FIFA World Cup 2022 | Does Brazil have the most attacking team at the World Cup?

Neymar Jr and Vinicius Jr. In the last year, Vini Jr has emerged as the most devastating combination of pace and precision that a vaunted club like Real Madrid could hope for. (Image: Twitter/BrasilEdition)

What do you want to see when you see Brazil play? Attacking flair? A flamboyant dribbler? Forwards charging into the box to get that telling touch? An audacious piece of skill from the annals of Playstation Fifa? And, let’s say this in a whisper, a machine-like midfield general who snipes down opposition attacks before they can build?

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Brazil has not been the Brazil of yore, the magical purveyors of that indefinable thing called Joga Bonito, for quite some time now—at least since 2010, when luminous players steeped in Joga Bonito like Ronaldinho and Ronaldo were in the final stages of their careers.

The world has moved on too. Brazil is no longer the automatic second team for the bipartisan fan, nor the first team of choice for the unaffiliated enthusiast. Their grip on the “beautiful game” is looser than ever, now that individual flair and vision are routinely encouraged right from the academy level across Europe, leading to a generation of players from all over the world who are master dribblers and visionary passers of the ball.

The relentlessly attacking game hasn’t been Brazil’s forte for a long time; it's been picked up and improved on by the biggest clubs, from Arsenal to Barcelona, Real Madrid to Bayern Munich. Brazil has not won a World Cup in 20 years now. And for 15 years, the world of football has gotten used to getting its dose of remarkable individual skills from two non-Brazilians—Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

All of that may change when coach Tite’s team takes the field in Qatar. This is simply the most attacking Brazilian side in decades. They have so many options in the final third of the field, that Tite (Adenor Leonardo Bacchi) could afford to keep a forward of Roberto Firmino’s calibre out of the squad (that decision may yet come back to bite them, because outside of Neymar, Firmino is the only Brazilian player of note who operates best in the “false 9” position, a forward who likes to play through the middle, and Neymar is prone to picking up cards).

Tite’s attacking line-up is so strong that it does not depend on a single person—not even the most archetypal Brazilian flair player like Neymar—to make a difference.

Instead, this pack has the potential to come in waves to overwhelm the opposition. If defenders are busy trying to crowd out Neymar, he can simply roll the ball towards an onrushing Vinicius Jr, who has emerged, in the last year, as the most devastating combination of pace and precision that a vaunted club like Real Madrid could hope for. Or Neymar could find the young Rodrygo, a rising sensation at 21, to his right, popping up at just the right place at just the right time to sneak in a goal that could change the fate of the match.

At Real Madrid with Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo is still an understudy, but he has grabbed every chance that has come his way in a manner that is quickly turning him into a cult hero at the Bernabeu—not the least of which came this May, in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final against Manchester City where, trailing 1-0 (3-5 on aggregate), Rodrygo snuck in to score two goals between the 89th and 91st minute to snatch the spot in the final away from City (Real Madrid eventually won the Champions League).

Or Neymar could play the ball through to Richarlison, going from strength to strength over the last few seasons, so that he the lanky forward has seven goals from six games for Brazil this year.

In fact, from the attacking point of view, Brazil may just have too much happening. For example, Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo, Richarlison, not to mention the two Gabriels who are leading Arsenal’s incredible resurgence in the Premier League—Jesus and Martinelli—all like to play wide. Tite will have the headache of having to decide who to play and who to keep on the bench and what formation to put his beehive of attackers in.

"This squad is bringing back a lot of the same style from before, when we had Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and Rivaldo in the team. We now have players like Neymar, Vinicius Jr., even Rodrygo... they're bringing so much talent to the team," Kleberson, who was part of Brazil’s last World Cup winning team in 2002, told journalists.

The team may not depend on Neymar, but the PSG star will certainly be the main attraction and focal point of their attacking play. Great news then that Neymar has found, right on cue, his peak game—this season, he is tied top-scorer in Ligue 1 with teammate Kylian Mbappe and second best in assists behind teammate Messi. He is playing with the kind of freedom that is a throwback to when he was the newest Brazilian sensation setting the world on fire at Santos. The fact that he is only three goals behind Pele as Brazil’s all-time highest scorer would only egg him on more.

What about the rest of the team? Is there enough there to support this kind of attacking thrust? Or will they fall apart on the counter?

This is where Casemiro comes in. For long one of the world’s finest defensive midfielders, he was a key part of Real Madrid’s La Liga and Champions League winning spree in the last couple of years, and has adapted to the challenge of playing for a struggling Manchester United with aplomb, making an immediate difference in United’s ability to stay in the game and keep things ticking. Casemiro’s partnership with West Ham’s Lucas Paqueta will be crucial—they will form the platform from which the attacks will be launched.

The defence is solid too—no matter his age, Thiago Silva continues to impress with his neat, organised play and his indefatigable fitness levels. Eder Militao’s rise as a powerful central defender has come at just the right time for Brazil too—Militao became a first-choice pick for Real Madrid. Saddled with the unenviable task of replacing club legend Sergio Ramos, Militao has done brilliantly to make that space his own.

And that leads us to the goalkeeper—if Brazil has one player in the squad who can comfortably claim to be the best in the world in his position, it is Allison. The bearded Liverpool custodian is simply a giant under the bars—there is no aspect of the goalkeeper’s art in which he is not a master.

That Brazil can bring it all together into a cohesive piece of music was on display during their remarkable qualifying campaign for Qatar, where they won 10 games, drew three, lost none, scored freely with 30 goals and defended with grit to concede just five.

In Qatar, they will look to continue in that vein, to remind the world again what Joga Bonito means.