With Philippe Coutinho not having an exciting season for Aston Villa, people in Brazil aren’t really keen in seeing him in the World Cup squad next month.
We already covered some comments from the local media which said the midfielder would only get a place in the squad because he’s a ‘friend‘ of manager Tite, and even the Spanish press reported he should be out.
It turns out that the main competitor for the Aston Villa player is Everton Ribeiro, and since the Flamengo star did great in the Copa Libertadores final at the weekend, there’s now a bit of a campaign for him to go to the World Cup.
“Everton Ribeiro is ridiculous. He has to go to the World Cup instead of Philippe Coutinho. He’s been playing better for a long time. The World Cup is timing. And Everton Ribeiro, when he goes to the national team, plays well,” said Casimiro (via O Dia).
Brazil’s final list will be made public on the 7th of November. Tite, who travelled to England, saw Aston Villa being thrashed 4-0 by Newcastle United this weekend, so that definitely didn’t help Coutinho’s chances of going to the World Cup.
