When Hulk pulled up in Brazil’s training session on Sunday, holding the back of his left thigh, there was none of the dread that accompanied Neymar’s scare in the warm-up before their opening World Cup match, against Croatia. If the Zenit Saint Petersburg forward were to miss out on the meeting with Mexico in Fortaleza, plenty of seleção followers would be happy to see the line-up change.
The perception of Hulk at club and country level respectively is keenly polarised. Having finished Brazil’s lowest-rated player (6.22) in the Group A opener against Croatia, the 27-year-old’s place is under stern examination even without any fitness concerns. Few in Brazil have ever been totally convinced by him. It’s a battle often faced by Brazilian players who become national team contenders outside their home nation, as Afonso Alves might attest; his call-up in 2007 elicited some perplexed reactions from domestic journalists unaware of him, and his feats with FC Twente at the time.
With Hulk, it’s a little different. Though he may have been little known back home at first, he is a recognised figure now, 36 appearances into his international career. Driving down Brazilian freeways, you can often chance upon his image advertising a chain of supermarkets. It would be a stretch to call him popular, though.
This status is in stark contrast with Hulk’s clout with Zenit. He finished second top scorer in Russia last season, and his overall numbers were excellent. He hit 17 goals and 6 assists in 23 Russian Premier League starts, meaning he was directly implicated in 36.5% of Zenit’s 63 league goals as he finished as the highest-rated player in the league (7.77).
He linked up with the Brazil squad in particularly good fettle, having registered 8 goals and 2 assists in 8 games since André Villas-Boas arrived at the Petrovskiy as head coach. Much has been made of the excellent rapport between player and coach, and while Hulk has not exactly been reborn – he was performing well for Zenit beforehand – it is clear that few understand what makes him tick to the extent that the Portuguese does.
Hulk has been used exclusively cutting in from the right-hand side since Villas-Boas pitched up. It’s not that he is ineffective elsewhere, but he is at his explosive best in this position; shifting onto his left foot to shoot, or marauding outside the full-back to create.
It was in this spot that he enjoyed his most prolific season in Europe, racking up 36 goals and a ream of assists during Villas-Boas’ sole season in charge at Porto. It is little wonder that he is as emphatic in his praise of the coach as others are lukewarm to him.
So while Hulk will take a place in Brazil’s XI anywhere he can get it, there was something slightly off-kilter about seeing him start on the left again against Croatia. There is little arguing with Luiz Felipe Scolari’s other choices in the ‘3’ of the 4-2-3-1, with Oscar on the right and Neymar in the centre. Yet it felt as if Hulk was constricted. Unlike the well-worn stereotype of Brazilian players, he is all about power – but if he’s on the left, he only has the ability to go one way, outside, instead of both. It makes him significantly easier to defend against.
That was certainly the case against Croatia. Displaced from being the man who everything flows through (as is the case with Zenit, though he dovetails well with playmaker Danny), Hulk struggled to make an impression. He had just 2 shots and completed just 1 dribble during his 68 minutes on the field. His average in Russian Premier League matches in 2013/14 was 4.3 shots and 3.2 dribbles. Oscar and Neymar had 2 and 4 shots respectively against Croatia but – crucially – 7 and 6 dribbles each, underlining Hulk’s position on the periphery of events.
So is Hulk just a flat-track bully? The numbers from the Champions League (where, bear in mind, Zenit have struggled collectively) suggest not, with him having scored 4 goals and contributed 2 assists in 8 Champions League starts in the last campaign. The sense is that the higher level of competition brings even more out of Hulk. His shots-per-game and dribbles leaps to a healthy 5.8 (shots) and 4.1 (dribbles) in Europe.
This underlines the fact that he is no shrinking violet. He already showed this in his early days at Zenit, when he carried on playing and scoring while the debate over his arrival (and his wages) threatened to spark a civil war in the Petrovskiy dressing room.
More likely is that he simply doesn’t fit into Brazil’s best XI. Bernard, who replaced Hulk against Croatia in the final quarter, has endured a stilted debut campaign at Shahktar Donetsk, starting only 7 Ukrainian Premier League games, but was far more judicious with the ball than the man he replaced (80% pass success rate as opposed to 50%) and is at least fresh. His scurrying style could be a good counterbalance to Oscar and Neymar’s flair.
Hulk still has plenty to contribute for Brazil but if he is forced to drop out against Mexico, you do wonder how long it will take him to get his place back.
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