New Brazil coach Tite has emphasised the importance of collective responsibility in the Seleção following his first meeting with captain Neymar since his appointment. Neymar is training with the Brazil Olympic squad, coached by Rogerio Michale and Tite visited the squad this week.
There has been speculation that Tite may take the captaincy away from Neymar to ease the burden on the Barcelona star. He rotated the captaincy at Corinthians and he may be minded to do the same for Brazil.
When quizzed on his meeting with Neymar, Tite was keen to emphasise the focus on teamwork, rather than a single player, “I reiterate the speeches of Dunga and Mano because I believe that the collective strengthens the individual, it is inhumane to put all of the responsibility on one player.
“The European Championships showed us that the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo did not take away the possibility of Portugal to win. Argentina did not win the Copa América with Messi. It is inhuman to put everything in the team onto one player.”
That Tite’s first face to face meeting with Neymar is such big news in the Brazilian press illustrates exactly how central the Barca man has become in the national team. Tite will look to reduce that dependency.