Scolari's predecessor Mano Menezes had spent two years attempting to build a team which could play a Barcelona-style possession game with a Brazilian touch.
With Brazilians demanding their team win a sixth world title in style when their country hosts next year's World Cup, Menezes appeared to be making good progress until he was astonishingly fired last November.
Three matches into his second stint in one of the sport's most high-pressure jobs, and still winless, it is already clear that Scolari is heading in a different direction with the emphasis on a solid defence, work-rate and team spirit.
"Kaka's performance was what we expected, but the most important thing that I wanted him to do was to come back and mark the Russian number eight, who was dictating the rhythm of the game," said Scolari.
"Marcelo's performance was balanced, he attacked when he had to attack and marked well."
The worry for Brazil is that Scolari's recent results have been less impressive and the recipe is no longer so effective.
Scolari's team will clearly be well-organised and difficult to beat but there is already a feeling they lack the panache of South American rivals Argentina and a resurgent Colombia.
Neymar again looked lightweight against European defenders. It was a generally joyless performance, a far cry from Scolari's own jovial personality.
Impatient at having to have his answers translated into English, he pulled faces which suggested exasperation while the interpreter was speaking, then set off on a rambling anecdote after opposite number Fabio Capello said a pitch invader had affected Russia's concentration.
"When I was coach of Portugal, we were playing in Estonia or one of those countries over there, maybe it was Latvia, and a girl came onto the pitch and she didn't have anything up top," Scolari recounted.
"Everyone was looking at her. The score was 0-0 at the time and we won 2-0. Maybe their players were distracted by h
