Javier Mascherano is one of not so many players who have made their national team debut before even playing for a senior club side.
Mascherano was still with River Plate and current Leeds United coach Marcelo Bielsa was managing the Argentina national team. It was Argentina vs. Uruguay on July 16, 2003 in a friendly match. A match which ended in a 2-2 draw with Diego Milito scoring both times for Argentina.
It was Mascherano’s first of 147 caps for Argentina. Here’s a clip from years ago where Mascherano discussed his debut.
He was 18 years old, nobody knew him. He had never played an official match at his club.
— Juani Jimena (@JimenaJuani) March 13, 2020
Bielsa calls him for the Argentine national team.
He made his debut in Argentina, before his club.
Today, he is the player with the most caps (147) in Argentine history. Mascherano.#Bielsa pic.twitter.com/tXei69s4Ef
Pezzela resulted positive covid-19, the number has risen, our thoughts and prayers – wish all a speedy recovery. Heal the world and lets Pray for the world
WIth all due respect to Masherano, I would have preferred he played as a defender for us and not as a midfielder. All midfielders have to be very skillful, even defensive midfielders but it appears the less skillful ones are made to play as defensive midfielders. This is not always the case because Sergio Busquets, for instance is a skillful defensive midfielder.
My earnest desire is that our midfielder department be innundated with skillful players. As a corollary I would favour a 4-2-3-1 formation where two skillful players would work as defensive midfielders. My idea for the National team then would be as follows:
Rodrigo de Paul and Exequiel Palacios as defensive midfielders.
Ricardo Centurion, Thiago Almada and Lionel Messi as the 3 attacking midfielders.
My preference for a striker may not be popular but I really like Adolfo Gaich.
I apologise for this long epistle.
With all due respect, I would kill to have prime Mascherano in our midfield right now. He’s one of the few ex players that left a massive hole in our current midfield and Scaloni and AFA have failed to find an adequate replacement so far.
Well we can’t all see things the same way but if I remember correctly he played as a defender during his time at Barcelona.
I respect your opinion though.
Thanks to Bielsa to introduce Mascherano to N/T at early ages and … to Sampaoli for not letting Mascherano leave the N/T
Comments are closed.