This is one decision that Osorio will almost definitely make against Brazil. This is how Mexico chose to play against Germany- the results were there for all to see. 42% of the action was in Mexico’s third as Germany attacked relentlessly.
However, despite this, Mexico actually averaged more expected goals (a statistic which evaluates how many goals a team should have scored based on the position of their shots) than Germany (according to Caley Graphics). This shows that Mexico were able to create higher quality chances as a result of their counter-attacks.
They should repeat this strategy against Brazil as the Selecao also like to dominate possession (third most short passes in the tournament so far). Moreover, Brazil have already struggled against two teams that sat back and allowed them to dominate possession: Switzerland and Costa Rica.
In the former game, Switzerland held Brazil to a draw while in the latter, Brazil did not score until second-half injury time. Moreover, Mexico has the defensive personnel to match up with Brazil. Sitting deep would create space that would allow Hirving Lozano, Javier Hernandez and Miguel Layun to wreak havoc.
One problem with such a strategy is that Brazil has one of the world’s best defensive midfielders in Casemiro who is adept at stopping such counter-attacks- which brings us to our next point.