We'll see how the season progresses. I wouldn't be so surprised to see Marquinhos anchoring the mid with Verratti and Paredes ahead of him towards the business end of the season, or Paredes and Verratti as a midfield 2 in a 3-4-3 with Ramos, Marquinhos, Kimpembe in defence. The way I see it, he needs to have some security for Hakimi and Mendes as they are the only ones truly providing width for PSG - 3 centre backs can do that. And his 2nd conundrum is the lack of defensive effort from Mbappe, Messi and to a lesser extent Neymar. Normally a team can accommodate to carry one guy, but three guys is just too much. Once he has all the guys, if he the team isn't beginning to look cohesive then it's a massive problem. Btw the CONMEBOL qualifiers haven't helped much either - Messi, Neymar, Di Maria, Paredes & Marquinhos basically guaranteed to miss the first match after each international break so far and the training leading up to it.
Ajax actually has been on fire so far this season. They only conceided 2 goals in the league and scored 30+ goals. In CL, they've scored 11 conceided just once. Lisandro has played in 10 out of 12 of those games.
Mbappe had a nice assist to Messi, and then gave the first PK to Messi. which Messi returned the favor and give the second PK to Mbappe for him to . . . shoot? (I guess that's what we can call what Mbappe did with his pk) But all that said, the body language between Messi and Mbappe is about as warm as Embiid and Ben Simmons circa 2019 (a little basketball reference for ya') If Pochetino doesn't win the Champions League this year, he is out imo. Poch's time is definitely ticking. I don't think he can fix PSG's midfield problems this year.
Not the first time that Messi and a French born forward has not panned out…(Club and national level). The only one that found success was Henry. But I think there is enough respect there. Simmons and Joel dislike each other a lot. Messi could’ve gone for a Cristiano-esque hat-trick, tap in and with two penalties. But good on him for passing it up. Oh, lol at the Lakers.
Lisandro Martinez had another great game as a center-back for Ajax; completely shutdown Haaland. I appreciate the resurgence of Otamendi with the NT, but I want to see L Martinez paired with Romero as our CBs. Maybe not next round against Uruguay and Brazil, but I think this is the way to go. Lisandro can play sparingly as a CDM, but he is really flurishing at Ajax as a CB
I believe Messi never like Griezmann after this overlooked incident... definetely a penal if its on our end.
Beside, WC still more than a year away. You'll never know how Otamendi will perform at that point. Otamendi does have good chemistry with Cuti which really elevated his performance as a whole. Its important to give L Martinez a chance after this round, if we could get at least 4 points.
1450619956710760450 is not a valid tweet id If Licha cannot get in as a centreback Scaloni should play him in defensive midfield. He'll be just as good there. He has all the attributes. He is always mobile, great passer of the ball, comfortable carrying it and of course is defensively sound. It's driving me mad that he is still on the fringes. We need the best players in the first eleven if we are going to win this Mundial. Simeone plays appalling football. I am very glad he never became Argentina manager. And the way things are it's not a great club for de Paul. Would have preferred he move to Internazionale for instance.
. . . I mean, was this highlight reel made for me specifically?? One of my favorite young Argentinean defenders with my favorite band playing in the background!!?!?!? Totally agree that Licha can play CDM; great on the ball, accurate passing, tremendous work rate. He is great as the CB partner of the future to Romero, or as our CDM
We've been ranked 6th since August.WTF? We've been running the table now for 25 games; 16 Wins, 9 ties and no losses - scored 48 goals but only gave up 15. And, we won Copa America, in Brazil, defeating Brazil. . . all this got us from 8th in May alllll the way up to 6th, where we've been since August. Why the f#ck is England and Belgium ahead of us? WTF have they won? I can accept France, Italy and Brazil ahead of us, but Belgium and England ahead of us is an insult
Elo ratings are way more fair, we are 3rd there Plus, in FIFA rankings Mexico and USA are near the top 10, while in ELO they are between 20 and 30. Those two teams dont belong near the top 10. And we are obviously in the top 3, top 4 at max
What's weird is 2018 WC is used as explanation why England and Belgium are ahead of us, but why is USA so high when they didn't even qualify for it? I think the Nations League stuff is factoring in too. CONMEBOL doesn't have that so we're at a disadvantage there as far as racking up points.
I do remember we ranked #1 in 2007 not long after losing the Copa final, Italy would soon dropped despite winning the WC...so its really weird how they come up with the ranking... If WC 2018 still has huge effect on current ranking, then Spain should have been lower since they also got eliminated in round 16, so did Portugal. Unlike us, they didnt win or reach the final in recent tournament. The only explaination is that the "money league" tourney has the same coefficient as WC.
There was also a blatant handball in the box to block a dangerous cross from us. I think it was Umtiti. Can't believe it wasn't a penalty.
I still remember that game unfortunately. That was in the first half around half an hour when the team had managed somehow to gain a foothold in the game and then di Maria equalized with that strike. France were not invincible it's just the whole shambolic approach of the AFA beforehand that undermined everything. Bringing in a new coach at the last hour and then that coach not utilizing the younger players. Even at 2-1 baldy could have changed tactics become more defensive brought on Lo Celso taken off Pavon and tried to snatch a third on the counter. Remember Kun in the form of his life parked on the bench as well with baldy fiddling about as where to play Messi. It was a shambles. And we still could have tied the game and then who knows. Every WC we seem to have a coach who makes a grave error. Passarella omitting Redondo, Pekerman bringing in ironically Scaloni for Zanetti and the great JZ4 having to make way for Ariel Garce. Remember him ? All apparently because of some mufa attached to JZ4 and presumably Cambiasso as well. Which is why Scaloni needs to make the right selections. Form and fitness is paramount. Not just selecting the same names over and again for the sake of it. Emi had a great game again last night. Looks like he will be getting plenty of practice as the defence in front of him is non existent. Buendia had a shocker.
Elo the system devised by the Hungarian mathematician Arpad Elo has been refined for different sports and is far more accurate given that it applies weighting considerations for tournament category, away v home and so on. It's used in chess, basketball and several other sports. Why FIFA cannot use it is a mystery. But then again everything FIFA touches usually turns to dust and is inexplicable unless money is involved. https://www.eloratings.net/
Argentina play Brazil and Uruguay in the World Cup qualifiers in November. pic.twitter.com/XALcnXfVPl— Roy Nemer (@RoyNemer) October 22, 2021 November WCQ dates and times are out and the team plays on a Friday while the other teams are playing on a Thursday. This will give us one day less to rest than Brazil by the time we face them. Don't know why we are playing on a Friday.
I work for a company in England that is working with Qatar 2022 on a research project. They want to speak with Argentina fans who have travelled to watch their team play at a World Cup or Copa America. If you have travelled overseas to support Argentina at a major tournament I’d like to hear from you. Thank you!
Giovanni Simeone scored 4 goals for Verona in a 4-1 win against his father, Diego Simeone's old team, Lazio. That's now 6 goals in his last 4 matches.— Roy Nemer (@RoyNemer) October 24, 2021