Brazil boss Tite admitted this his new look midfield will take some time to harmonise, following the Seleção’s 1-0 victory over Uruguay at Emirates Stadium. Tite started with Walace at the base of the midfield behind Arthur and Renato Augusto.
Augusto drifted to the left to create overloads with Filipe Luis and Neymar, but Walace and Arthur’s relationship was a little more troubled on the night.
“When you mess up the structure of the midfield and you have Walace, who has become accustomed to being a second defensive midfielder playing as a first defensive midfielder, you end up losing mechanics. He and Arthur do not play together, the bond is not there yet.
“Renato, Filipe Luís and Neymar look down and already know where to be and where to play triangular passes. With the passage of time they may have a greater understanding." Tite was pleased to finally get the breakthrough with Neymar’s 76 th minute penalty.
“Great teams are those that invariably score. We played 30 times now and we scored in 28 games. We created chances, today the team had 12 shots, four on target. Richarlison had a chance. In the first half the marking was strong, with a well-structured opponent.”