Legendary footballer Kaka picks this player over Neymar as Brazil’s protagonist

Ahead of the knockout stage of FIFA World Cup 2018, former Brazil legendary footballer Kaka has hailed Philippe Coutinho as Brazil’s most decisive player at the World Cup and also suggested the side to protect Neymar while he recovers from injury.

"Neymar is our best player. And I think Tite is doing a great work on managing him and trying to get him as comfortable as possible and trying to make the group stronger.

The group is so strong, and we see Coutinho as the protagonist, the most decisive player in Brazil,” Kaka, who hampered his career with injuries, added.

Neymar will continue to hog the limelight, the good news for coach Tite is that there is plenty more to his side than the Paris Saint-Germain forward as they prepare to take on Mexico on Monday.

"In football there is always one player who gets spoken about more. But you need to have a very good team," said Casemiro, the formidable Real Madrid defensive midfielder, this week.

"It is inevitable that people will say the player we have who is above average is Neymar, but we cannot forget that we have other great players."

The flamboyance of the Brazil teams which lit up the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, when the likes of Zico and Socrates delighted fans but ultimately failed to deliver, has long since been replaced by pragmatism.

The World Cup-winning Brazil teams of 1994 and 2002 had plenty of attacking talent, but owed their success as much to defensive steel.

In 2002, only England scored against Brazil in the knockout stages, a solid back line providing the foundation for Ronaldo to get the goals that won his country a fifth World Cup.

This Brazil team is constructed on similarly formidable defensive ground, with just eight goals conceded in 28 matches after the 2-0 win over Serbia on Wednesday.

"We have a very balanced squad, intelligent, and composed when we have to be," said centre-back Thiago Silva, who headed in Brazil's second goal against the Serbians.