Carlo Ancelotti, Casemiro and Lucas Paqueta were among those under fire after Brazil’s 1-1 draw with Morocco in their World Cup opener.
There is always great expectation on the Brazilian side at a major tournament and this year’s World Cup is no different.
It may not be a classic Brazil team, but they have brought in one of the world’s greatest managers to try and win their sixth World Cup, but their first since 2002.
Their campaign got off to an underwhelming start, though, as they were held to a draw by Morocco in New Jersey.
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Ismael Saibari put the underdogs ahead after 21 minutes, with Vinicius Junior equalising just 11 minutes later, which proved to be the final goal of the game.
Morocco are highly-rated and reached the semi-finals in Qatar in 2022, so Brazil were not taking on minnows, but the African side largely dominated the first half.
Ancelotti’s side improved after the break, but former Brazil midfielder Neto was not impressed at all and took aim at the manager and a string of his players.
The 59-year-old, who won 16 caps from 1988-93, said, via ESPN: ‘This Ancelotti is a joke. He picks the team badly.
‘How long have I been saying that Casemiro isn’t fit to play football? [Lucas] Paqueta? Paqueta’s little dance? He’s useless.
‘[Roger] Ibañez? Igor Thiago? No. Let’s change things up, put in Danilo Santos, Luiz Henrique, Rayan. Put in Endrick.’
19-year-old Endrick remained an unused substitute, to the surprise of many Brazil fans.
‘What did Endrick do to these people?’ Neto asked. ‘I can’t understand why he’s not playing and isn’t coming on. It’s amazing how Ancelotti didn’t have any vision regarding substitutions.’
Former Liverpool and Brazil midfielder Lucas Leiva took aim at Casemiro’s performance as well, saying he is the player to dictate play from central midfield, but was unable to do so.
‘I think Casemiro is the player, but I think today he looked always late in the challenge, he never looked controlled,’ Leiva told CBS. ‘Sometimes he was ahead of Bruno [Guimaraes] in the build-up, which should be different, it should be Casemiro a little bit deeper and Bruno higher up.
‘They couldn’t find themselves in these spaces and this is why they never looked like controlling the midfield.
‘Fabinho gave them a little bit more stability when he came on. But overall the team didn’t play well and the midfield especially didn’t control, which I think is the key for the team.’
The criticism did not end there, with another Brazil midfielder Felipe Melo hitting out at Ancelotti for picking Roger Ibanez at right-back in place of the injured Wesley.
‘Ancelotti is one of the greatest in history, but you can’t let this slide; he started with the wrong starting eleven,’ the former Juventus player told SporTV.
‘Ibañez shouldn’t have started the game at all. He comes off and improves the team. He’s a very good player, but poor guy, he’s not a full-back. First World Cup game and he puts in a guy who’s a centre-back and doesn’t even have the knack for playing as a full-back? There’s Danilo . I didn’t like how Brazil behaved. He needs to be criticised.
‘Individually, Vinicius Jr. made all the difference for Brazil; he was the best player on the field. But Morocco’s team performance was much better. Even the defensive organization that I talked so much about, the organised team, that organization wasn’t seen today.’