(Well, hi y’all! Sorry for not posting anything for a while. I was planning to write a preview/prediction for this callup, but life got in the way, so I’m just doing this reaction post for now.)

Today, Tite called up the Brazil squad for our last round of friendlies before the World Cup in November—against Ghana on September 23 and against Tunisia on the 27th, both being played in France. And he chose an… interesting mix of 26 players, to say the least. Here they are:

Goalkeepers

  • Alisson – Liverpool
  • Ederson – Manchester City
  • Weverton – Palmeiras

Center-backs

  • Bremer – Juventus
  • Militão – Real Madrid
  • Marquinhos – PSG
  • Ibañez – Roma
  • Thiago Silva – Chelsea

Fullbacks

  • Danilo – Juventus
  • Alex Sandro – Juventus
  • Alex Telles – Sevilla

Midfielders

  • Bruno Guimarães – Newcastle
  • Casemiro – Manchester United
  • Everton Ribeiro – Flamengo
  • Fabinho – Liverpool
  • Fred – Manchester United
  • Paquetá – West Ham

Forwards

  • Antony – Manchester United
  • Firmino – Liverpool
  • Matheus Cunha – Atlético de Madrid
  • Neymar – PSG
  • Pedro – Flamengo
  • Raphinha – Barcelona
  • Richarlison – Tottenham
  • Rodrygo – Real Madrid
  • Vinicius Júnior – Real Madrid

With a raft of eyebrow-raising inclusions and absences, it’s easy to wonder what Tite is playing at here. I’m seeing a lot of comments treating this like the final World Cup squad, and it would certainly be a bizarre and disappointing one. While I can’t argue that it would be a bad World Cup squad, I don’t think most of the stranger choices will be reflected in the final selection. First of all, we have some precedent: Globo reminds us that Tite’s final squad before the 2018 World Cup included four players who didn’t make the final cut—three of whom, Neto, Talisca, and Willian José, were getting their first looks under Tite, and the other, Rodrigo Caio, getting a last chance after slowly falling out of favor. That sounds a lot like the sort of players Tite is bringing in or bringing back. (We should note that Dani Alves also technically didn’t make the final cut, but that was very obviously only due to a serious injury keeping him out of the tournament.)

But beyond that, there’s also plenty of evidence that Tite’s choices and omissions are more about solving the team’s remaining positional questions than guaranteeing players’ places in Qatar. With that in mind, I’m going give my thoughts on each of the major points of discussion in turn:

Where are the Arsenal players?

That’s right: despite being regulars in Tite’s Brazil squads in recent months, Arsenal’s three Gabriéis—Jesus, Martinelli, and Magalhães— are missing from this one. Have they fallen out of favor? Not likely (though Magalhães has had some iffy moments this season). I think this is simply Tite paying his former assistant Edu Gaspar, now Arsenal’s technical coordinator, a favor. While we might have some doubts about the two Gabriéis M., it seems like all three are pretty well assured of a place in the World Cup squad, and if that’s the case, why not give them and your old buddy Edu a break?

A CB at RB?

Or maybe Magalhães’s place isn’t assured just yet. Tite is taking a look at two new faces in the center-back role—the much-hyped Gleison Bremer of Juventus, and Roma’s Roger Ibañez, who I’m delighted to see as much for his ability as for it lessening the chances that he ends up playing for Italy or Uruguay instead.

But I get the sense that these new faces aren’t competing for Magalhães’s slot as the fourth CB; instead, I think they’re competing for a fifth CB slot. Why? Well, Tite didn’t select another dedicated right-back to back up Danilo. While there are some interesting names out on the fringes, like Dodô and Vanderson, the pool of RBs on Tite’s radar looks exceedingly thin. Emerson Royal has been out of favor for a while, and Dani Alves’ age may finally be catching up to him, as he’s had a tough start at Pumas and is apparently struggling with some fitness issues. Instead, he seems to be looking at CBs who can double as RBs. Tite already gave Éder Militão a look in this role against South Korea, and in his press conference today he said that Ibañez can also play the role, which I’ll admit I wasn’t aware of.

Honestly, I don’t think it’s a bad idea, given our lack of quality in the position.

LB looks (unfortunately) pretty well settled

Just before this callup, we got the sad news that Guilherme Arana suffered a knee injury that will keep him out for the rest of 2022, taking him completely out of the World Cup conversation. Would this be the opening that allowed Renan Lodi to get back into the picture for the position? Nope, doesn’t look like it. Lodi hasn’t been called up for Brazil since it was revealed that he hadn’t taken his second COVID vaccine dose, and though he subsequently did, it apparently wasn’t enough to get him back in Tite’s good graces. His mistake in the Copa América is almost certainly the bigger black mark against him, but come on, every defender loses his man every once in a while. It’s not like Lodi has a habit of committing unforced handballs in major elimination games or anything.

OK, but seriously, Thiago Silva’s otherwise sterling track record has kept him in the team despite the occasional boneheaded mistake, and Lodi’s impressive early performances for Brazil should have earned him way more opportunities even after his blunder against Argentina. I think the other thing that’s weighed against Lodi, even beyond his lack of playing time at club level recently, is that he’s been played as a wingback. For Atlético Madrid last season and Nottingham Forest this season, he’s often been used when the team lined up with three center-backs. Much the same is happening with Emerson Royal at Tottenham (Antonio Conte of course being famous for loving the 3-5-2 formation), who has his own shitshow in yellow weighing against him, but has also been playing well enough to maybe have earned another look.

But I think it’s kind of silly to completely ignore them for this reason! After all, we have a very nice group of quality center-backs, and it’s not like the traditional, four-at-the-back fullbacks we have are particularly great either. Might be nice to have the personnel to at least make three CBs an option!

Regardless, all this leaves us, a bit disappointingly with the Alexes, Sandro and Telles, as our likely LBs at the World Cup. I’ll grant that this is a slightly better talent pool than we have at RB, less likely to require a CB to step in (not that we have any who can deputize on the left). But it’s not great: as Black Matt commented earlier, would you rather have this LB pairing or the Michel Bastos/Gilberto pairing we brought to South Africa in 2010? Bastos was certainly miles better than either Alex when going forward, and while he wasn’t much of a defender, they also have proven that they aren’t either.

Relatively unchanged midfield?

The only change from our now-typical cohort of midfielders is Everton Ribeiro in Philippe Coutinho’s place. Coutinho’s certainly had a pretty rough start to the season for Aston Villa while Ribeiro has played well in Flamengo’s run to the Copa Libertadores final, but I have to think most of us would still prefer the former if we were forced to choose between them. Coutinho’s position may be more tenuous than we think, given his and Ribeiro’s relative club form, but I think it’s also possible that he’s another known quantity like the Arsenal players being allowed to stay with his club, in his place to maybe better reclaim his form before the World Cup.

I also want to point out that one reason why I think Gabriel Martinelli’s place in the World Cup squad is pretty certain is precisely because of our relative lack of attacking midfielders, such that we’re debating between two kinda washed-up players to be Lucas Paquetá’s backup. It’s not Martinelli’s primary function, but he’s been playing a little more centrally and coming a little deeper for Arsenal this season, and I think it’s helping his overall game. Like a very poor man’s Kaká, he can run at defenders and combine with his teammates more effectively through a middle than he could when stuck out on the wing. That he can do this (even if, for Brazil, he’d be behind Neymar, Paquetá, and Coutinho in the pecking order) tells me that he has the sort of versatility that Tite is looking for.

Free-for-all up front

Even absent Gabriel Jesus, Tite has loaded this selection with options for the number 9 position. Roberto Firmino, Matheus Cunha, Richarlison, Pedro, and maybe even Rodrygo could perform the function. Richarlison’s plane ticket is pretty well stamped at this point, and GJ will surely be in Qatar too, but with FIFA expanding the World Cup squads from 23 players to 26, there’s definitely room for one more striker, especially when we don’t have a ton of confidence in any one of them. So it seems like Tite’s gathered in anybody he thinks could play the role and is going to give them one last chance to duke it out amongst themselves and prove they have what it takes to go to Qatar. Your candidates:

  • Firmino’s had a solid start to the season, but his two-goal, three-assist showing in the 9-0 win over Bournemouth is starting to seem like just as much of a fluke as, well, this year’s Liverpool team winning a game 9-0. He hasn’t played or even been called up for Brazil since last year’s Copa América, and this has the feel of an old warrior being given one last shot for old times’ sake. Maybe he’ll score four goals in two games, but more likely he’ll remind us that he doesn’t have what it takes any more.
  • Cunha went from being Luis Suárez’ backup at Atlético Madrid last year to Álvaro Morata’s this year, a pretty embarrassing development if we’re being honest. I still think he has the talent to really thrive as the striker for a team that actually makes him their regular starter, but for that to happen he first needs to find a team willing to start him regularly. One goal or assist in every five cameo appearances off the bench isn’t enough, and let’s not forget that while he’s done some good stuff in his appearances for Brazil, he hasn’t produced any more end product in those games. I’m glad he’s been called up, but I think he needed to leave Atleti this summer to rediscover some semblance of goalscoring form, and I can’t imagine that just as with his club, he’ll be benched for these Brazil games by players in better form. Speaking of…
  • I was much more optimistic about Pedro eighteen or so months ago than I am now that I’ve watched him more closely, but after a pretty rough 2021 and first half of 2022, he’s made some huge strides in redeeming himself in recent months. His 12 Copa Libertadores goals (more than Gabigol ever scored in a Libertadores campaign) led Flamengo to their third final in four years. Tite’s been a fan of his for a while, but injuries and poor form never allowed Pedro to get a fair shot. I have a sense that these are the games where that will finally change. Will Pedro step up, or will he be exposed as not good enough for this level? Certainly he owes some of his success to being the focal point of maybe the best attack in South American club football, but he’s also finally established himself as the starter over Gabigol, which was never the case when he’d struggled before. And for all these question marks and his occasional propensity for scuffing an easy chance, Pedro still has the ability to carve out space for a shot and the knack for holding up the ball and bringing his teammates into the game that so impressed me when I was more optimistic about him.
  • It’s going to be hard to leave Rodrygo out after his Champions League heroics last season. He is, as the kids say, clutch AF. But here’s my concern: was he so essential to Real Madrid because he’s so good, or because they just didn’t have any decent right-sided attackers? Many of Real’s UCL comebacks happened after Rodrygo came on for someone like Fede Valverde, who barely counts as a winger. Rodrygo thrived because Real had nobody else who could stretch defenses down the right like he could… because they kinda lacked any other fast players in the position. That’s not a problem Brazil shares. Sure, Raphinha or Antony aren’t quite as good at making runs in behind, and Richarlison’s first touch is undeniably worse than Rodrygo’s, but if Real Madrid had been able to turn to any of those three players, would we even be talking about Rodrygo right now? I don’t know, honestly. I’d love to see some discussion down in the comments.

Oof, I wrote too much. I’ll leave further discussion to y’all for now. But before I go, worth noting that the CBF is expecting the final callup for the World Cup to be made on November 7.