Three of the biggest moves of the transfer window are Richarlison (Watford to Everton), Vinicius Junior (Flamengo to Real Madrid) and Malcom (Bordeaux to Barcelona).
All three are Brazilian, all three are moving for huge sums of money and none of them have played for the national team, or were even seriously mentioned in connection with a place on the plane to the World Cup in Russia.
All are young and have plenty of time on their side -- Vinicius, for example, has only just turned 18. But the fact that none of them have been capped at senior level is testament to the extraordinary strength in depth of Brazilian football in certain positions.
The trio share something else in common. All of them are strikers who operate in wide positions. It is here that Brazil have an almost absurd strength in depth. The World Cup squad, for example, included Neymar, Willian, Douglas Costa and Taison -- all superb wide strikers. And Phillippe Coutinho could also be considered a natural for the role, cutting onto his stronger right foot as he floats across from the left. There are the three named above. There is Rodrygo of Santos, another exceptional talent off the production line who will soon also be on his way to Real Madrid.
Brazil, then, have more wide strikers than they know what to do with. In other key positions, however, they are not so well off. Take the World Cup quarterfinal against Belgium, a strong candidate to be considered game of the tournament, where Brazil were beaten 2-1. Give Brazil Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne, though, and the outcome would surely be different. But these positions -- centre forward and central midfielder -- are long running problems.
The great Tostao, a World Cup winner in 1970 and consistently the wisest voice in Brazilian football, sheds some light on why this might be. With the World Cup now history, his attentions have switched to the domestic game. It is not an easy switch to make.
"The differences are huge," he writes. "Despite the efforts of some young coaches, there are still lots of bad habits in the manner of play, accumulated over the years; there are large spaces between the lines of the team, the centre-backs stay on the edge of their penalty area, there is an excess of long passes aimed at a teammate who is marked, lots of crosses hit hopefully into the box, and many other details."
It is superb analysis, and one that might be used to explain the imbalance in the type of players that Brazilian football is producing.
The fact that the teams are not compact, that there is so much space between the sectors of the team, clearly makes life easier for the striker who is attacking from wide. He can find room on the pitch to receive the ball, and has acceleration space in front of him. The central striker, meanwhile, is often operating in isolation, with no teammate within 25 yards. The wide striker has a platform to show his skills and make a name for himself; the centre forward is being killed off.
The other area where Brazil have been deficient is the key zone of the central midfield. Some big hopes in this area have yet to come good in Europe, where they have found it all but impossible to reproduce the form they showed in Brazil -- Luas Silva with Real Madrid, Walace with Hamburg and Thiago Maia with Lille are recent examples.
For this reason, from a Brazilian point of view, Barcelona have made a signing even more interesting than that of Malcom. Little midfielder Arthur, just acquired from Gremio, has a lot of Andres Iniesta in his game. Beautifully balanced, he can receive and give a pass in a complete arc of 360 degrees, and his little skipping forward runs commit defenders and open up space.
But can he show the same type of form he displayed in South America? If so, then he solves a giant problem and becomes the future of Brazil's midfield.