In Brazil’s last game, a friendly against France, chants of “Olé, olé, olá, Neymar, Neymar” started ringing out. This happened in the middle of the second half, with the team already 2-0 down and unable to respond to a France side that, even with ten men, was still defensively solid and able to play out with quality. It does not reflect well on the Brazilian national team.
The chants were there, but my question is: do people not know what version of Neymar we have today? What exactly is the current Neymar? Do people still think he is the Neymar of 2018, running the whole pitch, dribbling past everyone, full of magic and then showing up at the end to decide the game? That Neymar no longer exists. What we have now is a player who cannot handle many consecutive games, cannot maintain a high rhythm and looks heavy on the pitch. The problem is physical, because technically he is still an absurd player, no one debates that.
It is completely different from chanting for Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo during their national team matches, even when they are not playing. Those are different situations because they still have the physical condition to come on and not be a burden on the pitch. Neymar cannot even be consistent against weaker teams in the Brasileirão and yet fans still call for him as if he would change everything. If he had played, he probably would have lost a lot of balls and things could have looked ugly. So honestly, not calling him up was not a bad decision.
It is true that Brazil needs a technical leader and right now they are trying to make that Vini Jr and Raphinha, but neither of them delivers what Neymar once did. Vini Jr cannot take that step for the national team. At Real Madrid he plays freely, without so much pressure, but with Brazil he forces things too much, loses the ball a lot and ends up producing inconsistent performances. And this is not new, it has been the same conversation for about four years now: “Vini Jr does not play well for Brazil.” Luís Henrique came on in the second half against France and in five minutes created more than Vini and Raphinha combined.
Going back to Neymar: he does not have the physical capacity to compete at the highest level, especially in a short tournament like the World Cup, where every game matters and you have to be at your maximum physically and technically. He simply cannot do it.
I would actually like Neymar to go to the World Cup, but I do not believe it will happen. And the chances are even lower because the coach is foreign and will not give in to pressure. If it were a Brazilian coach, like Dorival Jr or Fernando Diniz, maybe he would cave and call him up whenever he was available. With Ancelotti, that will not happen and, honestly, that is a good thing. Because Neymar, unfortunately, is already part of Brazil’s past.
Conclusion
Brazil needs a clear technical leader, someone who takes responsibility and delivers, but neither Vini Jr nor Raphinha is doing that right now. Does it have to be Neymar? No. Because he does not have the physical condition for it and even the technical side is starting to decline, as we can see in several of his games for Santos.
Neymar is not the solution to Brazil’s problems and those problems need to be fixed if they want to reach at least the quarter-finals of the World Cup.