Argentine NT: News, Stats & Players [R]

I don't think Castellanos will make it. He's mid frankly speaking + I believe Julian and Lautaro will always be the strikers at the end of the day, so it's pointless to take a spot in the squad for a player that is very unlikely to see minutes in most circumstances.

I also think Mastantuono, Barrenechea, Dominguez, Soulé and Soler have solid outside chances to make it depending on how their (and their competitors) next season goes.

 

Apparently a bunch of players who weren't even eligible to play picked up medals, lol

 

The same with Paredes and Enzo. The few games we played after CA final, we lacked intensity, then we played Uruguay and Brazil, its like a different team showed up.

 

Agree with Castellanos, he started to get hyped after that one game wonder against RM, then he became a one season wonder and thats it. Its almost like bringing another Palacio to WC. If he can be an utility player like Nico, it would be a different case.

 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zTM9RXB-RxA

Cuti triggers Maguire, again

 

Both Julian and Lautaro are too hot to have one of them benched and for good reason. Scaloni has been playing the trio of Julian, Lautaro and Messi all at the same time whenever they are available. The June matches will reveal a lot.

Castellanos is a good player who has done well for Lazio in his first season as the main striker. Good acceleration, drops deep to help link up play and good finishes. He's a great back up striker to have.

 

I think a front line of Julián, Lautaro, and Messi is a major negative. I believe Scaloni will continue to start Julián. His pressing and team play are more valuable than what Lautaro offers—at least as a starter.

As for Taty, I do not know. I am not exactly convinced by him. If we need a goal late in a game, I do not know if he will be the answer. I would leave him out and possibly take an additional midfielder, winger, or defender instead.

I would give someone like Soulé a serious look. He offers more creativity than our other wingers—Nico G, Giuliano, and Garnacho.

González, I just do not get. He gives you one good game out of ten.

Giuliano has impressed this entire season. He needs to continue developing. He cannot turn into a one-season wonder.

Garnacho has regressed into the abyss. Quite honestly, I do not think he is what the team needs. I cannot think of anything he does particularly well. He should leave United and go somewhere he can play regularly. The problem is his sizable contract—I doubt he will accept a pay cut.

Soulé gives us what Di María used to provide: flair and attacking danger.

As for our youngsters:

I believe Paz will certainly be considered. There are rumors that Madrid want to bring him back, which I think would be a major step backward. He should definitely ask for another year. If he returns to Madrid and rots on the bench, he will not make the squad. He may even ask for a winter transfer if he decides to return this summer.

If Mastantuono continues to grow—and there is no reason to think he will not—Scaloni would be foolish to leave him behind.

Soulé needs to play like he did in the second half of the season. In terms of pure talent, he is miles ahead of someone like Garnacho.

I have seen mentions of Barrenechea, who by all accounts had a wonderful season at Valencia. He is being linked to Atlético Madrid. If he goes there and has a good year, he could have an outside shot at making the squad.

Scaloni should not be taking 75% or more of the Qatar squad to the next World Cup. That would be silly. I am not saying we should create a major imbalance and only bring 30% of them but we have all been calling for changes since we won in Qatar.

First it was: "After the celebration game, we’ll get a bunch of new faces."
Then it was: "Okay, after Copa América."
Then: "After we qualify."
Then: "After Uruguay/Brasil."
Now it’s: "After the June qualifiers."

There has always been an excuse for Scaloni. Credit to him for using Giuliano, Almada, and Paz here and there. But we are now just a year away. When we look good, we look great. But when we struggle, it is clear we need changes.

I will be watching closely in the upcoming round, we play away at Chile, who are currently bottom of the table, and Colombia. We need to bury both of these teams. Colombia should provide a solid test. It would be a great game to try out new players or even do so against Chile.

 

You guys forgetting we were pretty bad whenever we played Messi, Lautaro, Julian? barely created anything vs Paraguay and Peru.

 

I agree. Messi clearly can't keep up with pace. I worry how he will adapt with the new squad. The attack needs new dynamism, because it can't rely on messi's super balls. The midfield will be critical and young forwards working together will be key. Messi will most likely have to take an approach back.

Messi, Julian and Lautaro seems powerful of paper, but there is no chemistry. And we learned chemistry is important.

Maybe if this was like 4 years ago I would say different things. The key is the impact of messi

 

To be fair to Scaloni not many younger players have stepped up since December 2022. Maybe a bunch in midfield but not enough that we can say for sure that rotation players like Paredes or Lo Celso should be dropped from the squad to make room.

 

Perhaps McGuire was showing Cuti his world cup and European championship winners medals

 

He did have silver and bronze medals from Euro and bootleg Euro which he probably gilded in gold

 

There's a chesmistry, but against top oppostition I wouldnt want to have two of our best goalscorers starting at the same time. One needs to be preserved against tired legs. We saw that worked perfectly in Copa 2024 where Lautaro became top scorer just from playing 220 minutes. In last 3 tournaments, there were 5 games that went into ET.

Lautaro and Messi didnt even play against Brazil and Uruguay and our midfielders and wingers finally willing to take the goalscoring responsibility (Enzo, Mac, Almada). Enzo tend to be a Messi fanboy and seems always looking for him.

At this point, I really think Messi should be just super sub where he could still accelerates for 20-30 minutes, unleash his power shot, scores FK or putting magical pass.

I honestly more worry about the defensive department since Licha seems to get injured all the time much like Dybala. Otamendi would be a grandad of a defender in 2026. Imagine him in counter attack situation against Yamal or Mbappe....

 

We created enough chances vs an in form Paraguay at Asuncion. It was an expected performance

You should re-watch the Peru match, we created a lot of chances where finishing was the main problem.

 

Messi clearly can't keep up with pace? Based on what? A Mascherano's horribly led Inter Miami? I'd take anything with a grain of salt as everyone's performance at that team is low level.

If Messi moved to Europe now, he'd still be one of the best players in the world with the right setup to which there is at the national team.

 

Messi has to drop back a lot more with Miami lately and we all know what that means. We haven't needed that with the national team for a long time. That said we shouldn't just blindly stack up our attack like that.

 

Wish Soule was right footed LW (like me with Di Maria in the past). Him being right footed would solve a lot of problems.

Messi will 100% be a starter and with good reason. The best way to fit both Messi and Soule together would be to use the formula that we used in Copa final 2021 and Finalissima 2022. This was mainly the starting XI during that time.

--------------------Lautaro------Messi
Lo Celso-------RDP----------Paredes--------Di Maria
Tagliafico-------Otamendi-----Romero------Molina
-------------------------------Dibu

Having a profile like Lo Celso who can carry the ball, provide width on the left side, but also comfortable in being deep in midfield is needed for this system to work. Maybe Nico Paz can fulfill this role? I think he does the physical, technical and tactical capability for this role but haven't seen him being on the left side that much.

If Nico Paz can fulfill this role, it'll solve a lot of problem even when Messi retires as the likes of Soule, Mastantuono, Paz surely prefers the right half space like Messi does.

 

Messi can still accelerate when needed, but he gets injured alot more easily these days and thats a fact. We saw that in CA and MLS.

Messi is second most fouled player in WC history behind only Diego. Opponents will try to hurt him like Chile intentionally did last year.

 

True, Messi gets injured more easily, but I point that more on the turf fields and temporary grass laid over the pitch in the US.

Even the Copa America had a lot of issues with the pitches as we discussed a lot in the forum that affected our game play and physical conditions.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_...pitch-conditions-united-states-2026-world-cup

Not a coincidence that we see a lot of Messi getting injuries ever since he landed in the US.

 

I don’t expect everybody to be a world beater. I think what Scaloni does well is not necessarily look at our strengths but rather looks at the weaknesses of other teams. He did this at the World Cup, particularly v Croatia and France.

Paredes is untouchable. The only way he and Gio miss out in 26 is through an injury. Other than that, they already have their tickets to the US.

I will continue to mention this,‘one of the biggest disappointments was Equi going to Saudi Arabia. He’s apparently on 200k per week wages and is making nearly 10ME per year. He said he went there because he has a big family to take care of. What an absolute clown show. Does every cousin and etc need an Escalade and a 4000 SQFT house? I think he would have been a player that Scaloni would’ve called.

He would’ve been a better choice than Paredes. But then again, Leandro is one of the boys alongside with Ota and Leo.


The two youngsters that Scaloni should take will be Paz and Franco. Their next move will also play a major factor in terms of what their role will be in the US. If I were Scaloni,‘I would go and have a talk with them about how important they are and are being considered. But they need to be somewhere where they’ll play consistently.

Im a bit excited and anxious to see what type of form our players are going to be for 26(Or even where they’ll be playing). Man players can be on the move.

 

Based on the fact he's getting marked by MLS players whose only physical attribute is average ball ability and running. The last 7 games he's being marked easily and being frustrated. Imagine if the top elite ball players face off against him, he gets the ball and it's intercepted he loses it (which he has been doing a bit more often as he gets older) and a counter attack goes the other way resulting in a goal. We aren't talking about Inter Miami being down here, we're talking about Argentina giving away a goal in the World Cup.

 

You missed the most important part of Mascherano's horribly led Inter Miami.

Messi had no problem in creating havoc with Tata Martino in the whole season of 2024. You can't just decrease your level just like that when you are talking about a player like Messi.

It's a similar situation when Sampaoli led Argentina back in 2017-2018. It's a systematic issue to which Argentina does not have with Scaloni.

Messi has been losing balls since he was at Barca, it's not a new thing at all as he's the player who's been playing the highest risk.

 

To be fair, it happened quite often to certain degree when he's on psg and we're questioning his strength prior to WC 2022. PSG midfield was sh1t and got exposed badly against RM. But then we saw how he performed at the WC and qualifier under Scaloni... totally different.

Raphina was outstanding this season, but there's nothing he can do against us recently. Vini jr only had a single goal in WC qualifier. Being in a sh!t team can do that to any player.

 

Paz is balling out v Inter.

 

For his sake, I hope RM doesn't activate the buy back clause this summer.