Argentine NT: News, Stats & Players [R]

Mati Suarez did very well for River tonight. Had a wonderful assist and scored a goal for River.

 

Bielsa is more than just that, he established the template for a football that would displace the old defensive, physical football that had ruled since the 1950s. It was Guardiola who realized that vision to its highest degree, but without BIelsa's ideas there is no Guardiola nor Pochettino, Klopp, etc. and we would still be watching football as it was played at WCs 98, 02 and 06.

I hated his "experiments" with players, such as playing Crespo as support forward or his strange insistence on Piojo Lopez, but we did win our first Olympics in 2004 in incredible form, and only a terrible lack of nerves kept us from winning CA 04 after giving Brazil a footballing lesson on the field. We also could likely have won CA01 had the AFA decided to participate.

 

Argentina has been in another 4 major tournaments final since 2004 (5 including Conf), has won another Olympic aswell. Lack of nerve is basically the main issue with the senior side and Bielsa couldnt fix that either.

So many managers being labelled as overrated despite achieving alot more than Bielsa who's latest league title was more than 2 decades ago, almost as long as Argentina thropy drought.

 

Matias Suarez is 31 years old and has only been called up for the NT this year, this is the Enzo Perez of the upcoming Copa America, an utter journeyman thrown into the cauldron of international football only to melt when the pressure comes.

The Argentina NT has always been led by those who were destined for it from early on: Houseman, Kempes, FIllol, Passarella, Ardiles, Bertoni, Maradona, Ruggieri, Caniggia, Batistuta, Zanetti, Ayala, Ortega, Sorin, Riquelme, Tevez, Mascherano, Messi, DiMaria.

 

Maybe he couldn't fix that issue, but this does not change what he did do. His influence on contemporary football is primordial, establishing the precepts that teams with ambitions are now following.

 

Unfortunately for Tevez, he came around the wrong era. He had a great olympics and that’s about it... He had moments here and there very early with the seleccion but Tevez for the most part was utter trash. I don’t understand this infatuation with him if you’re not a fan of the clubs he’s played for.

But anyways. As me and loco have had this conversation here, that Suarez is here for the short time, and if he’s on form then I guess we can’t really fault Scaloni for taking him. And to be frank, most of our forwards have been quite mediocre this year outside the familiar names.

 

Their positions and respective roles are irrelevant to the underlying point of my argument, these journeymen players continue to be called up to the NT in favor of players of greater pedigree and of higher "calidad". It's the reason why Sergio Berti has as many WC tournaments as Fernando Redondo or Roman Riquelme, now I want to see how you can justify that.

It's not about setting up the team as though it's a video game, wouldn't you say Barcelona has had a great run of success for nearly the past dozen years with star-studded teams? What about Brazil of 58 to 70, a dozen years unrivaled in international soccer with legends at nearly every position. There is a place for squad players here and there, the trouble with Argentina is that every manager wants to be a new "Bilardo", thinking they can win a tournament with a bunch of mediocre players, when in fact the sole reason Bilardo won with the likes of Cucciuffo, Enrique, Pumpido, Brown, Batista, Burruchaga, Garre on that side is the transcendental performance by the one legendary genius player he actually played. Ever since that win, every manager thinks he can pull it off again, and hence we have Berti making the squad ahead of Redondo, Piojo Lopez ahead of Caniggia, Scaloni ahead of Zanetti, Maxi Rodriguez ahead of Riquelme, Bolatti ahead of Cambiasso, Gutierrez ahead of Lucho Gonzalez, Ricky Martinez (if that is his name) ahead of Tevez, and the list goes on.

Your example of Luque does not really apply, we don't know what someone like Carlos Bianchi or Scotta or even Delio Onnis would have done in his place. To his credit, Luque did well in a very limited role as a static fulcurm to allow the major talents Kempes and Bertoni to play off him, in a similar manner that Giroud did for Griezmann and Mbappe at last year's tournament. But that he may have done better than expected, and that occasionally another role player may have done well such as Simon at WC90 is no reason for this continued infatuation to subvert the potential of what could have been some great Argentine squads. It needs to stop and the only way it will is for the fans to place the interest of the NT ahead of local allegiances and make their voices heard to the AFA. It's not about River Plate, or Boca Juniors or any other club, important as they may be, not when the status and prestige of the Argentine jersey has taken a hit for not winning a senior tournament in over a quarter century.

 

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Messi scored 4 goals in training — but the key point was that Aguero was lined up alongside him.

Chances are that that is the starting forward line-up we will see — I guess we could have guessed that.

Aguero and Otamendi gave the press conference today, and Aguero said that he has never felt better before a tournament than he is feeling right now. Basically said that in all previous tournaments, he had suffered some sort of injury during the season — but not this season, other than some minor niggles.

 

This is the
Argentina team that will play CopaAmerica:

The doubts: Armani or Andrada in the post, Saravia or Casco on the right side and a midfielder who is defined between Palacios, Roberto Pereyra or Guido Rodríguez.

 

Exequiel Palacios was injured in the last River match and is likely out of the Copa tournament.

Huge shame, as I was really looking forward to seeing him in the squad and if he can live up to his reputation on this forum.

 

well seeing as it's the NT, this news doesn't shock me. This kind of stuff almost always happens to the Arg NT everytime a competition starts. It really sucks that he is out as I really wanted to see him in this Copa.

 

It is hamstring so who knows how long that takes to heal properly. Stuff like this happens almost all the time. An important player gets injured during the tournament or right around it.

So it does appear that he will miss out. It is a tear. Fantastic.

Hopefully he doesn’t turn into a player who will be hindered with injuries for most of his career. It appears to have already started and he’s only 20. This shouldn’t be happening at this age.

 

His price will continue to free fall...

 

Incredibly disappointing. I am not sure about the level of medical care at River and how advanced it is in comparison to some of the European clubs.

This is no slight at all but clubs even Watford have cryotherapy chambers and advanced scanners to look at muscle sheets when a player is under the weather. It can happen out of the blue but sometimes there is an underlying cause.

All said it is sad as if Palacios does develop as well as the younger Palacios it will be a most excellent midfield. It would have been ideal to have him blended in as well. Foyth is there, Romero should have been and Asascibar too despite his misdemeanour and a rather disgusting one at that.

Take the time with Palacios and get him the best care and he will be there with River next season and the WCQ's.

 

http://mundoalbiceleste.com/2019/06...rcelona-loss-to-liverpool-personal-life-more/


This is actually a really in-depth interview; he talks about every World Cup, enjoying his time with Sabella the most, what he liked and didn’t like about working with Maradona, and what really happened at the 2018 World Cup.

He reveals that when they were tied with Nigeria at the 2018 WC, they said to each other that they “will all be killed back home.”

He talks about this year’s Copa team, how he is enjoying it much more than the 2018 WC, saying they are all youngsters who are anxious to play the Copa.

 

One thing is clear, Messi clearly wants to play in WC 2022. Basically, he wants continue to play football till his body tells him to stop. Individually, he's still best player this season by large margin, no sign of declining. I dont see how Messi's form will take a nosedive within 2-3 years time. I think he'd still around this level till at least 35-36.

Messi actually still 31 , he'd turn 32 in middle of Copa. I think the 2018 team (the players) still deserve some credit for the match against France (the eventual champ). Messi, Di Maria, Aguero all delivered in that game. The team from 2012-2016 would have beaten that France team cause they certainly wont conceided 3 or 4 goals.

 

I think Messi's goal scoring might go down by that time, but since he has such a prodigious soccer IQ he will still be able to contribute a lot.

 

It would be depend, since he's most likely stay at Barca till he retires, that means he's still going to play in a system that he has been playing since teenager. Sure, there will be changes with different manager and players come and go but the roots of Barcelona style has always been similar. Messi clearly didnt run and press as much as in 2005-2013 period but it doesnt affected his goal and assist number one bit. Even in recent games that Barca failed to win (Eibar and Valencia), Messi still scores as usual.

His scoring ratio this season is higher than previous season and he topped everyone in scoring and assist chart. He might not have the strength and stamina of Diego but his footballing IQ is equal and his shooting precision is second to none. He regularly scores from outside the box like its merely a tap in.

 

Yeah it could be that he goes the other way and is more of a finisher than creator to be honest, where he doesn't go back for the ball as much. Who knows.

 

So what will the midfield look like now without Palacios?

I hope we play a 4-4-2 so we have a stronger midfield and dont concede as many goals.

Lo Celso - Paredes - Guido - De Paul

Although this might be too defensive if Paredes decides to do nothing. My hope is it would allow Paredes to play a little higher and support Lo Celso in offensive creation.

But I fear we might play a 4-3-3 with a forward line of Messi-Aguero-ADM. If we do this, the midfield will be weak and we will concede many goals. Especially if Paredes is used as a lone DM. Guido would be better.

I really miss Battaglia. What kind of injury does he have?

 

Messi scores twice against his old club as Argentina beat Newell's 5-0 this morning at Ezeiza - Agüero, Dybala & De Paul also on target.

Argentina XI: Marchesín; Saravia, Otamendi, Pezzella, Tagliafico; Guido Rodríguez, Paredes, Lo Celso; Messi, Agüero, Di María pic.twitter.com/9Hm27QMRTC

— GOLAZO (@golazoargentino) June 1, 2019

So the NT played against Newell's reserves (I think it was the reserves) in an informal friendly today. I think we will see something like the above lineup as the starting XI.

EIDT: it was a mix of starters and reserves with Formica and Aguerre playing.

https://www.infobae.com/deportes-2/...a-la-cabeza-disputo-un-amistoso-ante-newells/