FIFA World Cup 2018: Argentina vs. Croatia - June 21 [R]

I almost fell asleep few minutes before HT. Boring football.

 

They are doing the right thing, Sampaoli needs to go.

 

The players seem outraged at Sampaoli. Its either he said something pre-game that didnt settle well with them or that they’ve been argueing with him about tactics for a while & he hasn’t considered their perspectives. Other than that I just can’t see any other reason for them to be this pissed unless there was some fight we dont know of.

 

I absolutey understand but during the tourney? Clearly his comments didnt settle well with them.

 

Sampaoli isnt a good manager if he's panicking when he should be the one who calm the team and installing a winning attitude. Seeing him going apeshit on the touchline, It looks like he's furious because the players couldnt do what's he's instructed even if that plan clearly not working at slightest.

 

We have to restructure , we may not have start players who is waiting to get in the team , but we dont need starts either we need players who can integrate with our system
1:Fire sampaoli
2:Bring icardi and dybala in offense
3:make the midfield with players like pardes,ascalibar,pavon

we can shape our future

 

If Nigeria vs Iceland result favoring us, then we still need to try our best. If not... then we should bench all the veterans and start with the likes of Pavon , Dybala, Lo Celso, Meza and all the younger guys.

If we can still qualify, then I think the key would be replacing Willy with Armani and then having more compact midfield and players closer with each other instead being far apart. Lastly, no freakin short pass from goalkeeper to defender , just proper clearence and that's it. We're not Spain or Barcelona.


Maradona messege

I'm here, next to my colors, which are stronger than anything anyone can say. Let's ask God to help us, like he always helped us. He gave us the prestige that Argentina has today, and I do not want to lose it. I want Argentina to win. I don't have time for envy. Hopefully Messi will do 3 goals, 3 Goals Agüero, or we win 1-0 on discount time. The important thing is that today the argentines are here, as we were with the Russians, after cameroon in Italy ' 90. I send a big kiss to all argentines, and this does not end here. Today a new sun can come out, brighter than ever for us. Up Argentina!!!


The 90 team did qualify by having 1 win, 1 lost, 1 draw, although the format at the time allowed 3 teams to qualified. But they did finished with same point and same goal difference as Romania.

 

Messi should play wide against Nigeria with Dybala down the middle, Pavon and Celso have to start, obviously Willy, Meza, Acuna, Perez all need to be dropped, stick with Aguero upfront.

 

LOL the croatian RB said the Argentine players were "falling and crying like girls". If that doesn't piss off this group then not sure what will. Expected them to come out with fire today but they were somehow more scared than that first game

 

Icardi should start at CF. Ah wait he’s in New York. Nevermind sorry.

 

He's trying to get us to play like Spain, whilst that would be wonderful, they have Iniesta, Silva, Busquets, Koke, Asensio, Thiago, Isco, so strong is their midfield that Fabregas didn't even make the squad. Where as we have Meza, Biglia, Perez, Banega, do you see the problem, you can't run as fast as Usain Bolt if you have no legs.

 

Really don't think Icardi would have mattered at all. Sure he would have offered an aerial threat compared to Aguero but the wing backs have shown nothing to suggest they can provide those crosses he needs. The problem is the nonexistent midfield

 

45 minutes into the game and I personally thought we needed a big CF along with a striker inside the box. Croatia’s CBs were terrible. I would have dropped Meza/Perez, brought in Lo Celso/Icardi, and switched to a 4-4-2 with Messi on the right and Acuna on the left. In this way, you nuetralize their CBs movement and you prevent their DMs from sitting in the middle doing nothing but collapsing on Messi.

However, our backup CF is a similar player to Aguero. Not much of a true box player.

Give this about 20 mins then drop Aguero for Dybala and go for the blow. Now thats game reading and proper coaching. You read whats happening and make adjustments. Keep an eye on “make” adjustments not “invent” adjustments.

 

Very disappointed by Messi. IT is his last WC, a game where atleast a draw is needed, his arch rival is playing out of his skin and what does Messi do??? He walks, don’t make himself available for the ball and looks scared like a wet cat.

The player of his stature should not be doing these things in a WC. Disappointing!!!

 

I love Messi, always will do, it has been a joy and a pleasure to watch him play, but having seen his performances in the last 3 world cups I have never been firmer in my view that Maradona was the greatest player of all time.

 

Yes, Lo Celso should start, so does Pavon and Dybala. Nigeria is offensive team and even if they do bunker instead, they wont be able to bunker properly. We should go into the match with nothing to lose attidude. Most of all, Willy is the one that really needs to be dropped. All goals conceided involved his incompetence at the goal. He's not made to play at this level. Do proper clearence everytime , that would be crucial since our defence has been all over the place.


Even if Iceland beat Nigeria (worst scenario for today), Croatia can still beat them even if they already qualify. Their confidence must be at all time high right now and they certainly would prefer winning all matches.

 

With Ronaldo he has 1 defender on him. Messi has an army to deal with cuz his midfield doesn't exist. Don't want to spite Masche as he was the only decent one, but Meza and Perez were thinking about their vacations already. Although Messi has to be criticized for his extremely poor leadership. You are the best player and instead of taking charge to fire his team up, he becomes rattled which causes everybody else to be further rattled. He didn't have to do this last WC cuz Masche was the general but this time around the guy literally shut up. Him giving Romero that pumped up prep talk against Netherlands was what imo allowed argentina to progress. wth happened this time?

 

Personally, I am not a fan of rabble rousing. And if these players want to retire, then I say fine, retire. They're acting like they're doing us a disservice. There is plenty of players who are waiting in the wings or that can continue.

Paredes
Ascacibar
Dybala
Lo Celso
Pezzella
Nico
Mammana
Icardi
Dybala
Lautaro
Lanzini
Pavón
Armani

And there will be plenty of names that will come through the ranks, as they always do through their clubs. We aren't some small nation that has one golden generation every 30 years, we will always produce immensely talented players. You can look at @Albiceleste2010 post in the NT Players thread, he does a great job naming players in positions for the future

Yes, most of us wanted Sampaoli to be our manager but I don't think you can fault any of us. Back home, Sampaoli has had his critics and criticism came from the likes of Bilardo, Diego, and a bozo like Caruso Lombardi. For Diego, he was upset because Sampaoli had apparently stated they would work together at Sevilla and Sampaoli apparently backed out of it. As for the criticism from other personnel, that has to do with a high-brow attitude. Sampaoli is Argentine, yes, but he didn't make his name with any of the clubs in Argentina. He made it in Peru and Chile and of course he seen as an outsider.

When Sampaoli took over Chile, he took over late 2012, Chile were really struggling. He had success at La U and he became a no-brainer to become their manager. So, he transformed that team quite quickly, perhaps much of that had to do with Bielsa who managed Chile a few years earlier and their high-pressing tactics were similar. And that Chile side nearly defeated Brasil in the R16 and Brasil were saved by a late shot that hit the post in ET and they escaped on PK'S.


Yes, so, after the failures with Tata at the CA and CAC, and the failure that was Bauza, shoot me for being optimistic for seeing Sampaoli become the D.T.. And by the way, when Tata initially resigned in 2016, Sampaoli had signed a contract only a week earlier with Sevilla. Had Tata left his post earlier, then probably we would've had Sampaoli from 2016.

Yes, his player selection and the the starting 11 should merit a termination. Now, I don't think he will be terminated, as it was mentioned earlier in the day, he has a contract until the end of the 2022 World Cup. And I'm sorry, we are not talking about peanuts here, we are talking about generational money. And this thing with pride? Let me quote Marsellus Wallace, who eloquently stated " #### pride, pride only hurts, it never helps."

So, again, I look towards the future, it maybe cloudy right now but I do take a bit of satisfaction many players that I have wanted to leave the national team will leave and again we have some exceptional players we can continue to watch and grow and lead us back to glory.

Vamos Argentina Carajo!!!

 

Messi captain armband is merely a formallity, not because he's true leader. Everytime we went into extra time in Copa and WC, the players would gathered around Masche as he gave a speech, meanwhile Messi was somewhere else alone drinking water.

 

I agree with you but there has to be a reason for that, at least I believe it that way.. there must be a meltdown in training if they came into every matches with zero confidence and zero teamplay.

Sampa must be forcing a certain plan (like building all the way from the back plus high preasuring game) and the players he picked simply couldnt get this task done. Into the second game, Sampa clearly still forcing the team to play with the same strategy, thus some players looks frustrated and clueless.

I've been saying since months ago that I'm more interested on the new team thats gonna play in CA 2019 rather than this team, even if they do qualify for next round.

 

The new team will need to have Lo Celso, Paredes and Ascacibar in the midfield. A midfield that can disrupt any attack but also carry the god damn ball forward rather than pass it sideways. Paredes is also isn't scared to shoot a ball outside of the box, he has a cannon on him. Ascacibar is a destroyer. We won't have to worry about Dybala having to carry the ball, then you can have Pavón on the wing causing havoc on the wing and throwing in crosses for Icardi. You'll have Lanzini who can also play supporting the attack.

Now, from the friendlies on, they need to be called up and played. We need to begin building for the future in 2018. Plus, I bet there will be another CA in 2020. The CAC was meant to be a 100th anniversary, but I think it was just a test to see if it would do well, and it was a major success here in the States. So, they probably could do another mesh-up tournament and call it the Americas Cup, or something in those lines.

 

Right on. BTW there are others like Angel Correa, Joaquin Correa, Matias Vargas, Lucas Robertone, Palacios, and Collombatto that are also young and upcoming.

As far as the Sampaoli tenure goes, there are journalists reporting that he decided to resign after Tuesday’s match. I think it makes sense after this circus but we’ll see.

 

What I don't get is what was the entire point of that Haiti friendly if Samp decided not to play some of the starters? Fazio on the bench. Lo Celso on the bench. Pavon played great but isn't a starter for either group games? Why cant he just play a 4-2-3-1 with Lo Celso in place of Biglia, Fazio in place of Rojo, Armani in place of Caballero, Pavon instead of the two ghosts we have seen and Dybala on the left? Isnt that what he spent the entire training camp working on?

 

what is the worst case scenario from now on
- Iceland beats Nigeria? then Iceland at 4pts
- Arg beats Nigeria (which is needed), then arg at 4pts
- Croatia to only beat Iceland then we qualify rt?

- Messi missing penalty
- Pavon not given a penalty
- Perez missing an open goal
- Willy beating de gea and karius for the worst keeper prize
- Reblic not red carded and he scores first goal
- Higuain coming instead of dybala first and

only positive from this team - ottamendi kicking rakitic face loved it

and finally Icardi having the last laugh watching all this from home....

 

The starting line up looked like a 3-4-3 but it was very much a 4-4-2 with Mache dropping next to Otamendi to distribute. When that happened, the only CM on the field was Perez while Croatia crowded the center with three CMs and two wide players all very close to each other. Salvio, Mercado, Tagliafico, Acuna, and Meza were always mainly looking to receive the ball in wide areas. They played three wingers, a LB, and RB with Mashe dropping into the defensive line in the build up. This left the center of the field completely empty. Instead of throwing on more attackers at the end in a panic, adding 2 CMs in place of two of the redundant wide players would have rebalanced the squad in this game. Instead he throws on Dybala, Higuain, and Pavon with absolutely no midfield players capable of playing passes into them.

This is the worst Argentine midfield that I've seen in my 30 years of watching them.