Argentine NT: News, Stats & Players [R]

They don't.

Driussi is represented by Marcelo Simonian.
Mammana- Golden Soccer Sports
Paredes- Heroes Group
Ruso-MANAGERfoot

 

Some Argentinian bloke at Zenit is playing football manager.

Mammana
Paredes
Ascacibar
Driussi

The good thing is that if Ascacibar and Paredes play together at club level, it could (partially) fix Argentina's midfield problems.

 

Neymar is trying to build this mega-brand. Afterall, he is a Nike athlete and majority of the Nike athletes are megastars, i.e. LeBron James and Roger Federer to name a couple.

The problem is Neymar falls into that second tier of great players. There is such a gap between Messi/Ronaldo and everybody else he needs to build this facade that he is as big as them through the hype machine that are the brand he is associated with and social media

In this day in age of social-media, players will build their brand not only through their talent on the pitch but through social-media, where the likes of Neymar and other athletes will monkey around by dancing, doing random things and post it for the world to see and most of the time this will be done through a live-stream.

Neymar is a very good player but he is not a generational player, at least not yet. He is not a player that will change the landscape of the sport but perhaps fall into the category of players such as his fellow countrymen, Kaka and Rivaldo who at their best have been better than anything I've ever seen from Neymar. He's still young enough to change all that but I understand why he left. The money was too great and Messi signing to play until he was 34 was perhaps too long for him to wait to finally be heir to Messi.


I don't see this as a major blow to the club, as I stated he has not shown anything that he is going to be a generational player nor was he is untouchable for the club. Perhaps, the club will lose a little bit in terms of marketing and sell shirts but all of that can change. You replace him with two high-quality players and they'll no doubt make another major run for the CL. Personally, I'd rather see FCB go out early because it is a World Cup year but I don't see this as a major blow to the club.

 

To be fair, Neymar has shows more consistency than Kaka and Ronaldinho. Those two only peaked for few years and than quickly faded for whatever reason. We've yet to see how Neymar career goes in years to come, but as a forward, he already proof himself for many years both in club and national team. He scored goals in World cup and Confederation while CR is actually a player that would only excel in a good team. Messi and Neymar are still delivering when their national teams were really bad.

I dont remember CR doing anything notable in countless major tournaments whether his team win or crash out early. His NT performance is similar to Aguero, except Aguero scored 100+ goals before he even move to a bigger club. Put CR in Atletico madrid or today's Inter/Milan, I'd bet he'd be just another great scorer but nothing spectacular.

He's definetely far below Messi who's capable of beating the whole team on his own with his dribbles and vision. If you really compare the major tournament stats (goal and assists), CR is way behind Messi and even Neymar.

No way CR is lifting CL if wasnt Di Maria in 2014 and Tevez in 2008. Tevez scored 3 late winners and 2 late equalizers when MU won the league and scored in the final shootout which CR missed. You took out CR dive penalty in 2014, RM still winning. When Portugal won Euro, I didnt see CR playing on the field.

Messi will no doubt trying to do his best for CL, you cant blame him. Its not like taking CL more lightly will guarentee a WC victory since WC is even harder task. You'd also need a bigger luck not just a good performance. However I'd agree he should just skip CDR altogether. Its useless tournament especially at this point of his career where he already won countless time.

 

So Sampa might line up something like this(At least what is floating around)...

Romero; Mercado, Otamendi, Pinola/Maidana; Salvio, Biglia, Enzo Pérez/ Guido Pizarro, Ángel Di María; Paulo Dybala, Mauro Icardi and Lionel Messi.

 

Well, Romero and Biglia are still there, but at least some major changes in every lines . Now the team doesnt look like "Messi & friends" anymore.

 

I agree we still haven't seen the best of Neymar, but maybe we have already seen it. He was perhaps made to look good because of the teammates he has had. Lets see how he leads a team without having Messi and Co within Europe.

Kaka and Ronaldinho dominated games during their zenith. Granted it was a brief period of time but again they were top of the world, I don't see that in Neymar's game. He was lauded after the PSG game because he helped with the comeback but after that, what did Neymar do that season? I didn't watch many FCB games but from everything I read, he had a subpar season and Messi had another 50 goal season and nearly carried a mediocre FCB side to La Liga title.

Now Neymar has his own team where he will be #1. Within the first two years at PSG, if he does not deliver a CL(Or at least they make a deep run) the honeymoon period will be over. They're not going to be paying him 50 million a year to be doing the latest dance moves on Instagram.

But will Neymar want to win because he wants to win or is it because it will help continue to build his brand?

 

A few annoyances:

Why does Romero still start over Rulli?

Why is Musacchio not called up? Surely he's better than Pinola.

Pizarro and Biglia are both defensive midfielders, why not play a box-to-box mid alongside them to compliment instead? Someone like Nacho Fernandez, Ivan Marcone or Augusto Fernandez.

Overall these are just mild annoyances and I'm pretty happy with the direction the NT is taking. No more Demichelis, Zabaleta, Lavezzi or Aguero at least.

 

I watched the Audi Cup final between Atletico and Liverpool yesterday.

Augusto did very well and it doesn't look like that ACL injury has hindered him too much. He made a great cross-field pass to set up Atletico's goal in the first half.

Kranevitter was pretty meh as per usual. He didn't do anything bad, but he didn't offer anything either. All his passes were sideways or backwards, like a downgraded Biglia.

 

In other news, Guido Pizzaro has joined Sevilla
http://www.sevillafc.es/en/actual/news/guido-pizarro-becomes-second-sevilla-fc-signing-1718

And 20 year old Emanuel Cecchini (midfielder) has signed for Malaga
http://www.mundoalbiceleste.com/2017/07/27/malaga-signs-emanuel-cecchini/

Sevilla has a bunch of Argentines on their team now. Pareja, Mercado, Banega, Montoya, Vazquez and Pizarro.

Hell, Sevilla can field a midfield diamond of just Argentines (Pizarro, Banega, Montoya & Vazquez). Let's just hope for the sake of Argentina that they do that plenty of times this season and we can build some chemistry in midfield.

 

This is merely a rumored starting 11. Nobody has even been called up yet.

 

Pezzella is also rumored to join Zenit.

The fix is in, we're winning 2018.

Zenit= Putin's favorite club.
Putin is the one pulling the strings in the background.
Wants Argentina to dominate.

I vaguely recall one of the channels airing the RPL here in the States but now I don't see any games being televised. That's too bad, I would like to catch their matches just to see some of our players.

 

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. Guess it's just pirate feeds for us.

 

Well, 2 seasons ago, he scored close to 40 goals for Barca, scored 3 goals in semifinal over 2 legs against Bayern and scored in final itself. He also started his stint at Barca with winning goal in Super cup against Atletico madrid.

As I pointed, he also scored for Brazil when Brazil was in really bad shape. Im not praising him because he's playing for Barca, just pointing that he's certainly outstanding player and not overrated.

CR on other hand, never proof himself when he's not playing in good team. He got tons of services and won lots of finals with someone else scoring the crucial goals. If you take out Tevez crucial goals games in 5 matches for MU in EPL, then his MU would have finished way behind Chelsea. CR record in major tournament shows how poor he is when he didnt have good service from his teammates.

People always goes nuts everytime someone break a transfer record , but inflation happened every single year, so we all know soon or later Neymar record is going to be broken. Not long ago, it was Bale now its Neymar. Let say Messi is willing to move in all sudden , he'd break Neymar's record with ease.

 

Comrade SupaMario as more Argentines arrive at Zenit:

https://media.giphy.com/media/cyyac9sTiN7ji/giphy.gif

PD how do you add GIFs on here?

 

Click on the image screen(Next to the smilies) and copy and paste the URL into it.

 

Seems like Messi really wants Dybala at Barcelona.

In a poll for Barcelona fans, they voted Dybala as the most desired target, by some margin.

I would love Dybala and Messi to play together for an year, because they seem too similar and occupy the same positions.

It would be nice to see if they can figure out who plays the 9 position and who plays the 10 position, because in way, they are kind of both 9.5.

 

Watch "Paulo Dybala ● Welcome to FC Barcelona - Skills & Goals 2017 HD" on YouTube



He is very similar to Messi.

 

As others have pointed out, Messi and Dybala playing together will be a true blessing for us. They'll form a type of chemistry from the moment he gets there until the season is over.

Dybala staying at Juventus for another year and being continued to be played out of position, it is irritating. He is being handcuffed and I've seen it before, there is tension between the player and coach. Allegri continues to play him out of position and then continues to sub him off.

There is no guarantee that he will be played in the proper position at FCB but at least he'll have some players that could manage to get him the ball, unlike at Juve, where he has to run back and get the ball to supply the attack. Again, as others have stated, watching Dybala play at Juve last season and bits and parts of the pre-season, it is like watching Messi struggle under the likes of Diego and Batista being a limited player who's full potential was not being seen.

I think it is time for Dybala to make the push for an exit. With all due respect to Juventus, if you have a chance to play with your idol (Messi being an idol of his) two times a week, you take that opporunitity. It is a critical juncture in Dybala's career. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that this transfer occurs.

 

Dybala already proof his quality in serie A , winning domestic double twice and reached CL finals , scoring some crucial goals in the process. Like Neymar, he needs a new challange that will also improve him as a player. Messi has been playing with quality forwards from various country over the years, now he has a change to play alongside his younger compatriot, it would be great for both him and Dybala.

 

I am hoping like crazy as well that Dybala gets to play with Messi week in week out. Hopefully, they figure out how to play together anyhow for us.

I really think Dybala will have to force this move, even though Juve is not really one of the more sentimental clubs.

 

Juventus apparently after Garay. Would be a good move.

Rumors also intensifying that Messi only wants Dybala, "desperate" for Dybala, etc...and that Barca have given up for Coutinho. Not sure if true, but if Messi is really actively asking for Dybala, Dybala needs to tell Juve that he wants to leave.

I think if Barca submits a formal offer, that is what would happen. Hope this gets wrapped up soon.

 

Does anybody know where can I see buyout clauses of of players? I'm interesting because of our Zenit youth?

 

Esporte Interativo out of Brasil are reporting that Coutinho and Paulinho to FCB have is all but finalized. These are merely rumors but it appears to be close.