think there is a confidence about the team. We a are playing with flair. Neymar has help, the coaching is on point. I think it is fair to be excited especially considering how negative we were on the team not that long ago. There was even a belief among a few of us that we wouldn't even qualify.
I thought if Dunga remained coach we would not qualify! Thank God we got Tite, what a difference it made...