Seleção General Discussion, 2018 and beyond

No separate thread for tomorrow?

I almost like the potential squad for tomorrow as much as the regular squad Tite has been using. I can at least say one thing -- I like the potential midfield better for sure.

 

Claudinho and Malcom have been called back to Zenit and CBF are officially going to request that FIFA punish the clubs.

It looks like CBF is leaning heavily towards doing the same to the English clubs as well. Reportedly, they were considering not doing so to keep a good relationship with them, but they know that wouldn't result in the clubs releasing them next time if the situation is the same.

Since the punishment is that clubs cannot use the players during the international window + 5 days, the big question is, what is the official end of the international window. Is it September 9th? Or 10th? Or is it the original end (sept 7/8)?

If it's the 9th or 10th, clubs can't use the players on Tuesday September 14 (Man Utd, Zenit and Chelsea have Champions League matches on Tuesday), and maybe even for the Wednesday Champions League matches (Man City, Liverpool affected).

If it's the original window, then clubs will only lose players for the weekend matches.

 

CONMEBOL officially confirmed that October will include 3 games. The extra game for us is at Colombia and will be played in between the two regular games.

The call-up should be September 17 (basically a week after this window ends).

Thursday, October 7 - at Venezuela
Sunday, October 10 - at Colombia
Thursday, October 14 - vs. Uruguay

After that there are just 2 more games this year and 6 total for qualifying.

 

So... the good news today is we still have 9 points on 4th place and one game in hand.

So, still basically qualified.

 

In more positive news today:
https://www.uol.com.br/esporte/fute...abalho-veta-caboclo-de-ir-a-cbf-por-1-ano.htm

Caboclo has been told by the department of employment that he cannot go to CBF for 1 year. Maybe this will push back against his nonsense on Sunday that he needs to be reinstated since CBF is such a mess (he was using the Sunday incident to make himself look like only he could fix CBF).

 

There is one training session tomorrow, before the Thursday match.

For now, the line-up speculation is between the Argentina line-up:

Weverton;
Danilo, Militão Veríssimo, Alex Sandro;
Casemiro, Gérson, Éverton Ribeiro, Paquetá;
Neymar, Gabigol

or one more similar to the last Peru game and similar matches with Brazil needing to break a 5-man defensive line. That would probably involve adding a winger and looking like a 4-2-4 or 4-3-3 with Neymar as the offensive midfielder.

We'll have to wait until tomorrow to see if anything more definitive is available.

 

Considering that we basically had 34 players called up this time, I doubt we'll see any new names for October. Maybe an Antony considering his Olympics, his good start for Ajax and the fact that we might see 24 players since Neymar will miss the first game.

The real question is which of the 34 + other known names will we see.

The good news, for those of us who enjoy braking down the call-ups, is that we will know next Friday morning, so basically 1 week (and a few hours) from now.

I hope Thiago Silva gets a rest. I hope Arana stays in and gets playing time, I hope Émerson gets in as well and I hope Vini Jr. gets more playing time.

Of course, there is still the issue of clubs releasing players to sort out, hopefully that will have a solution by then. And of course we may know more about the Brazil x Argentina outcome by then too.

Regardless, we start this next set of games with our easiest remaining match-up on paper, we have one game in hand and we have a bigger lead than we did before September. Hopefully we see a bit more cohesion and a few more goals too.

EDIT:
Checked the yellow cards and we have lots of players "pendurados" so I would not be surprised to see one or two extra names to cover midfield and central defense in case of a suspension.
The following players are on yellow cards: Militão, Casemiro, Bruno Guimarães, Gérson, Paquetá, Gabigol. All of them started either one or both games this week.

 

The call-up for October matches, originally scheduled for tomorrow, has been delayed to next Friday, September 24

https://www.uol.com.br/esporte/fute...por-prudencia-em-relacao-a-times-ingleses.htm

According to the article, FIFA and the UK government have meetings this week. Saturday, they expect to have a clearer picture and then they will send the list by Sunday (the deadline) and announce it next Friday.

 

Because of the delayed announcement, I was wondering if we might get any actual leaks.

Not surprisingly, there is some info:

https://ge.globo.com/futebol/seleca...-jogadores-listados-flamengo-com-quatro.ghtml

The first few paragraphs indicate that the preliminary list (not final) includes:

• more than 9 players from England (there were only 9 last time)
• 4 Flamengo players

Douglas Luiz wasn't called last time, so just adding him would be enough to make it more than 9 players from England.

But unfortunately there's not much more info and there is no final word yet on whether the UK government will relax restrictions for footballers.

Call-up is still scheduled for Friday as that is the deadline for players to be booked for travel and informed.

 

Per a more recent interview, with Cleber Xavier, the preliminary list is 40 players long and includes Coutinho.

https://ge.globo.com/blogs/blog-do-...rasileira-e-pode-voltar-a-ser-convocado.ghtml

I'm a big Coutinho fan but even I am stunned by the idea he would be on this list.

Other subjects in the interview (audio, linked in the article above) include:
Gerson,
Daniel Alves, since he's without a club
Guilherme Arana,
Firmino,
Militão and Paquetá,
Antony, who is being observed by the coaching staff

I wouldn't be surprised to see Antony called up but with all the English players who didn't get to join last time, it's hard to predict who would be on the final list if everyone is available.

 

The call-up for October:

Goleiros: Alisson, Ederson, Weverton
Laterais: Danilo, Emerson, Alex Sandro, Guilherme Arana
Zagueiros: Eder Militão, Lucas Veríssimo, Marquinhos, Thiago Silva
Meio-campistas: Casemiro, Edenílson, Everton Ribeiro, Fabinho, Fred, Gerson, Lucas Paquetá Atacantes: Antony, Gabigol, Gabriel Jesus, Matheus Cunha, Neymar, Raphinha, Vinicius Júnior

The prediction in the articles linked above was almost perfect. Only difference is Edenilson instead of Bruno Guimarães.

25 players - 23 + 1 since Neymar is suspended for 1 game +1 more since we have 9 players on yellow.

Richarlison out injured, Firmino out due to form/recovery. Add those players and clearly the big question marks are still the front line.

We could be mathematically qualified after October's matches. This is certainly a team that should be able to win all 3. I expect the away game to Colombia will be the toughest match so far.

 

Makes no sense to call up Edenilson instead of Bruno Guimaraes. That is probably my biggest grievance with this list.

 

I feel like Edenilson is a straight plug-in for Casemiro. If he gets the yellow card suspension, Fabinho would start and Edenilson would back him up.

We'll see. Most people see Bruno Guimarães as likely to be back next time. Assuming that call-up is 23 (not 25) players and no extra midfielders, remove Edenílson and Fred and add Bruno Guimarães and most people would be very happy with the list.

The interesting thing is going to be the forward line. There are 7 on this list and 2 missing (Richarlison and Firmino) due to injury. That's 9 that might need to get cut down to 6 for November (and for Qatar).

 

Matheus Cunha is out due to injury.

Arthur Cabral has been called up to replacement.

Arthur has U17 call-ups under his belt but he is 23 now and plays in Switzerland so he is not very well known (EDIT: it looks like he does have 1 Olympic call-up which I missed, in 2019). He has been scoring prolifically there (he had the highest number of goals of any Brazilian in Europe for the 20/21 season), but we'll see if he's an Afonso Alves or a real hidden gem/late bloomer.

If he makes a good impression on the coaching staff during training, I could see him coming in as a sub against Venezuela if everything is going well. Who knows. Obviously would be nice if he turns out to be productive at this level as well.

 

English clubs have asked Brazil to release players early:

https://ge.globo.com/futebol/copa-d...nvocados-antes-de-jogo-contra-o-uruguai.ghtml

Good for a laugh at least, since they don't have any leverage here.

In all seriousness though, if someone is suspended for the last game, I'm sure we'll let them go back early, but obviously we're not about to release anyone who could participate in a classic vs. Uruguay.

 

Maybe they can push games over to Xmas/New Years time to make them up. They could play games every day instead of ever other day.

 

Looks like Casemiro might be cut. He did not join the team as scheduled due to a tooth infection and might not be available:

https://ge.globo.com/futebol/seleca...ogadores-eliminatorias-problema-pessoal.ghtml

It's not definitive yet, but certainly seems like he's out for tomorrow at least since he's not there today.

 

Probable starting line-up:

Alisson;
Danilo, Marquinhos, Thiago Silva, Arana;
Fabinho, Gérson, Éverton Ribeiro, Paquetá;
Gabriel Jesus, Gabigol

That's based on training today. Very offensive line-up, which shouldn't be a surprise against Venezuela. I expect we'll see Arana pushing up like Lodi did in the 2-3-5 variations Tite tried out before.

It will probably look like a 3-1-3-3 on offense:

Arana - Gabigol - Gabriel Jesus
Gérson - Paquetá - Éverton Ribeiro
Fabinho
Marquinhos - Thiago Silva - Danilo

Maybe switch Gérson and Arana in that offensive picture, but that's my guess.

 

Casemiro is officially out for the whole set of matches.
Douglas Luiz has been called up to replace him.

Looks like Fabinho will be our starting DM for all 3 matches, which I think will be a very valuable test.

 

Tomorrow's line-up is confirmed - the names above described as a 4-1-3-2 by reporters.

Douglas Luiz will join the team after the Venezuela game in Colombia.

Not much news otherwise. Neymar will be back for the second match, but I expect we'll see more changes for that game, even if everything works perfectly.

I'll probably miss the Colombia match as I will be traveling shortly after the Venezuela game and back before the Uruguay game. Looking forward to 3 wins regardless!