At Lazio he is captain and takes all their free kicks and penalties. Surprised that he was crying before his PK at the Copa final last year. You'd think that as a captain he would at least be somewhat used to pressure. Do you think that our perception of Biglia would be different today if Messi had scored that chance? I only recently noticed that it was in fact Biglia who played that through ball. The reality of the situation however, is that he simply isn't quite good enough for Argentina, a country that wants to challenge for the World Cup. Banega, Augusto, and Perez are all better than him. The only reason both Sabella and Martino liked him was because he is a safe player that puts in a defensive shift. And of course, the fact that Messi likes him probably helps too.
I agree on Barboza, if he keeps this up, he won't be in Argentina for much longer. That's another thing we could look forward to is if Barboza becomes a world beater, our good friend @RiverGaucho will be stating that how Barboza was a River product and once again River gives to the seleccion and Boca does not.
Juampi was more of a LB for us, but yeah, the MF for our national team is comical right now. It's not that we are lacking talent, there is talent but you're talking about players like Sorin, Masche, JRR, Cuchu and Maxi who were legends, and even a few of them would probably make our all-time great teams. The difference is, many of these European teams bring in youngsters into their national teams at an early age like we use to. I keep hearing people praise Lanzini, Paredes. You have players like Lo Celso coming up, I hear De Paul has good spells in Italy. You know what the funny thing is? We don't reward our youngsters when they do good, even if they are playing at home. Instead of rewarding an up and coming talent playing at home, lets call up a 30 something-year-old who plays for Central, River, Boca or etc.. We perhaps saw this with Krane and it didn't really work out(But I am not sure if he was still with River or if he was already gone to Spain) but I just cannot recall the last time we called youngsters from back home But at the end of the day, they could be lighting the world on fire, and we will continue to call up the same failures as we always do. I blame the likes of Messi and Mascherano for this and I also blame Bauza and the rest of the managers who get pushed around. As @cigar_city mentioned until we have a manager that grows a spine, then this is what we have or at least they all retire and go away after 2018.
Its too bad we will end up with Bauza during 2018 WC. There's not many games left in qualifier, thus Bauza's out means Argentina fail to qualify.
Its hard to compare the current team with Sabella's team. Sabella had a clear plan since the beginning and he came up with the best possibly tactic with the material that he had at the time. Look how Argentina dominated the qualifier. However, his team came to the WC far from fully fit , Aguero was injured multiple times that year, Di Maria run till the end of CL final extra time, Messi was sidelined for 2 months that season , Higuain suffered ankle injury near the end of the season. My point is, when a manager has a clear plan / tactic, even a team filled with average player can do well, let alone team like Argentina. Rojo, Romero, Biglia, Zabaleta and even Demichellis played in that WC but they look solid not because they have outstanding ability but because they fit on Sabella's plan. What about Palacio winning the ball and passed it to Messi and ended up with Di Maria's winner in second round? what's his contribution other than that? missing countless chances since qualifier. So just because he did that, doesnt mean he deserve to start... or even gets a call up. Bauza clearly has no plan similar to Diego back in 2009-2010, he's still trying new things after countless games. He earned 3 points only from Messi goals and assists .
Bueno, Bueno, el "plan de Sabella"... un tipo que jugó todas las eliminatorias con los "cuatro fantásticos" y en el primer partido del mundial fue y paró un 5-4-1 contra BOSNIA. Está bien que lo extrañamos por comparación con Bauza, pero tampoco lo idealizen. Tardó 4 partidos de mundial en darse cuenta que tenia que sacar a Gago porque era un desastre.
LOL if you're not watching the games dont come here and drop bullshit. He is top scorer in la liga and champions league, he scores consistently in every atletico match! usually a winning goal. creates assists for his team mates. I dont know in which planet you're living on.
Certain nonsense post simply shouldnt be taken too seriously lol I mean , last 5 years? under Tata, Messi scored his second hattrick against RM and also had an assist. Less than 2 years ago, Messi assisted one of the goal in 2-1 victory over RM. Messi can just sit on the bench on classico, he's still already an all time top scorer and assister in that fixture. That winner's alone against AM last season proof how he still scoring crucial goal most of the time. Also, that crazy solo goal in CDR final, I mean... seriously, 5 years? lol. Even though I'm not stats nerd like badabing , I'd still like to point out that Messi scored a total of 253 goals in his first 8 seasons with Barca while in last 5 seasons alone, he has scored 239. Stats shows he's much better in last 5 years including for Argentina.
Whatever guys, believe what you want. Watch him suck at the next clásico. If he scores and barca wins a game against Madrid (in either liga or UCL) this season, I'll gladly delete my account here. Tag me.
From Football-Italia: Argentina Coach Edgardo Bauza says Mauro Icardi is “calm” over his exclusion, which is because “he’s not a player who helps keep the ball”. The Inter striker has so far been given just one cap for his country, and has been repeatedly left out of the squad. Some have suggested the reason is that Lionel Messi is friends with Maxi Lopez, the ex-husband of Icardi’s wife, Wanda. “I’ve told him verbatim: ‘be calm, if something happens to [Gonzalo] Higuain or [Lucas] Pratto I’ll call you’,” Bauza explained to La Nacion. “He’s happy, calm, no problems. He said to me: ‘I’m calm’. And I repeated that he could be called up at any time, and that no-one in the national team has a problem with him. “In my opinion he’s a good finisher, not a player who you can involve in the collective play of the team. “Of the three, Pratto is the best in this aspect, it’s just he doesn’t score like Higuain. Icardi is very dangerous in the final third, he has a lot of confidence right now. “He’s not a player who helps a lot in holding the ball. “Will I call him for the Brazil game on June 9? Maybe, but I don’t know. I told the Federation that I wanted to go to Brazil for eight or nine days to work with the players, but even though it’s a FIFA date the European clubs won’t give me their players. “Also, given it’s just after the end of the season the players want to go on holiday, they plan on going to the beach with their wives. “We’re playing Brazil, we can’t change too much… if we get beaten 4-0 we’ll get slaughtered. “I saw [Brazil Coach] Tite in Europe and I said: ‘do you want to play this match?’. “He said no, so I told him: ‘good, let’s just play a 0-0!’. He killed himself laughing.”
You may or may not want to look over your shoulder prior to hitting play. Bauzaaaa! La conejita @april_summerz me pide que le mande este video para q @MauroIcardi sea convocado a la #SeleccionArgentina @wandaicardi pic.twitter.com/LuU19HY7Dp— Damian Rojo (@Rojodamian) March 16, 2017
Another two goals for Alejandro Gomez to give Atalanta the win today... Not saying to call him up or anything, but Papu has been having an absolutely tremendous season. Captain and star player weekly for the Italian side. Joaquin Correa also scored today in Atletico Madrid's win vs. Sevilla.. Don't know too much about the kid, besides the fact that he had a short spell in River's youth divisions, before moving to Estudiantes and then to Europe. He's still young -- 22 years old -- and jseems to be moving up quickly in Sampaoli's consideration, as he has featured regularly for Sevilla in this second half of the season. In the last month alone, he has scored 3 goals and is leaving a good impression. One to watch for the NT? Lastly, I'm sure you guys heard already, but Dybala was subbed off injured today vs. Sampdoria. Allegri says it's nothing major, but with the decisive game vs. Chile in 4 days this is worrying.. We need everyone 100%
J. Correa could be an interesting talent. He spent only a short period of time at Samp, but I guess he made enough of an impression for Sevilla to go after him. He did have one of the great misses in the history of the game, it's a bit comical. From all the Argentinos at Sevilla, Correa, Mercado and Mudo have probably done the best. Speaking of Sevilla, anybody knows what happened with Vietto? He has had some good moments early in the season but he fell off again. Some other news Del Paul also scored. Lucas Castro also scored. Lanzini scored on a beautiful FK. Anybody know what in the world has happened to Coco? The last time he played was in October of November. I know he had some family issues then he had a hip injury. The guy just stopped playing. Zabaleta was subbed out with an injury as well. It is bad news that Dybala is out with an injury. It's if the kid is snake-bitten. Wasn't he also out for the last round of qualifiers? His game against Colombia, he hit the post, then scored a perfectly onside goal that was called. Against Uruguay, hits the posts, wrongly gets red carded and misses the following match. I'd save him for the La Paz game. He is a workhorse for Juve. He runs back and defends and tackles. We will need him there.
Icardi will probably get a call up.......... after we fail in qualifier or WC 2018 and Bauza get sacked.
What's the situation on the injury to Dybala? Allegri said it wasn't a big deal. Apparently, Chile will have Alexis Sanchez available as well.
Ricardo Bochini - "For Messi, there is something which is not helping him and that's the coaches of Argentina." "Messi is alone up front, waiting for the ball (in Argentina NT). He doesn't have anybody to open up the pitch." "Messi is well assisted (at Barcelona) and poorly assisted (at Argentina)" "There is no other reason (for the difference in performances)" That he's helped less with Argentina is fairly obvious, but I hope people would actually understand that Messi actually has performed better with Argentina individually than with Barcelona. I mean he would have more major NT-titles than CL's during this time, if Higuain finished two 1on1's and a tap-in. Messi World Cup/Copa America 09-16 96% games (27/28) 68% win (19-3-5) 78% involved team goals (40/51 10+15+15) 7.0 players beaten per match 60% finals (3/5) Messi Champions League 09-16 89% games (73/82) 62% win (45-17-11) 64% involved team goals (114/177 66+23+25) 4.9 players beaten per match 29% finals (2/7)
Beautiful ---- love it, Bada Bing! Also wanted to let you know ---- whenever someone tries to argue with me about Messi, I just copy your stats and send them onwards. Hopefully you don't mind. Your stats have saved so much of my precious time, because I then don't argue.
Also, did want to mention --- do give you credit: "Stats from BigSoccer Forum Member Bada Bing." Also, heard that players are still not talking to the media, so have no idea if we will try different formations, like Rojo as a CB.
Maybe not --- Argentina keep hold of Dybala By Football Italia staff Paulo Dybala’s hamstring injury is shown to not be serious, so the Juventus striker should stay with Argentina for their World Cup qualifiers. It was reported earlier today that the left thigh problem was bad enough to send him straight back to Turin for treatment. However, it seems the Argentina medical staff are confident they can at least get La Joya on the bench against Chile on Friday and Bolivia next Tuesday. The Seleccion released a statement tonight confirming they would be following his daily progress. Dybala limped off during the first half of Sunday’s 1-0 Serie A victory over Sampdoria. Tests appear to have shown a slight issue in the left thigh, but no lesions. Juventus were hoping to get Dybala back to base for rest and treatment, especially with huge games coming up against Napoli and Barcelona. Argentina have released Pablo Zabaleta from international duty after finding a Grade I lesion in his left thigh.