Copa America 2019: The Brazil XI that won’t feature in the competition

Defensive midfielder: Fabinho (Liverpool)

Copa America seems to have come too early for Fabinho, who nonetheless impressed with Liverpool

Another questionable call by Tite is the inclusion of Casemiro over Fabinho. While the former had a torrid campaign with Los Blancos, the Liverpool star made a fine debut in the Premier League. He underpinned his side’s Champions League success and also played a vital role in the domestic title chase, after a relatively slow start. But apparently, that wasn’t enough to merit a place even in the 23-man squad, let alone start in the tournament proper.

Attacking midfielder: Paulinho (Guangzhou Evergrande)

Paulinho's decision to move back to China has come to haunt him

When with Barcelona, Paulinho successfully proved that plying your trade in China doesn’t necessarily lead to losing your powers. The Brazilian had an overwhelmingly positive season with the Catalans last year, but instead of building on the same, made the most perplexing U-turn in recent memory by switching back to Guangzhou Evergrande 12 months later.

Now, the chickens have come home to roost: Paulinho hasn’t featured for Brazil since the turn of the year and only once in all since the conclusion of the World Cup. His international career is now in jeopardy, and a torrid season this year in the Chinese League proved to the final straw that broke his Copa chances.