Ageing Brazil need major surgery - but is Ancelotti the man to do it?

Ageing Brazil need major surgery - but is Ancelotti the man to do it?To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.This video can not be playedFigure caption, Haaland sends Norway into the quarter-finals as Brazil crash outByTim VickeryBBC SportPublished3 minutes agoFour years ago Brazil were unlucky to go out of the World Cup to Croatia in the quarter-finals. Four years prior that they were also slightly unfortunate to fall to Belgium at the same stage. This time they failed even to get that far and there was nothing unlucky about their loss to Norway. This, frankly, is an unmitigated disaster.Carlo Ancelotti arrived with his band aid after a 4-1 thrashing by Argentina in March of last year. Of his 16 games in charge of the national team he has won 10, drew three and lost three. He turned around a side that had struggled in World Cup qualifying, losing four out of five games prior to his arrival.But that has not proved enough.Brazil now need major surgery - starting with the area of the field where they used to be so strong, so creative, so entrancing - the midfield.Turning their back on imaginative central midfield play has lost Brazil some friends along the way, and it is also losing them matches. The fact that they were comprehensively outpassed by Norway on a warm summer's afternoon at this World Cup is simply astonishing - but it has to do with the make up of the side.Ancelotti was a hostage to Casemiro. The first thing the coach did was recall the player from 18 months in the international wilderness. There were plusses. Casemiro gave the team structure and freed Bruno Guimaraes, who until his early missed penalty against Norway - and what a difference that might have made - was enjoying a fine tournament. But Casemiro's vulnerability in open space was always a problem - clear in the second minute when Norway had a goal disallowed. And so the way Brazil defended was to drop deep and watch Norway exchange their passes and grow in c...