2022 World Cup Qatar: Round of 16 - Argentina vs. Australia

We looked at our best with the 3-5-2 even though we got carried away after the 2nd goal.
Di Maria still presses pretty well despite his age. Agree that we can only let Messi relax and conserve his energy for bursts.

 

As I mentioned earlier, Lautaro played well at CA KO stage, scored in quarter & semi, scored our last penalty, scored & assisted in finissima, had 7 goals & 3 assists in qualifier. Its certainly WC preasure + maybe injury .

 

Yes, Federico was great physically bust mistake-prone. Agree about Gago and Biglia. Biglia gets hate cause he was played for too long after the WC. During the tournament he was very good as was Enzo Perez. Once we made those changes we were solid defensively as we had been in the qualifiers.

 

You'd also notice Messi always suddenly played like his younger version in last 25 minutes. Suddenly alot of acceleration & piercing run. When we're not trailing, he always conserve energy for last 30 minutes.

Its not by accident that he suddenly looked so dangerous in this game in final 30 minutes.

 

He had one sitter. Then he had two golden opportunities that a forward of his ability should burry but he shanked them.
I don’t get what happened. He went from scoring those offside goals v the Saudis to this.

 

Striker is the position that most test nerves. Hard for a striker dropped in a big tournament to recover in time. They need to score a couple goals and that's probably not going to happen. Noticed before the cup, Julian has scored more goals/minute than Lautaro in their league + country minutes this year.

In addition to the confidence, Lautaro seems a little clunky to me as if he's put on a few extra kilos of muscle.

 

The 2 goals against Saudi Arabia were great finishes. Then he had the bad miss against Poland and the 3 bad misses here. It's confidence.

 

For those who are done with Lautaro, remember that many were done with DePaul not too long ago. Di Maria has caught a few strays, but he was missed today. Lautaro is clearly not 100% fit. That was obvious from the Mexico game, but he's still a good player. If he needs to sit for a better option, that's fine. But never forget that he may be called upon again out of necessity. No need to make him out into some scrub.

 

Also helps that the opposition had to push forward. Shame he did not get another goal and some more assists. Fabulous performance.

Others need to to raise their levels. I think we can. We'll raise it again.

 

He should get at most 1 more chance and that is only if they are up against holland. Would rather see Julian stay or have Dybala come on. The WC is not for anyone to get into form especially now it’s the knock outs. Dare I say sabella they would have had a much greater chance to win in 2014 if sabella didn’t go back to Aguero and just kept lavezzi on

 

Lautaro has done great for us and is a good player. But the striker position is very confidence-dependent. It's not like midfield where you get 50 touches and can build up. You have 2-3 chances per match and that's it. You need more matches to recover. Furthermore, they are instant all-or-nothing moments whereas the midfielder can build up confidence by making progressively more ambitious plays.

Unlike a midfielder, a striker cannot be played into confidence in a cup. Certainly not in knockouts!

 

Lavezzi was playing a great match and had balls of steel. Essential to our shape in that match. Even shrewd Sabella got carried away looking for the goal.

 

Special shout out to Lisandro for the game saving tackle when Behrich danced through our defense.

 

Rio biggest Messi fan I have seen lmao

 

My three cents from the game:

1. Papu is completely finished. He can't press at all just like Messi and that was the reason why we created so little on the first half, only Alvarez was putting any pressure on their CBs. Off the ball we were playing 9v11.

2. We should absolutely play back 3 if Di María is not fit.

3. Contrary to popular belief, Acuña is BETTER than Tagliafico defensively. He's so much stronger and doesn't get beaten that easily. The only thing Tagliafico has over him is a better touch.

 

RDP last two performance have been an improvement. His work rate is second to none and his passing is much better and crisper. he slows the game a bit too much in my last while constantly looking for Messi but he is definitely on the right track.
Lautaro at the other end is on a negative spiral and I am afraid he may be totally shot mentally at this point and is a complete liability. Julian is the starter and Correa should be given a run when fresh legs are needed. Lautaro has his chance and blew it so Scaloni needs to be ruthless and move on.

 

I think Papu would be good to bring on for Mac if he's tired cause he can control and play cool. But not a starter.

The 3-5-2 looked good. However we never saw the 4-3-3 with Almada or Correa.

You're right about Acuña.

 

Lautaro is a big concern but at least there is Julian who is performing decently.

Not sure how I’m gonna sit through the holland game now. That back line has been so good but the last 20 minutes is making me really nervous again. For a long time just seeing Romero at the back, I almost never feel the opponent can even have a sniff of the goal let alone score. But even with that back 3 they were really shaky till the end. They really need to step it up holland has much better attackers than any of the 4 teams they faced so far

 

That's three flukes we've allowed. Enough already lol

 

I wouldn’t worry about the defense breaking. No team will play like the Aussies until they are desperate. They were left wide open in the back but we couldn’t capitalized because of Lautaro Higuain.

I did hate that run though. No idea what Cuti was doing there just letting the player just glide past him.

 

What’s probably overshadowed by lautaro and the chaos at the end is …. Wow Enzo was great out there today. Think he’s much better higher up on the pitch but he was really good deep as well. If only they had someone like him in 2014 or even 2018

 

I don't disagree. What I'm cautioning against is this idea that he's trash to be rid of. We don't know what could happen in what I hope are these 3 more matches...Injuries, card accumulation, kidnapping, or straight obstinance by the coach... He may need to be called upon again.
By the way, part of coaching is having intuitions born out of knowing the team and being close to the players. If Scaloni decides he wants to continue to trot him out there, it wouldn't shock me if Lautaro bags himself a couple of goals even as a sub.