FIFA World Cup 2018: Brazil Announce 23-man Squad with Neymar as the Team Captain

The FIFA World Cup held once in 4 years for the period of one month is the biggest football tournament in the world. The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase, officially called the World Cup Finals. The qualification phase, which currently takes place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals.

The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation which will be Russia for this year’s World Cup event.

In the history of World Cup, Brazil is the most successful national team in the history having won five titles. Brazil is also one of the countries to have won the World Cup between Argentina, Spain, and Germany to win the World Cup away from its continent. Having said all its glorious history, 2014 saw Brazil losing to Germany 1-7 in the semi-final which was a very shameful record, all the Brazilians want to forget.

Brazil Coach: Tite

Tite has been managing clubs mostly in Brazil since the early 90s and under his coaching, the Brazilian team has played some of the best football since they won the World Cup back in 2002. Tite has brought back that flair and pragmatic approach back to the team in difficult games and he trusts his 4-14-1 system.

Possible Starting Lineup

Brazilians are worried over team captain Neymar’s injury but should he be fit, he will lead the forward line in a 4-1-4-1 system with four attacking midfielders supporting him on the attack.

Brazil preparation for upcoming mega football event looks like completed. Tite announced 23 men squad of Brazil in the first week of May.

• Goalkeeper: Alisson Becker, Ederson, and Cassio. The first choice for the team will be Ederson.
• Defenders: Fagner, Marcelo, Miranda, Marquinhos are set to start in the lineup while Filipe Luis, Pedro Geromel, Danilo, Thiago Silva will be in bench and called upon if needed.
• Midfielder: Willian and Philippe Coutinho are set to be right and left winger midfielder, while Paulinho andFernandinho will play a central role as Casemiro will be the defensive midfielder and make important passes. While Renato Augusto, Fred, Taison will standby for substitution if things don’t work accordingly.
• Forward: Neymar is the favorite to start as a forward striker and also the team captain but if anything goes wrong Brazil still got Douglas Costa, Roberto Firmino and Gabriel Jesus for the forward position.

The system Brazil usually use is 4-1-4-1 which is flexible as it can be changed to more conventional 4-3-3 without needing to make substitutions as both Willian and Coutinho can play on either side of Neymar in a three-man attack. Brazil also has quality players on the bench with the likes of Gabriel Jesus, Fernandinho, Wallace. Firmino, Douglas Costa, Filipe Luis also in contention.