Opinion – Walter Casagrande Jr.: Tite cannot be tied to ‘darlings’; Pedro and Gabigol have to be in the national team

I’ve always made my opinion very clear about the need to have a striker within the squad of a football team and I think of it as a call-up for the Cup. Just like I always thought Pedro was a super talented striker with a huge repertoire to score goals.

He climbs and heads very well, turns very easily to two sides because he has the ease of finishing with both feet. There’s a slap at the entrance to the deadly area. He does the pivot wonderfully well, goes out to the table and moves inside the area to both sides, outside of opportunism and positioning inside the area. That is, if I were a singer in a band, I would say that he has a formidable command of the stage.

He said several times that he needed to leave Flamengo to be a starter in another team to go to the Qatar Cup because every coach came with the same story: Pedro and Gabriel cannot play together – and many of the press agreed with that.

Well, I’m sure those who had doubts or were against the two together as starters are starting to change their minds. There’s always room for great players within a team.

Shall we talk about selection?

The view I have is that Tite doesn’t like Gabriel’s way, because it’s impossible not to give the number 9 shirt to a guy who was top scorer in several competitions in a row since when he was at Santos. His goal repertoire includes many decisive goals, such as the two he scored in the 2019 Libertadores final against River.

That alone would give you the right to be the starter of the Brazilian team in every game, but that’s not what happened, and Tite’s patience with him was very short. It took a while to be replaced. Or else, 20 minutes came in, didn’t change the game and was no longer called up.

With Pedro it seems to be the opposite.

He has already been called up, being a few times a starter. I strongly believe that if he continues to be a starter and score goals, he will be in the middle of the 26 that will go to the Cup. Tite knows he needs someone to score goals.

In 2018, among many other things, we lacked goals from a striker to go further. Just to remind you that shirt 9 was Gabriel Jesus. He didn’t score any goals and went a long time without scoring at Manchester City. Since 2019, at the Copa América, he has not played for the national team either.

Okay, Tite has his “darlings” with a captive chair and Gabriel Jesus is one of them, but I don’t believe he will let a talented guy like Pedro out. It wouldn’t be smart of him not to take a decisive player, just as it would be smart to take Daniel Alves, but that subject will be for another text.

Of course, all this is just my opinion, but it’s not now that I started talking about Pedro.

Tite has to take players who will be scoring decisive goals at the time of the last call-up and not stick to “darlings”. It’s not these guys he needs in a World Cup, but whoever decides.

In fact, I would take Pedro and Gabriel Barbosa.

Why not?

HULK AND RAPHAEL VEIGA NEED TO IMPROVE

With the result of the two most important games of the round, it is possible to make some projections about the fight for the title and to see that two players had a drop in performance.

At the end of next week, the second round begins, and the fight for the title is designed by the two biggest rivals in the city of São Paulo: Corinthians and Palmeiras.

Abel Ferreira’s team suffered a lot, despite having clear chances of goals, to win Internacional. But, anyway, it has been in the lead for a long time being one of the most constant and regular team in the championship.

To be champion in the points scored, it is necessary to have balance in the results, and Palmeiras has plenty of that. It is one of the few titles that Abel Ferreira has not won here in South America. There were two Libertadores, one from São Paulo and one Copa do Brasil. The only thing missing is the Brazilian Championship.

Corinthians’ victory, with a full Mineirão, against a great team from Atlético Mineiro, was a result that gives security and confidence to a team that is being assembled within the competition itself.

Vítor Pereira did a great job in this game and played very well when he decreased the age of the team, giving more consistency and speed to the game. Corinthians is taking shape because it won very few big games during the year. It won only one classic, 4-0 against Santos in the Copa do Brasil. In the Brazilian, they beat Flamengo 1-0, but nothing like beating Galo in the middle of Mineirão.

This victory is to really put yourself in the fight for the title.

Palmeiras have a four-point advantage and, to really bother, Corinthians need to win the second-round classic at Neo Química Arena – because the biggest difference between the two teams is exactly that: victory in classics.

The two players who dropped in performance are Hulk and Raphael Veiga. Until a few months ago, a lot of people, like me, were asking for a chance in the selection for both of them.

They really deserved it, but all of a sudden everything changed.

The Hulk, for example, doesn’t make a dash, is easily disarmed and can’t even throw the powerful kicks he has. In addition, he is very poorly hitting free kicks and has become easy prey for defenders.

Veiga had an injury and didn’t come back well. But not only that. He missed three penalties, one against Santos in Vila and another two in the elimination of the Copa do Brasil against São Paulo. Penalties for Palmeiras were certain goals until a few months ago.

But he’s also been missing from the games. He was substituted against Inter. A guarantee of resistance in the leadership of his team in the championship involves the return of his good football and the same thing happens to Rooster, who, in order to continue in the fight, urgently needs the strength and football of the Hulk.

Finally, two Portuguese coaches are at the top of the table at the moment.

Abel Ferreira for me is the best coach working in the country. Vítor Pereira has shown efficiency in understanding the game, always making changes that somehow change the match in favor of his team, as it was in this victory against Galo.