Argentine NT: News, Stats & Players [R]

Well I'm not @cigar_city but I will say the Lightning did their best impression of the Seleccion. All the talent in the world but coached poorly and choking when it counts.

 

Aguero with goal and assist (his 30th goal this season) but City's out on away goal rules.

Great achievement for Pochettino.

 

That really was a special match. So many twists and turns and the drama.

Looks like it’s only Liverpool standing in the way of Messi winning another CL. He has been playing at another level.

But it would be great seeing a side like Ajax win the entire thing. The good news is that they’ll have Nico back for the semis and you know that meeting v Tottenham is gonna be a fantastic tie for the neutrals.

And yes, indeed, great for Poch. And I think they play better without Kane.

And no Lamela... Dude needs to leave. I mean, he’s always hurt. He probably ends up back in Italy. Probably one of the Milan sides will sign him, perhaps Milano. He just never found that other gear we all hoped he would hit.

 

Maybe both Dybala and Lamela should go to Milan... I remember Crespo almost won CL there near the end of his prime years. Napoli would be another good destination.


Barca is in better position heading to the semifinal class. They're still leading the league by distance so they can easily rest key players while Liverpool has yet to secure the league. City still has a game in hand and could still top them if they win their spare game. I believe Liverpool will also give everything trying to secure the EPL aswell.

It sucks for Pochetinho that City probably could still win 2-3 thropies while Spurs could possibly empty handed by the end of the season despite this great victory.

 

That game was nuts. I still think Llorente's goal was a handball. The ref looked at the worst camera angles to make the call. There was one shown by TV that clearly showed it going off his elbow. Oh well.

 

Dybala will need to go somewhere the team will have a midfield where he doesn’t have to carry the ball so much. He needs somebody he can bounce off. At Palermo he had Mudo and his first year at Juve he had Pogba. The last couple of seasons at Juve were just his own will to score goals and create. I don’t see a decent midfield in Italy. It seems like that league is still a decade or two behind in the way they’re playing.

So, it will probably have to be a side like United or even Chelsea.

 

Kun assisted City's winner. That certainly wil put Liverpool under more preasure heading to CL semifinal.

 

United & Chelsea are physical teams, not sure if those two will ever fit there. They would end up like Di Maria or Veron. Tevez on other hands, really fits their playing style.

 

United have opened up a fair bit since Mourinho left. Chelsea could really use someone that matches Hazard's brilliance. I dunno. It could work.

 

It all depends on the manager in how they play.

 

Even though they lost to Barca , they're still playing high tempo football and preasuring in those games. Dybala seems to be weak and much slower in past 2 seasons. Lamela seems to be hit and miss, 2 months of good performance and then disappeared , almost same patterns all the time.

 

Great achievement for Pochettino with Tottenham, where with the exception of Lloris, Sissoko and Lucas Moura, all of these players were developed by him into world class players. He may actually be the best of the "Guardiolistas" ahead of Klopp, Simeone, Gallardo, Sarri, Luis Enrique, Emery, etc.

It would be great if he were to do double duty also being Argentina's NT manager.

 

Happy Easter to all who celebrate it around here.


Lo Celso with another goal, via penalty. He signed a deal with Betis, so if a team comes knocking they’ll have to fork over a ton of money. I think the likes of Barca and Real will call soon. The kid is so talented and mature for his age.

Lautaro started over the weekend over Icardi. A bit rusty in his return.

Icardi came on and didn’t do much. I doubt he’ll be moving to Real since Benz is on fire and his boss already said they’re not leaving Inter. I think his boss loves causing all this drama. She goes on the most popular footballing show in Italy and talks nonsense. So, we have to wait and see what will happen to him.

And speaking of Benz. So, I see that Benzema hit a hat-trick and has gone up to 30 goals for the season. Seems like he's thriving without Cristiano. Is anybody shocked that Dybala is having the same exact problems that Benz had when Cristiano was around?

 

Poch’s influence is Bielsa. Even Pep before coaching went and talked to Bielsa and asked him advice. I don’t think Poch is a stubborn old donkey like El Loco but he has a philosophy on how to play.

Poch won’t be taking the reigns of the seleccion anytime soon. The guy is beloved at Tottenham, the club did not spend(from my understanding) and they’re knocking at the door of the CL Final. If they opened their wallets like City, they’d probably do much better in the league. Plus, one bad game with Argentina and he’ll get crucified(semi-pun via Easter Sunday). Having a young manager to take over a decade would be great but I don’t see it right now.

 

Right now it looks to be a disastrous investment by Juventus, they had done better at the CL every season since 2014 until now. They likely have only one more season where Ronaldo can make a difference for them, unbelievable the amount of money they spent for what will likely be an extremely poor return.

Bielsa influenced both Pocho and Pep, coincidentally didn't they both started their coaching careers the same year in the same city? Quite different fortunes of course between Barca and Espanyol - Guardiola established a template that changed the way football is played and critiqued, an achievement of cosmic proportions. Pochettino gradually has shown that Bielsa's football principles can be applied universally, including to smaller teams, with great success.

Other managers had done club and NT simultaneously before, the AFA should really have a crack at it to convince Pochettino. If he resurrected Lucas Moura's career, imagine what he can do to Dybala.

 

Incompatible with Ronaldo, Dybala is killing his career under defensive Allegri

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.go...ng-his-career-under/q7agxfgfemr91qmucbrl7fdbu

 

The difference is that a club manager has a player at his disposal for 8-9 months out of the year. With the national team, they see each other a few times a year, if there isn’t a tournament. So it is hard for a manager sometimes to get the best out of his player unless his tenure with the team has been for a long time.

But I like Poch, he’s a good dude. He plays the game the right way. If I had to pick between him and Cholo, it would be Poch. Cholo has no other way to play but defensive. I still don’t understand why he choked away that game v Juve. He lacked balls in that tie. Can you imagine if we are up 1-0 in a final, and we scored early, he’d basically sit the entire team back and counter and hope to score on a set play. No thanks to Cholo to eveeerr coaching the seleccion. Not until he finds a plan B.

 

Yea, Atletico will not win the league this season unless Barca lost the remaining games, thx to Cholo style, they keep winning 1-0 most of the time and that surely will help them when they needed goal difference to win the title....

 

True, he would need a constant oversight like he has done at Tottenham with Son, Kane, Eriksen, Alli, Lamela, Lucas. I also prefer him to Simeone, I think it's forgotten how much Cholo struggled in Argentina with River Plate and Los Cuervos, it took him a while to figure things out although he has become an icon for Atletico.

If Poch cannot become NT manager, the next best thing for Argentina would be him bringing more Argentine players to the squad. There are three right now, it would be great if players such as Dybala or Ascacibar were to join them.

 

I wonder if Pochettino would be interested in bringing him over. I feel Juventus may be going in the direction of Manchester United, a formerly great team now playing for scraps. In football, you should never disrespect youth.

 

Poch has basically been begging for new players. Just look at their transfer market for the 2018/2019 season. They spent ZERO money. I don't think all of a sudden Daniel Levy is going to crack open the checkbook and pay Dybala's transfer fee(Which is certainly less than 100ME that it was last year around this time but I don't see them even spending 50 million for a player).

https://www.transfermarkt.com/tottenham-hotspur/transfers/verein/148

 

Suarez without Messi: 36 goals
Suarez with Messi: 59 goals
Neymar without Messi: 20 goals
Neymar with Messi: 40 goals

Benzema with Ronaldo: 5 goals
Benzema without Ronaldo: 18 goals(and counting)
Dybala with Ronaldo: 5 goals
Dybala without Ronaldo: 22 goals

[@DrTSquare] pic.twitter.com/0tPsUJoa2Z

— Barça Universal (@BarcaUniversal) April 17, 2019

Anyway, Dybala needs to leave.

Bayern would be a good destination. They have shown interest in him before, and they are a rebuilding club. Lewandowski, Muller, Robben and Ribery all need to be replaced soon.

Thiago, Goretzka and Tolisso are also better than the unremarkable midfielders at Juve, so Dybala would get more service.

 

Would love to see Icardi reaction if Neymar trying to take his penalty.