Analysis: Brazil failed to adapt its strategy, says Michel Bastos

The Brazilian team should have adapted its strategy throughout the match against Norway. This is the opinion of Michel Bastos, CNN commentator at the World Cup, after the United States' 2-1 elimination from the World Cup.

According to the former player, the justification for retreating the lines and not marking under high pressure to avoid one-on-one with Haaland makes sense in the first half, but persistence does not.

"When we talk about the Brazilian team, for 90 minutes the team adapts to the opponent, and doesn't change its strategy so that the opponent adapts to its style of play... Then we kind of deviate a little from what Brazil is about."

Brazil had its worst campaign in the World Cup since 1990 with a defeat to Norway in the round of 16 | CNN AT THE CUP

In terms of protagonism, Vinícius Júnior took responsibility, in Michel Bastos' view, but abused his individuality, damaging the tactical aspect.

"I know that he gets there, at the right time, and wants to solve it, it's a big part of the athlete, he just has to be intelligent", assesses Michel.

"About 10 moves he tried to attack the opponent, he missed. There was a move in the second half where he lost the ball in the middle of the field trying to solve it and gave in to a counterattack. At these times you need to be smart."

Fragmented cycle
Michel Bastos and Cris Schwambach, CNN presenter at the World Cup, agree that the result reflects the CBF's administrative turbulence over the last four years, marked by constant changes of coaches and a change in presidency.

"Brazil had coaches who didn't talk to each other, schools that didn't talk to each other, which really shows that the CBF was lost along the way", analyzes Cris.

Michel adds that the elimination also involves a squad full of athletes who have not experienced the necessary maturation process.

"You don't prepare a World Cup for one year, but rather a four-year cycle", he points out. "There was this whole problem with the CBF, with the changes of coaches, we have players within this squad who didn't live the cycle, and the opposite, the players who were there and we couldn't count because they were injured."

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Source: CNN