Monday, June 03, 2013

Is Neymar that good?

One of the many interesting things in today's clash in a new Maracana Stadium between England and Brazil was to see how Neymar, who has just been signed by mighty FC Barcelona, might do against English defenders.
In the first half Neymar and the entire Brazilian team were far superior to an English side that the South American commentators where I watched it, were rightly quite unimpressed about. But a few changes in the second half and it seemed that England got Brazil under control, and a 2-2 draw was in the end a pretty good result.
And what about Neymar? I think that like most of Brazil's team he fell back into a comfortable life, believing that the match was won before it ended. That is why Brazil will not be world champions. They made the same mistake in the Olympics and they have not learned the lesson.
Neymar is a hugely gifted player. He has been doing spectacularly for Santos, but in the national team he has done nothing when it counts, neither at the Olympics or Copa America. And in Europe he will be up against completely different defenders, and will not be protected by the referees. I do not believe he has the mentality or discipline to be worth all the hype, and I believe that rather like Robinho, he will be a nomad of big European sides, without breaking through in any, but will be remembered as just another really good Brazilian player. 

1 comment:

El Erik said...

Yes he is!