I actually think Biglia worked well under Sabella's system, which was a fast counter-attacking game. Martino wanted to play a more possession style game which requires a good box-to-box midfielder, i.e. Augusto Fernandez. I guess he could have played Di Maria in the midfield as a replacement, which is where he played under Sabella and at Real Madrid when Bale arrived. But Di Maria was also somewhat injured and Martino only played him as winger / forward anyway.
I have stated this before. We are among the only countries in the world that has massive pressure to deliver. It is easy when a country that has never won anything to go into a tournament and deliver. Look at the last 7 Euros, country's such as Denmark, Greece and Portugal have won it. Who the hell expected these country's to ever win anything? Look at Chile, a country that would regularly get beat-down, fail to qualify for the World Cup and would go into CA Finals without having pressure to deliver. At the end of the day, Chile is still Chile for me, a country that barely produces a couple good player's every 20 years. I don't see a change or a revolution in Chilean football. History tends to repeat itself. For our next up-coming generation, I believe we will end our trophy drought sooner than later. The end of the 05-07 generation is virtually on the cusp of extinction, and I am happy to see it end. We have a new generation of players who are hungry to deliver.
SupaMario, I hope you're right. I actually think we do it to ourselves with this massive pressure to deliver. Even the Germans don't put this kind of pressure on their team. The Brazilians do to some extent, but they've won a lot more recently and can sometimes use that "we sent our B team" excuse. My concern is if we pass that pressure on to the new generation it could be same old same old, and in 7-8 years we might be calling Dybala and Icardi chokers and hoping they never come back to the Seleccion. On the other hand if we keep making it to finals maybe we'll eventually catch a break too After all, I think to some extent some of this could be attributed to bad luck: 2004 why couldn't Adriano just miss that last shot for Brazil? 2014 if Di Maria was fit I think Argentina would have had much better chances. Messi's miss could have just as easily gone in too on another day. 2015 playing in Chile against the host team, where the ref was, IMO, letting a LOT of dirty tackles slide which cramped Messi's game. 2016 injury to Augusto Fernandez. Bad ref who felt he needed to even the playing field when he somewhat harshly ejected a Chilean player. The same thing happened in the semi finals when Carlos Sanchez got ejected for Colombia against Chile, but the ref in that game felt no need to compensate.
As many of us have pointed out, if play the What If we game, we would've won every title since 90. What if Caniggia was not suspended for the final, or if Ramon Diaz was taken to the 90 World Cup. What if Diego was not suspended in 94 and was allowed to play the entire tournament. What if DAP took Redendo and Caniggia to the World Cup in 98. What if Bielsa decided to start Crespo ahead of Bati or if they played together, or taken Saviola and Riquelme. What if Pekerman never subbed out Riquelme in 06. The CA can be the same story, 04 as you mentioned, 07, if Crespo never gets hurt and Riquelme scores to make it 1-1 rather than hit the crossbar. The story goes on and on. We've blown chances to win trophies, you would think we should've at least won one of the last 5 or 6 finals we've been in and have lost them all. Only solace we can take from this is(again) a new generation is coming up. It is tabula rasa, a blank slate, a new beginning without having the fear of failing as a group. I just hope to see this generation begin to be built sooner than later. Because there is still plenty of games left from now until Russia. Eliminate the pecho frios and muetros it could be good. I just don't see how a player like Higuain could ever be selected again. We have suffered enough.
Brazil committed 45 fouls and got no man sent out in 2007 final. If its not a testament of bad reffereeing.....
and If Bati didnt hit the post against Holland in 1998 QF... Saviola hit hattrick in 2004 group stage and got injured... Crespo scored 3 goals in first 2 games in 2007 and then got injured... bad luck never ends. Surely Argentina bring even more badluck for themselves by keep putting Pipita upfront. Pipita should decline a call up even if he the new manager somehow still pick him. Germany has been unlucky since WC 90, they've been reaching countless finals and semifinals , they've yet to won Euro again... but they managed to won the WC last time around, the same goes with Italy...at least these 2 teams has added 1 major thropy to their collection. Argentina has yet to do that despite reaching countless finals since 1993.
Germany won Euro 96 but your main point stands. the 2014 final, we blew the opportunity of a generation.
Well, what I'm trying to say is that, the last time Argentina won WC was in 1986 followed by 2 Copa in 1991 & 1993, Germany latest title before 2014 was 1990 WC and 1996 Euro. They've yet to won Euro again since then but has added another WC title, the same thing with Italy, losing in 1 WC final & semifinal and 2 Euro finals since 1982 but at least they won major thropy in WC 2006. Argentina somehow just stop winning anything after 1993. The curse seems to begin after Diego was kicked out from 1994 tournament. If the team is capable of reaching final after final, then its about having the mentallity to pull it through during the final itself. Speaking of player quality, Argentina technically is no.1 in last 10 years. Yet, they're stuck and becoming second best in every tournament. 4 finals in less than 10 years in a testament to that. No goal scored, just one goal conceided in last 3 finals (360 minutes of play). Where the problem lies? defence? obviously those choking forwards.