African Star wrote:
I hope it is rather apparent now that Scolari was poor in his preparatuons. It's clear to see if you counter this German team you can beat them, Algeria almost did, Ghana almost did and today Argentina has had the better chances by a slight margin. Are you telling me that Algeria, Ghana and France are way superior to this Brazil team? No Scolari is a one trick pony, he did not even alter formations and tactics against Holland. This team even lacked attacking ideas and patterns of play.
Scolari's team imploded. The burden of expectations simply broke what turned out to be no more than an average team. Scolari couldn't control his defenders getting dumb yellow cards or running like headless chickens. Never mind Neymar cracking his back.
What turned out to be an average team couldn't handle losing Silva and Neymar and the burden of expectations. They imploded.
By the way, nobody beat Germany. Keep in mind, you have to judge these things over 7 games. On that basis, you're exaggerating Ghana and Algeria, teams that lost 2 games each! In fact, Germany adjusted due to the Ghana and Algeria game, reworking the defense to become stronger.
But don't lose sight of them having the players that made this tactical adjustment work. I don't believe that any tactical adjustment would have made Brazil beat Germany. Again, I think if Brazil stayed disciplined, the result would have been closer, but no different.
Scolari didn't have the horses. Fred, Hulk, and Jo are not the 3 Rs. That is an immense difference.
As we discussed before, a team is mostly the culmination of the development and preparation that happened across a generation or two before a WC. That's how competitive and long ranging WC competition has become. On game day, a coach mostly has to avoid doing something stupid...otherwise, the players and their development and management over years takes over.
Scolari didn't do anything stupid on game day. The players did. It's on them and how they were developed, trained, and managed.
Cheers, Mate