Brazil vs Costa Rica, World Cup 2018: Philippe Coutinho’s deep role makes him Tite’s key player, scouting report

No Brazil player has had to be more patient than Philippe Coutinho. No player has more than Coutinho’s 19 caps under Tite. And no player is more important than him in this Brazil side.

Coutinho, who was left out of the 2014 World Cup squad, has had a lot of time to consider his role in this Brazilian team, as have the four managers that have been in charge during his eight years in the famous yellow shirt.

The Barcelona midfielder repaid Tite’s faith in him by scoring Brazil’s only goal in their 1-1 draw with Switzerland in Group E and added another late winner against Costa Rica. Coutinho has scored two of Brazil’s three goals, been their best player over the two games and it is no coincidence.

Tite identified the emerging defensive trend from lower-ranked international sides and recognised that Brazil struggled to break down deep-lying defences.

Their 0-0 draw with England in November was a turning point. Coutinho had started on the right wing, Gabriel Jesus in the middle and Neymar on the left. All three were tightly marked and unable to find the space they need to operate in which allows them to break down defences.

Coutinho traded places on the right wing with Willian but was brought into a deeper role, replacing Renato Augusto. Now Brazil, when in possession, effectively operate a 4-1-4-1 formation, with Casemiro doing the bulk of the defensive work. It is a system which allows them to press teams higher up the pitch, but most importantly it also allows Coutinho space to work in.

After three minutes against Costa Rica, Coutinho let fly at goal from the edge of the box, unmarked. Unlike against Switzerland, he failed to find the back of the net, but immediately showed that he can again evade the attention of defenders.

Coutinho’s deeper role also greatly benefits Neymar. He often dropped deep and created space for Neymar to run into. On one occasion he found the winger with a perfectly weighted through pass. Neymar latched onto the ball and tried to round Keylor Navas but could not get past the goalkeeper.

The first half ended in frustration. The Brazilian players strolled down the tunnel at the break with their arms waving at one another as arguments about what they should be doing broke out between small groups.

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Brazil were heavily reliant on their left hand side and all five chances in the first half were created on that flank. Coutinho had a hand in three of them, Neymar and Marcelo the others to chip in.

After the break, a shift to take him more central created further space for Marcelo and Neymar, and almost an opening goal. Jesus hit the bar with a header and amidst the chaos in the box, Coutinho calmly took up space on the edge of the box where the ball found him. He ran onto it and side footed the ball goal bound but had his effort heroically cleared off the line.

Just over five minutes later, Coutinho had another chance to score from the edge of the box but Navas saved well from his low effort.

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Brazil initially failed to break down the Costa Rican defence which would, on the face of it, render Coutinho’s mission to find goal a failure. However much of Brazil’s good work came from the former Liverpool man who was unfortunate on two occasions to not open the scoring early on, but eventually got his reward.

The patient play was worth the wait. In the first minute of added time, Roberto Firmino headed a cross down to Jesus who touched it into space. Once again, timing his run to perfection was Coutinho who was on hand to fire the ball into the back of the net and save Brazil. The payment for his intelligence and perseverance in a deeper and more central role.

Marcelo, Neymar and Jesus played without structure or discipline. They made identical runs, occupied the same space and were ultimately left frustrated. Patiently watching on was Coutinho who was by far Brazil’s brightest attacking player amongst a gloomy set of individuals.