Brazil's Starting XI: 4-3-3 with Ramires and Oscar - Is Benitez listening?

England face Brazil tonight at Wembley stadium. The side is captained by Chelsea‘s own David Luiz and managed by former Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari (and his glorious mustache). It is going to be a good watch and an interesting matchup with plenty of Chelsea’s talent on display. Not to mention a rare chance to see what Neymar has to offer against defenders of Premier League quality. Two of the Brazil starting line-up have actually been recently linked with moves to the Bridge, one being Neymar, the other being Corinthians midfielder Paulinho.

Brazil’s confirmed starting 11 is as follows; (4-3-3)

Júlio César

Dani Alves, David Luiz, Dante, Adriano;

Ramires, Paulinho, Oscar;

Ronaldinho, Luís Fabiano, Neymar.

Hopefully our manager is watching the game tonight since this Brazil side have extremely similar type of players at their disposal as Chelsea do, and they have decided to start in a 4-3-3 with 2 of our talented midfielders in that midfield 3.

Let’s have a quick comparison from this line-up to Chelsea’s current crop of players;

Julio Cesar – Cech is better

Dani Alves – A more attacking and finished article version of Cesar Azpilicueta

David Luiz – For some reason, he reminds me of a current Chelsea player in the number 4 shirt with big hair

Dante – Big strong centre back, we have 3 of those in Cahill, Ivanovic and Terry

Adriano – Attacking left-back who can’t defend that well (we have Cole who can attack just as well and defend far better)

Ramires – The box to box engine in the midfield

Paulinho – The deep sitting passer (only player we currently lack, although Mikel usually plays this role when he is with the squad)

Oscar – Pulls the strings in the midfield, transitions defence to attack, finds spaces all over the pitch and puts in a shift defensively.

Ronaldinho – Not a natural winger by any means, more of a free roaming creator with a real eye for goal and excellent feet. Not tied down on the wing in this formation, given the licence to roam (we have Mata, although not in the same league in terms of dribbling ability, does the same job as Ronaldinho does. He creates from the front, gets in between the lines and scores important goals)

Luis Fabiano – Big, physical and strong forward who is a very good finisher, offers a different dimension to the team (we have Ba)

Neymar – The true flair player in the side. A forward with plenty of trickery, tons of pace to burn, an eye for a pass and can finish chances (we have Eden Hazard, he is cut from exactly the same cloth)

All in all, it cuts a very similar look to this team; (4-3-3)

Cech

Azpilicueta, David Luiz, Cahill, Cole

Ramires, Mikel, Oscar

Mata, Ba, Hazard

We could even move David Luiz into the holding midfield to give the side a real samba look, we could bring in Frank Lampard in his preferred position (the most attacking of a central midfield 3) which will get the most out of him. Romeu would be perfect for the holding role, unfortunately he is injured for the foreseeable future. There are many more options in the 4-3-3 for us at this present time, especially until we get the deep midfield passer we desperately need.

Having 3 in midfield makes us more versatile, it gives us 2 players in almost every position and solves the current problems we are having in the centre of midfield (having Oscar deeper to help getting the passing going). Why not try it out?

As CD posted earlier, this break could prove to be a blessing in disguise for Rafa Benitez, it can be used as some useful reflection time for him. Let’s hope he does in fact make use of this look at Oscar and Ramires in a midfield 3 and that he actually attempts to change his rigid tactics and stubborn ways to actually benefit the team!

The way I see it; if Oscar and Ramires are good enough to start for the most successful national side ever in a midfield 3, then why can’t they do the same for Chelsea?

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Carefree & KTBFFH