Until they learn to take responsibility, the Brazilian national side will never fill the shoes left by previous teams

Despite having several sensational players in their ranks, this present Brazil side is struggling to reach the levels of the previous teams who pulled on that famous yellow and green jersey. A question on everyones mind is why? 

So much talk surrounding the Brazilian national team entering this tournament was about them having a changed psyche after that 7-1 defeat and them using Russia as an opportunity to seek revenge on their embarrassing exit in their home World Cup. However, with a poor performance in their opener against Sweden and a hard-fought victory Costa Rica today many are asking the question is anything has changed at all? 

Just like in Rio, Brazil have become a team who run away from responsibility. Their defeat to Germany in 2014 was said to be due to Neymar’s unfortunate injury and the pressure on the team to perform in their home country. This blame palming happened again after their disappointing draw against the Swiss when former player and now team co-ordinator, Edu, wrote a letter complaining to FIFA on the minimal use of VAR used in the game, which ironically was used overturn a penalty decision given to them by the referee against Costa Rica. 

Hence, the players and federations mindset is all wrong when they enter World Cups as instead of taking responsibility and trying to find a solution, their arrogance leads them to pass the blame baton around. 

While the team is embodied by the vibrancy of Neymar, pundits and fans are forgetting that horrific foot fracture he suffered in February. As he showed against the Swiss, he needs to grow into the tournament as his match fitness is slowly coming back so don’t expect him to shine until the last few games, if Brazil are even to get that far. 

With all their talent, Brazil should find a way into the knockout stages after already having four points and only needing a draw against Serbia to secure them a place. There are questions, however, on the manner on which they will crawl into the last 16 as their previous two performances did not have the typical Brazilian swagger. 

This Brazil side seems to lack a physical mentality which makes players do the dirty work in a game to grind out results. This gap in the Brazil team is portrayed most by the attacking flair of Neymar and Jesus that see them do stepovers and fancy flicks, which in most cases results in absolutely nothing. 

If Brazil are to the follow path to success that has been walked by previous teams then they need to take accountability for their actions in games and go back to basics. This will mean taking shots at the right times, instead of doing skills or looking for a foul, as Neymar did on more than one occasion against Costa Rica.