After crushing Bolivia during the opening match of the CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup 2026 – it seemed, the interim coach Fernando Diniz had arrived to rescue Brazilian Football – but in the following matches, harsh reality struck Brazil – who rediscovered that they are not on the right track, rather slipping down fast to the rock bottom from where it may take a while to bounce back if the think tank of Selecao doesn’t take positive steps.
In Lima, Peru stranglehold the Brazilians until the late
goal by Marquinhos came to the rescue and at home, against Venezuela, Brazil
were left chasing shadows against the pace and counter of the South American
neighbours. The defence lost its shape consistently and the midfield never
looked creative enough – the fear was whether this would be able to handle the
rejuvenated side of Marcelo Bielsa – Uruguay at Montevideo.
The fear became a reality as Uruguay totally outclassed
Brazil and conveyed the message that the tactics of Diniz may be fruitful in
the average domestic football of Brazil but at the international level, it is
not up to the mark.
Since the defeat against Croatia in the Quarterfinal of the
FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar –the Brazilian National Team is going through a
lean patch. The defeat at the Education City Stadium witnessed the end of coach
Tite’s era, whose record may be astonishing but his tactics and choice of
players backfired severely and lost the faith of the critics and Brazilian fans
as a whole.
After every World Cup disaster Brazil fans are habituated to
witness a lot of changes in the Brazilian national team — change of coaches,
choosing the wrong ones at first and then opting for another wrong one, no
vision from the think tank and the cycle tends to repeat.
After the upset in Qatar, the think tank of Brazil Football
is adamant about going with a European coach because since the start of the
last decade, surprisingly, Brazil have struggled immensely against the top
European teams whereas once upon a time — it was the teams from Europe, who
followed Brazilian style of play the most.
But as the Europeans mastered the game, Brazil, gradually,
lost its sting. They gave rise to talents, but not special ones with a tough
mentality, and their production of world-class coaches has taken a setback.
The appointment of Ramon Menezes proved to be disastrous as
Brazil digested defeats against Morocco and Senegal. He left the way for
Fernando Diniz, who is a very popular coach among the locals because of his
success at Fluminense.
The Brazilian
Football Federation has stated that Carlo Ancelotti will take over as the coach
from next year before the start of Copa America, but until then, Brazil will
stick to the idea of an interim coach.
But at the moment, Ancelotti is giving a different statement
regarding his appointment and Ancelotti has given up the idea of becoming the
coach of Selecao then Brazil may have to stick to Diniz, whose appointment is turning
out to be like Menezes.
Who is Fernando Diniz?
Fernando Diniz was a professional footballer in the past and
started his playing career with Juventus-SP in 1993. In 1996 he moved to
Guarani but agreed to a contract with Palmeiras shortly after. In 1997, Diniz
moved to Corinthians, featuring regularly during his two-year spell at the
club. He subsequently represented Paraná, Fluminense, Flamengo, Juventude,
Cruzeiro, and Santos, all in the top tier. In 2006 Diniz signed for Paulista
and later played for Santo André and Gama. He retired with the latter in 2008,
aged 34.
After retiring from football Diniz decided to build a career
in football coaching.
He was appointed head coach of lowly Votoraty, where he was crowned champions of both Copa Paulista and Campeonato Paulista Serie A3. In 2010 he moved to Paulista.
In 2011, Diniz was named Botafogo-SP head coach, but was
fired after only four matches in charge — He was appointed at the helm of
Atletico Sorocaba in 2012. Despite achieving promotion from the Campeonato
Paulista Serie A2, he was relieved from his duties in October of that year.
In 2013 Diniz joined Audax and introduced the tiki-taka,
style of FC Barcelona, the club which would change his fortune a decade later.
Diniz returned to Audax for the 2016 Campeonato Paulista,
which he managed to lead the side to the finals, but lost to Santos.
After leaving Atletico Paranaense, where he was replaced by Tiago Nune, Diniz joined Flumeninse but was sacked — later on featured as a coach in teams like Sao Paulo, Vasco da Gama, and Santos — but the journeys were not chummy and in 2022, he returned to Fluminense, where he won his first major trophy and earned the accolades.
Diniz and his tactics
Diniz is widely known as the New Guardiola in Brazil for his
tactics because of the way Fluminense has been playing since he rejoined the
club.
Diniz himself said, “My game itself is heavily inspired by
Guardiola, in the sense of wanting to impose the game, dominate, and have fun,
I think we similarly understand football, possibly. But it’s curious: when I
saw his teams’ games live in the stadium, it became very clear that the way of
executing is very different.”
“His team is positional; it’s a game in which players hold positions in the areas of the field they occupy. And the game comes to them. The exceptions are the center-forward, in this case, Aguero, and the first man, Fernandinho. My team today, for example, is completely different. We have a lot of positional interchanges, we keep fewer positions in the midfield and upfront, we try to apply a dynamic game, and it’s a different collective participation.”
The model
Contrary to most modern managers and their constant battle for space through positional play, Diniz adopts a fluid possession-based tactic based on constant approximation and numerical superiority.
A narrow 4–2–3–1 or 4–2–2–2 is used with different
individual roles based on each player’s style — no place for rigidity but
free-flowing football.
Defence: Press
after possession loss.
Offence: Slow
Build Up, possession.
Set-Pieces: 7
players in the Box, 4 on corners and free-kicks
Goalkeeper: Sweeper
and come for crosses
Centre-back:
Default
Right-back: Balanced
and overlap
Left-back:
Balanced and overlap
Right defensive
midfielder: Cut passing Lanes, balanced attack, cover wing, and drifting
wide
Left defensive
midfielder: Cut passing lanes, stay back, cover wing, and drifting wide
Central attacking
midfielder: Stay on edge, drift wide, and basic Defence
Left and right
attacking midfielders: Come back, Wander like a free bird, and get into the
Box
Striker changing to
Centre-forward: Provide balanced width, target players in opposition
defence, at times play the role of a decoy and stay forward
The striking thing in
Diniz’s tactics
The most striking aspect of Diniz’s tactics is loading one
side of the pitch and building from there by relying on one-to-one short passes
and creating opportunities from the flanks.
In this system, Diniz has rejuvenated the old-fashioned number 10 where Ganso becomes the key player who remains close to the sideline, facing the field and dictating associations, pausing and providing technical efficiencies. The two defensive midfielders provide the pivots and the left and right attacking midfielders play the role of very good options on either side — both central and attacking midfielders direct the build-up play according to the respective interpretation, dropping between the centre-back and allow the striker to make incisive runs.
Without the ball — Diniz switches to a 4–4–2 formation and his intention is not to create spaces but with the spaces and advance forward.
Diniz exploits the half-spaces as a surprising element and in that case, his wing-backs come into action.
Diniz and his Relationalism
style of football
In the world of Diniz, positional football has little value,
rather it emphasizes relationalism.
From Football writer Jamie Hamilton’s article, we come to
know, “Relationism (a term I first introduced in November 2022) is a paradigm
of football; it is a translated twist on what Jozsef ‘Hungaro’ Bozsik first
called Jogo Funcional back in 2018. Relationism is a lens through which the
game can be theorized, practised, and developed. Positionism is also a paradigm
of football, albeit a fundamentally different one.”
“Relationism is not just players standing close together nor
can it be reduced to players ‘being friends’ with one another.”
“Relationist players move together while communicating
through signals and cues often undetectable by those schooled in various other
strains of football thinking.”
This concept seems very adventurous but if it is not
executed appropriately then a team is sure to be doomed!
Why the tactics of Diniz are not working at the international
level?
Despite having such a talented unit, why the philosophy of
Diniz is failing remains a moot question.
Relationalism of Diniz has its drawbacks as well as it
creates confusion among the players while on possession because of the lack of
positional sense and thus can lose ball-holding abilities or script missed
passes that could trigger a counterattack because, in tactics offered by Diniz,
spaces are left like the previous adventurous coaches of Brazil.
Diniz emphasizes the shorter touches of the ball and does not leave players occupying spaces before receiving the ball and while following this philosophy this is what happened in this move below: Vinicius Junior came out from the left and Rodrygo occupied the field in the same sector as Neymar and Gabriel Jesus. This is what Arias, Keno and Ganso do at Fluminense: the wingers together in a sector on the side, forming a ladder so that everyone has short passing options.
Bruno Guimaraes is the only one to pass the ball and really give Neymar a passing option. The full-back on the opposite side takes a while to support, and the wingers in the sector stay still, without looking for space in Uruguay's marking to receive the ball to make matters worse, as Neymar retreated, only Vinicius was really behind the defence, providing depth.
Now such positions leave dangerous spaces for the opposition to counter freely and against Venezuela and Uruguay – Brazil were caught more often.
Diniz cares a lot about style like Guardiola, but at the top level style or philosophies don’t win you matches rather tactics that would be understandable and suitable for the top players like Vinicius and Rodrygo to execute.
For the tactics of Diniz to see results at the international
level it would require extraordinary players like Pele, Garrincha and those
players from the team of Mexico 1970, who adapted to any system easily and even
if the opposition caught them on the counter – that team would fire more goals
to win a match.
But at present – Brazil does not produce extraordinary
players like Romario, Ronaldo, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho or Kaka; let alone the
players from the teams of World Cup 1958, 1962 and 1970.
Be it Neymar or Vinicius or Rodrygo – all of them are
talented but not extraordinary and they need to be nurtured on a system that
suits them more rather than satisfying the philosophy of a coach whose
so-called stylish football looks good on local TV channels only and at an
average football league.
Brazil need to win matches and not hearts like the 1982, and
1974 Dutch side or the Magical Magyars of 1954.
Does Brazil need Neymar anymore?
The direct answer would be – No!
When Neymar arrived on the international scene he was supposed to be the heir to the legends of the past and take the thorn of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi – but till now, he has been a frustrating figure for Brazil. His numbers are good but that does not display the fragile mentality of a player who crumbles under pressure and his lacklustre attitude has only done damage to his career and Brazil football.
In the match against Uruguay, he was injured again and with
the increase of age – he would crumble more.
Neymar has passed his best and since 2010 – he only wasted opportunities rather than focusing on the game seriously - thus, for a better future Brazil need to move without Neymar and start to rebuild under a better coach like Jose Mourinho or Carlo Ancelotti, who would not only develop an ideal system for Brazil but work on the mental aspect of the players.
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
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