“We lack players, we lack a team, we lack a coach.” — AP

SAO PAULO: Brazil's Copa America exit against Paraguay has plunged them into the doldrums again and sparked a well-worn debate about how to restore the national side to its former glory.

A year after they were hammered 7-1 by Germany in the World Cup, the post-mortem following another tournament exit is going over some familiar ground.

The diagnosis, like a year ago, is that with few truly great players and a chaotic domestic game, the system needs remodelling from the ground up.

“Getting knocked out on penalties again can't hide the reality,” newspaper columnist Juca Kfouri wrote in the Folha de S.Paulo on Sunday.

“We lack players, we lack a team, we lack a coach, while at the top there is an excess of incompetence.”

Kfouri, like many other fans, blames the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) and Dunga, the coach who took over two weeks after their World Cup humiliation last year.

Dunga's position does not seem in danger after Saturday's 4-3 penalty shootout defeat by Paraguay, but he is hardly popular.

His defensive playing style and a lack of personal charm in what is one of the country's highest-profile jobs have won him few friends.

The same could be said for the CBF. The organisation was criticised after the 7-1 Germany defeat for not pausing to take stock and for failing to understand that Brazilian football has gone backwards.

Critics called in vain for wholesale changes, with a revamped and slimmed down domestic calendar, new blood at the head of the CBF, and an independent league system run by the clubs.

According to former great Tostao, a member of the 1970 World Cup winning team, the cause of Brazil's current problems lies with a new generation of players that lacks the mercurial talents of the past.

“In addition to scant individual and collective quality, the selecao lives with the complex of enormous expectation and responsibility created by Brazilian football's history,” he wrote in the Folha de S.Paulo.

“Players who have no great star quality lack confidence and emotional balance in decisive games. They bottled it.”

Dunga blamed the defeat on a virus he said struck down some players before the match but added that the loss would toughen up his young squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers, which begin in October.

Brazil have never failed to qualify for the World Cup and the pressure this time around will be great.

“This tournament was very important in getting players used to playing the qualifiers,” the coach said moments after the loss.

“We wanted to win but it was a great lesson for the qualifiers and that is our main priority.”