Carlo Ancelotti will test Rayan in a midfield role for Brazil's friendly against Japan on Saturday. The Italian coach compared the experiment to Ángel Di María's successful deployment for Real Madrid's 2014 Champions League-winning side.
The formation was repeated from Thursday's training session, with Rayan in a midfield trio alongside Bruno Guimarães and Andrey Santos as the defensive anchor. The technical staff believes the Bournemouth attacker has the offensive capacity to link with Vinícius Júnior on the left, attack space in the box, and the physical strength to recover the ball.
"Personally, I proved this in 2014 with Di María and it worked out very well," said Ancelotti. "We won the Champions League, putting an extreme, accustomed to playing as extreme in the midfield."
The defensive novelty will be Carlos Augusto, replacing Douglas Santos who was a starter at the last World Cup. In attack, Raphinha is increasingly consolidated as a centre-forward, with Vinícius Júnior on the left and Estevão on the right. Bruno Guimarães, who missed training with a minor issue, is now fit to play.
The friendly against Japan is scheduled for Saturday at 7:15 AM (Brasília time) at the National Stadium in Singapore. The Brazil team concludes the year next Tuesday against the local team at 7:00 AM. Ancelotti stated this FIFA friendly period will be the last with this focus on testing new players, with plans to consolidate the group from March next year.
More detail at Globo Esporte
