Mano Menezes Announces Call Ups for Brazil vs. Argentina

Three months into his reign as Brazilian national team manager, Mano Menezes has maintained his core group of players and kept most of the players from the 2010 World Cup Roster off his list.

Mano announced this morning during his press conference that, "We (his staff) have been evaluating everything we have done to this point and we came to an understanding that at this point we could once again think about him (Ronaldinho) as a player who has been on a good run with production for the position we need."

No one is saying this would be Brazil's team if the world cup was held this next week but it is clear Mano has a core group he wants to stick with and he is placing players one at a time to fill out the rest of his roster.

Here are the players Mano called up this morning:

Keepers

Victor (Gremio)

Jefferson (Botafogo)

Neto (Atletico-PR)

Center Back

Rever (Atletico-MG)

Thiago Silva (Milan)

David Luiz (Benfica)

Alex (Chelsea)

Left and Right Backs

Rafael (Manchester United)

Daniel Alves (Barcelona)

Adriano (Barcelona)

Andre Santos (Fenerbahçe)

Rear Midfield

Elias (Corinthians)

Lucas (Liverpool)

Sandro (Tottenham)

Ramires (Chelsea)

Front Midfield

Douglas (Gremio)

Ronaldinho (Milan)

Jucilei (Corinthians)

Philippe Coutinho (Internazionale)

Forwards

Neymar (Santos)

Robinho (Milan)

Alexandre Pato (Milan)

Andre (Dynamo Kyiv)

Mano keeps his streak of calling up former players alive, having five players (Jucilei, Douglas, Lucas, Elias and Andre Santos) that he once was a manager of in the club level.

He again called up the base of Santos' great first half of the year team with Neymar, Robinho and Andre, minus Ganso, of course.

Despite being happy for Elias and Jucilei for getting a repeat call up, I can't stop thinking of how this is going to kill Corinthians' chance at the Brazilian title this year. The team currently sits in second place with just six games left and he called up half of his former midfield to take on Argentina.

Douglas gets his first call up at the age of 28, he is a left footed attacking midfielder who when on his game is an excellent passer connecting the midfield to the attackers, however I have seen him on more occasions than not simply take up space on the field. He is very slow but is a player that is capable of winning a game in just one touch.

If I were to guess the starting line up for the Argentina game it would be the following:

Goalie: Victor

Left Back: Andre Santos

Center Back: David Luiz, Alex

Right Back: Daniel Alves

Rear Mid: Elias, Lucas

Front Mid: Ronaldinho, Jucilei

Forwards: Robinho, Pato