The successful Brazilian club manager has enjoyed an instant impact with the national side, rebuilding confidence after a string of major tournament disappointments
When Tite took the helm with Brazil in June 2016, he made a few changes to the team. One of them was replacing Filipe Luis with Marcelo at left-back.
Brazil are No.1 in the FIFA rankings once again for the first time in seven years
The former Corinthians coach had always been known for an approach that’s a far cry from his predecessor Dunga's military way of guiding his group of players. So almost no one was surprised when he presented Filipe Luis with a book (Paulo Coelho’s Maktub) and spoke to the player after his decision to keep the Atletico Madrid footballer motivated.
Well, it’s now a year since his announcement as Brazil’s new boss, and it’s safe to say that Tite has successfully motivated his side.
Ready for Russia
The five-time world champions have coasted to Russia 2018 with four games to spare after a 3-0 home win over Paraguay last March. They won all of their eight matches in the South American qualifiers under Tite – and if anyone is wondering whatever happened to Filipe Luis, he started three of them and should be in the World Cup squad.
The 7-1 crushing by Germany is well in the past and Brazil are No.1 in the FIFA rankings once again for the first time in seven years.
When Tite got this job, he started calling the players and said to each of them: "I don't want to know about problems of the past. It's a new era now.”
They have followed where he has led. Marcelo is back to his best form, Thiago Silva had the captain’s armband in a friendly against Argentina after months in the wilderness, Paulinho doesn’t remotely resemble the player that never settled at White Hart Lane, and even David Luiz was called up again after his brilliant season with Chelsea.
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All four returned to the fold after Dunga’s exit.
“Tite arrived and made adjustments,” said Neymar. "The players are not really different - it's the way of playing.”
Marcus Alves is a freelance journalist based in Lisbon and has written for FourFourTwo since 2012. He can also be found at BBC Sport, the Telegraph, Kicker and Yahoo. A former ESPN reporter, he covered 12 games in 15 days during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, but can barely remember any of them. He blames cachaça for that.
