Possible Argentina line-up against Venezuela

By
Roy Nemer
-
47
Argentina Messi
Photo courtesy of La Nacion

Rumors are already circulating regarding the possible Argentina line-up against Venezuela.

Following the team’s 0-0 draw against Uruguay in Montevideo on Thursday night, the team took a chartered flight back to Buenos Aires. Argentina coach Jorge SAMPAOLI held a light training session on Friday with those who did not play in Thursday’s World Cup Qualifier. Those who did play against Uruguay took part in light exercises.

On Saturday morning, SAMPAOLI held a talk with 10 players, those 10 being rumored to be in the starting eleven against Venezuela on Tuesday. Here were the ten players:

Possible Argentina eleven

MASCHERANO, FAZIO, OTAMENDI; ACOSTA, BIGLIA, BANEGA, DI MARIA; DYBALA, ICARDI and MESSI.

Sergio ROMERO was not part of the team talk but it is believed that he will be the goalkeeper. Should that be the line-up, it means Javier MASCHERANO comes in for the suspended Gabriel MERCADO, Ever BANEGA (who was suspended for the game against Uruguay) comes in for Guido PIZARRO and Lautaro ACOSTA in for Marcos ACUÑA.

It would be the same front three with Lionel MESSI, Paulo DYBALA and Mauro ICARDI.

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47 Comments

  2. My team so far——–

    ———————-Rulli——————-
    Mussachiho–Mascarano—Otamendi-

    ————–pizzaro——-Peredes———
    Salvio——-…—Banaga———–Lanzini

    ——Messi——–HEGUIN——-Maria—-

  3. Playing 3-4-3…or play 3-5-2…you need put 2 cf at front…Romero;mascherano,fazio,otamendi;acosta,pizzaro,banega,acuna;messi;icardi and correa/benedetto
    Put messi and dybala togather just waste thing

  5. WE DONT NEED FORWARDS LIKE HIGUAIN OR ICARDI OR AGUERO …. WE HAVE MESSI …WE NEED 2 PLAYER AROUND MESSI THAT THEY ARE ABLE TO DO DRIBLING AND PASSING TO MESSI LIKE DYBALA AND PASTORE …IN THE MIDIFIELD WE NEED PAREJO (VALENCIA CAPTAIN)…
    ———————–ROMERO———————–
    MERCADO—–OTAMENDI————FAZIO———ROJO–
    ———————BIGLIA(MASCHERANO)————-
    ——PAREJO———————–BANEGA———–
    ———-DYBALA———-PASTORE(DIMARIA)———-
    ——————MESSI—————————–

    • That draw raised eyebrows all over Europe. I did not see the match, but it is another clear signal that parking the bus is a strategy that pays off for ‘lesser’ teams. You can bet Venezuela will park the bus in the Monumental. We need to circulate the ball fast if we want to break through a tight defence. I hope we score soon and then work on our goal difference (which may be important in the end). If not we could end up with a frustrating draw or worse if Venezuela counters well.

      We have the right amount of talent and goal scoring power but without fast ball circulation it means nothing.

        • MMH, I cannot judge that as I did not see the match. I have read three reports on the match and they all used that term. It was one way traffic throughout the match. The Luxembourg keeper apparently made some great saves. France became the laughing stock because the net value of the players on the pitch and bench was over 1 billion against merely amateurs.

  7. Let’s not change many
    But must change a little …

    Rulli

    Otamendi Masche Fazio

    Paredes Biglia Banega

    Pastore

    Messi Dimaria

    Icardi

    Sub:- Dybala ..J.Correa..Agusto..

  10. My team against vanuzuala is that………

    ————–joaquin correa

    ——PASTORE—————MESSI

    RIGONI——BANEGA——PIZZARO—–DIMARIA

    –MASCHERANO———FAZIO——-ACOSTA

    —————-ROMERO

  11. My team against vanuzuala is that………

    ———————Rulli———————-
    —Mascarano——Fazio—–Otamendi–
    ———————Pizarro——————–
    —Banega————–Maria—–acuna—
    Messi——-dybala——-Aguro——

  12. Firstly I am not going to criticize Samp greatly. First competitive match and it takes time for any coach to get their imprint on a national team. Not to mention several players have hardly played together or facing a team which is set upon defending the 18 yard box.

    However observing the match we will have to play at a faster tempo. Move the ball far more quickly, get those one two combinations going in and around the box. Doing so means a defence gets pulled about out of position.

    Instead of which we played infront of them with 2 DM’s who are incapable of passing the ball into space or through the lines with accuracy resulting in Messi and Dybala dropping deep.

    And with a compact defence you would like to see width. The width we did have was completely wasted by di Maria on numerous occasions. He would have to become a substitute for me an impact player. I far prefer Joaquin Correa who will get down the flanks and is far less easily hurried off the ball. Or Perotti or indeed Gaitan who has mysteriously disappeared from selection. All three are superior crossers of the ball.

    As has been mentioned get a ball playing central midfielder in. Augusto Fernandez or Paredes would be ideal. And Samp also has to learn a lesson. He is supposed to be tactically flexible.

    He wasn’t against Uruguay. Change formation if it isn’t working. I would have liked to seen the team revert to a back four and 4-2-3-1 with two natural laterals coming into the game. Or indeed replace Acuna who was pretty poor with Bustos. More tenacious defensively and more offensive and at least judging by his form for Independiente willing to get to the byeline for crosses.

    I feel sorry for the three upfront. Precious little service. And why do players turn into statues as soon as Messi has the ball. Run, make decoy runs offer options. Maddening. As a unit we were far from compact. Our trio of central defenders are tough but they lack pace and drop deeper than most. Time for a change here as well. Did not press in unison and once again gave away cheap balls that led to danger. Romero had his usual joke of a mistake in almost parrying a fairly innocuous shot to a Uruguayan forward. His distribution is also very poor. We have not had a Abbondanzieri type who can launch attacks.

    So all in all a lot of work to do. Samp knows this. I have said that 2022 is the long term goal in all probability as is the project with the u20 and u17 to establish our footballing identity again. Fix some of the issues mentioned and change a few more players and things should improve.

    ————————————-Rulli————————————–
    Bustos—————Garay—————Musacchio———-Tagliafico
    ———————————Asascibar————————————–
    ———-A.Fernandez————————–Banega———————
    ————————————Messi—————————————-
    ———————-Dybala——————-Icardi————————–

    This is something I would go for personally. If Samp is determined upon his the players need to change.

    —————————————Rulli————————————-
    ————Mercado—————Garay————Musacchio———–
    ————————–Paredes———Asascibar————————-
    Bustos————————————————————–Perotti—-
    ——————–Messi———————–Dybala————————-
    ————————————-Icardi—————————————-

    • Yup, the second line up is desirable for near future. No guarantees duo Paredes – Ascacibar will work at all but on paper looks attractive. Also Bustos. As For me Papu Gomez instead Perotti.

      Still I think midfield

      ……………Ascacibar
      …….Nacho…………Lanzini/Paredes/Battaglia

      would be best

      generally it’s between Ascacibar, Nacho, Paredes, Battaglia and Lanzini.

  13. Such a brilliant analytical write up by @kidadulthood. I enjoyed reading it thoroughly. Let’s not imbecilely hit the panic button in this infantry stages as apart from a few minor hiccups ( which could easily be rectified ),we actually made uruguay look like a school boy team in front of their own fans. No doubt they defended well( credit to their defenders ) but i believe with the amount of possession we had ( nearly 80% ) our play could’ve easily resulted in a goal if we were genuinely DESPERATE to score. The difference is that we didn’t after receiving fairly favourable news from the other conmebol matches.

    Moreover, like kid said it was more important for us not to lose than to win it. Remember our primary goal now is to qualify and NOT thrive to entertain. Trust me Sampaoli is a brilliant coach with an equally dynamic and brilliant team working around him. Im sure they will be able to analyze their tactical faults or wrong player choices and be able to correct them swiftly.

    Let’s not forget the fact that we were missing two crucial players in midfield ( banega and our flamboyant winger salvio ), especially Banega who links up well with messi and is the key player who connects our midfield with our forwards. Criticisms aside for his known inconsistencies, the fact is that we were sorely missing him in our first game. It took me merely halfway through 1st half to notice the void that he had left. If lanzini was there, we would have had a close enough replacement, a box to box type of midfielder. Im still eagerly waiting to see the return of my most favourite central midfielder, augusto fernandez whom i still believe his absence was the main cause of our defeat in the copa final.

    All in all i really hope all our mundo fans here could learn to be a little more patient and less erratic during the next at least 3 to 4 games for sampaoli to mould our team into a world beater. Im sure he and his team already have a solid plan to execute their ideas. The support from us the fans is pivotal for him now to drive the albicelestes to victory in our remaining crucial games. Vamos argentina

  14. Having Di Maria again in the roster means we are screwed again. Di Maria is poison to the team. I just can’t stand his poor skills, no wonder Barca didn’t want to pay more than 25 mil on his transfer because it would be pathetic to pay more than that range for an incompetent midfielder like him.
    Messi wants Di Maria to paly with him, well Messi, let me tell you something: “You will never win a world cup if you select friends to join you on the field”. Aguero, Higuaín, Di Maria, Mascherano, Banega, Pastore are all broken records.

    • They are friends because the have been together for 10 years through la seleccion national teams… why have they been selected? Because they are some of the best in the world ! Period! Sampaoli has enough balls to keep the same line up after a tough start to qualifying. Trust him… after we win 4-0 on Tuesday your perspective will start to sway

  15. good post Kid! I always appreciate your well argumented long posts.
    A major issue with Argentina is the lack of movement when Messi has the ball. Everybody stops and watches. They should move and open up spaces or offer themselves for a pass. Icardi did it once, got the ball and had a shot on target. Players need to stop watching Messi, move around and help him.

    • Not only that Richard, the players need to start believing in themselves and abilities on the pitch hence why they always seems so dumbfounded whenever Messi has the ball at his feet, It’s like all the Argentina players forget how to play once they lineup with Messi.

      Thanks again.

      • That’s not true the rest of players always doesn’t moving when Messi has the ball (however the situations often has a place indeed). Rewatch Copa finals one more time and see Higuain and others few times were in better positions than Messi, waiting for a pass but they never gets the ball.

        Our players seems to be dumbfounded, wait and see at Messi because they feel when Messi takes the ball he will do rather by himself with dribbling instead quick pass. I think everyone knows the situation from football fields of our youth when always you have one maestro abusing dribling by who you don’t feel like running while he doesn’t like passing.

        It’s easy to see blameworthy everywhere except Messi but problem is more complicated.

  16. People are taking the result against Uruguay way overboard. This was a great point for Argentina in the scheme of things. Would a win and three points been better for Argentina? Of course! If Argentina hadn’t lost at home to both Ecuador and Paraguay the team would have been in a much comfortable place right now, so in this case getting a point away in Uruguay would have been normal under these circumstances, but given Argentina current position in the CONMEBOL table a win would have been great, a point on the other hand was not a bad result given the way how Uruguay was set up not to lose. Uruguay did not come to play, and with Sampaoli first competitive game as head coach, you would’ve expect to have some flaws and lack of chemistry in the attacking third of the pitch. Argentina was using a new system with Messi, Icardi, and Dybala playing together in the attacking third for the first time ever, first time! Not because these guys all scored for their clubs on the weekend before the WCQ’s guaranteed a goal fest against Uruguay. Uruguay knew if Argentina had score early on in the game it would have been lights out for them hence the reason they didn’t even try to play like a normal team. People here like to forget history and past results. During the 1997 World cup qualifying away game to Uruguay, (France 1998 World Cup) Argentina drew away with the host 0-0 and this was with the likes of Batistuta etc. in 2001, for the 2002 World Cup in Japan/Korea, Argentina drew 1-1 away to Uruguay. For the 2006 World Cup in Germany; Argentina lost 1-0 away to Uruguay. Argentina barely got a win away in Uruguay back in 2009 winning by 0-1, this was one of the least memorable games to begin with. In 2013, Argentina lost away to Uruguay 3-2 with Sabella team already qualified, he decided to rest majority of his starting XI and used a B/C team instead against a Uruguay team that was barely hanging on to the playoff spot in the standings. As you can see Argentina record away to Uruguay since the 1998 WCQ’s are usually close on the margins. What makes some people think that Argentina should have gone into to Uruguay (Montevideo) and win comfortable when the team haven’t done so in recent times, not even with Batistuta? Our expectations are usually way too high, not because we have Messi, Higuain, Aguero, Di Maria, Icardi, Dybala, Correa 1 and Correa 2 and, Pastore in the attacking third will likely lead to Argentina blowing away teams by 4-5 goals every single game, it’s not like Argentina get a chance to play against the likes of Rock of Gibraltar (30,000 population) and Faroe Island (50,000 population) in the CONMEBOL world cup qualifying games where the strikers have a chance to let lose in front of goal. This was a game with Messi, Icardi, Dybala, Di Maria, Suarez, Cavani all on the pitch yet we got zero goals from either side. Imo, both teams were satisfied with the one point, in the last several minutes of the game Argentina was basically running out the clock with little urgency going forward. The Uruguayan fans started to boo because they realize their team wasn’t trying to play. Both teams started off in support of hosting the 2030 world cup, apart from a few tackle and in your face moments during the game, this was one of the least intense Argentina vs Uruguay games I have seen in quite a while which indicate both teams were satisfied with the one point as long as they both qualified for the 2018 world cup.

    The whole midfield argument is pointless, people saying Argentina doesn’t have good midfielders are the Euro centric fans. If you put Busquets in Argentina team for the game against Uruguay the result would have likely been the same. If you put Kroos in the Argentina team for the game against Uruguay the result would have likely been the same. If you put Modric in the Argentina team for the game against Uruguay and the result would have been the same because I don’t see Modric creating wonders for Croatia. None of these guys would have made a difference, better yet, when was the last time you see these midfielders split opening defense with direct passes? Nobody does more sideway pass than Toni Kroos, majority of his passes for an entire game are usually sideways, so why are people here saying our midfielders pass the ball sideways on too many build up plays? When was the last time Busquets had an assist for Barcelona? Busquets haven’t had a good season since 2012 for Barcelona so please, he is not a good example to use here. Majority of Toni Kroos assist at Real Madrid comes from corners and direct free kicks, and the players who made those assist possible are Ronaldo and Ramos given their abilities to head the ball on goal. You know who would have made the difference against park the bus Uruguay if we want to use players from other nationalities as examples? Marcelo, Carvajal, Dani Alves etc. Yes, if you guys haven’t been noticing, LB, RB and quality wingers are the reason for majority of goals score around club football. Let’s take the UCL final for example; the first Real Madrid goal was an assist to Ronaldo from Carvajal. In the same final, Marcelo had an assist and Alex Sandro was involved in Juventus only goal. Ronaldo second goal in the final was an assist by Modric (in this case, Modric was basically in the RB/RW position when he made that pass into the Juventus 18-yard box, not in the middle of the park trying to split open Juventus defensive back line). The Argentina midfield is fine and there is enough depth and talent to challenge for the world cup, what Sampaoli needs to do is figure out how to make the team more creative on the left and right flanks of the pitch. The midfield is too congested at times; Argentina need to make the pitch bigger in order to stretch the opponent defensive backline. When Di Maria and Acuna gets the ball there are rarely any players overlapping for a pass in behind the Uruguayan defensive line. Some of Di Maria crosses were atrocious, I’ll admit that (same for Acuna), but what were the other options made available for him when he had the ball? There were only two options; try and cross the ball at all cost into Uruguay 18-yard box or play the ball back in the center of the pitch or back to the central defenders. Icardi was lost in the box with no support or help (same as Higuain and Aguero in previous games), and even if Di Maria got a cross in it would have never reach him given that Godin and Gimenez were tightly marking him. Moreover, Godin and Gimenez are a part of Simeone/Atletico Madrid backline that rarely concede goals from set pieces or high crosses in their goal area. So nine out of ten, Di Maria cross was never going to reach Icardi given that you have both Godin and Gimenez marking him, plus the other defensive player blocking Di Maria cross from even going into the box, and this is where an overlapping player would be useful in the attack. Whenever anyone of the Argentina players have the ball they seem so isolated, including Messi. Argentina needs to make the pitch bigger; worked on the wing plays a little more, work on the overlapping plays in attack and on the wings a little more. Once Sampaoli get the attacking flanks right and clicking the team will function better with more fluidity, this will give the midfielders options all over the pitch. Notice at PSG, every time Di Maria has the ball on the flank, the wingback is always making an overlapping run who then use himself as a decoy which automatically remove the defensive blocker out of Di Maria way so he can make a solid cross or play in the RB into space while he run inside the opponent 18-yard box.

    Look at Valencia goal vs Real Madrid; Kondogbia made a similar pass from midfield to the Valencia LB (Luis Gayà), who then waited for the incoming Valencia player (Toni Lato) to make the overlapping run behind Carvajal (who was turn inside out on the pass), Toni Lato then play the ball across the Real Madrid six-yard box for a Valencia player to tap home. These are the quick interchangeable passes and movements that needs to happen on Argentina build up wing plays, not predictable build up plays from midfield which will leads us to more games like what we had against Uruguay and Iran at the 2014 world cup. https://youtu.be/3md4MxjmUys

    I was fine with the result against Uruguay, the team look organize, at no time during the game you had the players all over the place like in past games. I haven’t seen an Argentina team this organize in a long time. I love what I’m seeing thus far, it’s still a work in progress, but Sampaoli is getting there. As far as I’m concern, the players on both side was content with a draw as the game got closer to the end. As I’ve said before, no team will match Argentina in possession not even Spain when the team is well oiled. After the Brazil game, I’ve said give Sampaoli six months with this team and see how positive the outcome will be. Argentina national team is always easy to hate on, the players are constantly look down on as not good enough by both fans and anti-fans. People here and in other places like to put down the players at the expense of other national team players especially the ones from Europe. Argentina national team is not inferior to any other team. Argentina went to three finals in which they were their own enemy, three of those finals Argentina was the better team. Argentina will get their train tickets for the world cup when it’s all said and done, and it doesn’t matter if they arrive at the world cup from the back of the train because at the end of the day, every team on that train heading to Russia will have to start all over again, how you got your ticket to arrive at the world cup on the train won’t matter anymore, it’s what happen during the world cup tournament that will cement Messi and Argentina legacy, not that Argentina didn’t defeat Uruguay in Montevideo on August 31ts, 2017.

    Talking about Europe, it’s about time I touch on the UEFA water down qualifying competition. People here talking about results in Europe as if it is comparable to CONEMEBOL qualifiers. France have some top talented players no doubt, but let’s not kid ourselves, they played against a poor man’s Dutch team who is a shadow of what they use to be. Anybody can defeat this current Dutch team hence the reason they’re likely to miss back to back tournaments, it doesn’t take much playing and looking like a world beater against the current Holland national team. Holland ten years ago would have easily win against this current French team. Belgium win against Rock of Gibraltar by 9 goals despite playing with ten players for the entire second half and it becomes head line across the sport world, this was a game where a Belgian defender had a hat trick of goals and assist, this is just sad and pathetic. England winning by four goals against Malta and Portugal winning by four goals against Faroe Island are basically the same old top heavy games we have get accustom to in the UEFA qualifiers. The UEFA qualifiers are a big joke compare to CONMEBOL, most of the groups just have one or two good teams and the rest are just in the groups for the so call big players in Europe to pad their international goal scoring stats. If Messi was playing against Gibraltar, Faroe Island, Malta, Liechtenstein, Azerbaijan, San Marino, Andorra, Luxembourg, Cyprus etc. year in and year out, he would have had well over 100 international goals already.

    Argentina will only get stronger from this qualifying campaign, this experience will be embedded in the player’s moral which will allow them to take nothing for granted going into the 2018 world cup. I was never an Icardi fan, but now I’m a Icardi supporter, I’ll respect him being a part of the team. No need to be disrespectful toward the players or coaching staff, just let Sampaoli do his work, this is only Sampaoli third game in charge trying out 1-2 new formation that will need time to click, once the players get use to Sampaoli system the team will function more decisive in defense, midfield and, attack. Critics like Tim Vickery will always critique Argentina given that for him Brazil is always perfect in every way. This man rarely writes anything good about Argentina. I stop taking Tim Vickery seriously around the 2016 Copa America Centenial right before Argentina game against the USMNT where he stated that USA Tim Brooks will be the best defender on the pitch, the naivety of this man is beyond bias. Argentina team is too easy to hate on, likewise the players and it has ramped up during Messi time with the Argentina national team. Just read the comments from an article linking an Argentina player to an EPL team, especially one of the top 6/7 EPL teams, it’s not a good look. I remember the bad stuff that was written about Funes Mori, not by people in the comment sections, but from a so call professional sport British writer, just goes to show how Argentina players are constantly over look hence the reason you have the best of our young players ending up playing for Zenit when they’re as talented as other players across Europe.

    Did not intended to write such a long post.

    • Wonderful Post kid. I really don’t like to argue with people here. So i didn’t go for argument about Kross and Modric. It’s all about system that players play. I am sure given time Sampa will make our midfield solid. One thing i will disagree with you is about Di-Maria crossing! Fair enough Icardi wouldn’t get those cross but at least i wanna see opposition defender defend something. The was poor from Di-Maria if you think about his ability and reputation. Still i was happy with the results because we deserve where we are now in table. If you loss to Paraguay and Ecuador at home and draw Venezuela away with luck plus loss away to Bolivia than obviously you would not be in top 3. However I don’t like Sampa again not playing a proper wing back or RB in right side. Hence we could see something different this time i hope

      • But at the same time, you had a situation where Uruguay almost had a counter attacking goal and Di Maria single handily shut down that play because he had the speed to recover in time for Argentina given that the defenders were in the Uruguay side of the pitch. A lot of people like to criticize Di Maria, but he never gets the praise for his defensive work. Di Maria benefits Argentina both in attack and defense. Sorry, but nobody else offer what Di Maria gives Argentina. People talking about Gomes, Nacho etc. when none of those guys would have track back in time and prevent Uruguay from scoring on what was a dangerous counter attacking opportunity.

        • Erik Lamela has the defensive skills, so not only Di Maria. In addition to this, Erik Lamela has dribbling skills to take on defenders in tight spaces, open up the game for teams and deliver through balls. He has world class abilities and was once praised as the “Next Totti” by Totti himself. After the world cup in a friendly game in Germany, he proved his skills was needed when he scored a brilliant goal (even though it was a friendly, but he a DiMaria looked deadly running wild at the Germans at home). In addition to this, in the Copa America Centenario, he came on late in the 2nd half and was the most dangerous person on the field (even with Messi playing the entire game). I know he is injured and scheduled to come back for Tottenham in October, but I really hope that not only that he gets healthy, but also makes the team as a starter.

          Check out Erik Lamela and let’s not forget about this beast

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBcNFYDPsrg

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nekdcb7wHW0

        • This is true and I think because of his work rate he always picked by every coach. Completely agreed he does help defence a lot. I was a bit disappointed like everyone about his performance when it comes attacking. Let’s hope for better.

    • Totally agree with you. I feel really sad when people bashing players like Higuain and Di Maria. People don’t understand how hard our players dealing with. Noone come out and play, they just defend in their final third. I really wish Sampaoli can find the creative play in next few games. Bigilia against Brazil show that our midfielder are not bad. They just need to understand how to play the game

  17. The problem Sampaoli has (which was a problem Bauza had as well) is that Sampaoli has inherited a team which he cannot mess around with. There were 4 WCQ matches when he took over. The match against Uruguay was not easy. It was more of a “can’t lose” than a “must win”. Had Argentina lost that match, it would have been detrimental to the team’s moral. But they played, they tried and Uruguay defended with all they had. Can’t blame Argentina or Sampaoli for that.

    Technically speaking, Sampaoli has no real reason to drop Romero. I’m not saying I want Romero as the starting goalkeeper but to change from Romero to Rulli could be suicidal. Romero, for all his flaws, knows these World Cup Qualifiers in and out. It’s his third edition and he has saved us in the past (he has also cost us). Sampaoli had the balls to drop Mascherano against Uruguay, that alone is massive. He dropped Higuain for Icardi (which should have been done a while back by different coaches but still).

    You can’t expect whole changes from Sampaoli or any other coach when a team is literally fighting to make the World Cup with 4 matches left.

    I am as angry and as frustrated as everyone on here regarding Di Maria and I personally think he should be dropped, no doubt about it. That’s my only frustration with Sampaoli. But he’s brought in many new faces into the squad but like I said, can’t expect him to go with 10 new players plus Messi for crucial World Cup Qualifiers. It would be disastrous.

    • This is very frustrating to see poor Di Maria still there and Papu Gomez dropped just after one game in NT. Irrational. Who wouldn’t want to see Papu Gomez in second half against Uruguay.

    • agreed as time is not at all samps friend and that explains rom inclusion and di maria but for the love of god di maria has to be gone as he has very little footballing intelligence “a brain” these days, his crossing is some thing we expect to see from a sunday lge player-near 10 crosses and guess what? 3-4 were straight into the keepers arms and the rest were to whom exactly? as none were near a player at all.

  18. You guys need to cool off a little bit… If Sampaoli won the match, you would then all go crazy about it. Saying, oh all those changes were good, awesome, bla bla… Now, after the changes Sampaoli tried in the match, and didn’t deliver the result – you’re all jumping and finding what was wrong. So, if all of us saw what was bad in the match with Uruguay, you think Sampaoli didn’t? You think we need to point out to Sampaoli what was wrong? Please stand by a little bit…

  19. everyone started to blame sampolli icardi dybala… some of them critisized pizzaro and biglia and acuna…dimaria most of them

    what happened in the match…

    defence: they did a decent job… no one trying to put a long diagonal pass.. otamendi trying into move forward uruguay defence blocked every pass.. one wrong pass uruguay started to counter… so they passed side ways most of the time…

    midfied: before the match we lost lanzini, and banega suspended…. many of them have question what they can offer to midfield… they are not well in defending… but they can move the fall forward… and make run when messi droped in midfield…. and they can dribble well.. so we can link messi dybala many times… but with biglia and pizzaro that wont happend they can add extra to defending but nothing on the attack… because we suffered to create anything biglia tried but they blocked easily started counter… we feared we can lose if we tried in the middle..

    wing backs: many of them have a question why he chooses dimaria over gomez and perroti.. yes if he chooses gomez and perroti they will give some good crosses and take one on one very well… but defending and tracking back difficult both are not good and defending.. and energy level is low … compare to dimaria… whe he choose when others team attack it is difficult for both gomez and perroti so we can loose easily.. so dimaria is better… but uruguay defend in home ground… his attacking game poor in that match… but he did well when we have to defend… aucna same like dimaria… both man feared to dribble sampolli knows … if midfield creates then only wing backs will be activated.. we failed in midfield…. wing back attack is not possible with this system…

    forwards: we failed to give ball to forwards… so we all are blaming dybala icardi messi… it could be worse with higuain benitto… even with acting surez… auguro or anybody….. icardi did not receive one good cross… from dimaria.. he moved when messi put throw ball… but his possition to score from there is no chance… and one ball from pastore is hard to control… he needs time… in club he can have one season .. give two or three match…

    dybala… one pass to messi other than every time he moves uruguay midfield blocked… he did not receive one good pass in midfield at right area..

    messi: messi had poor game… but still he create one two with dybala and free kick saved by muselera…. if any body want to blame messi… then they must be mardona hard core fans….

    this is first match… banega will be back to next match… he will offer something extra… we will win remaing three matches we will finish second in the table… we will score more in next matches… in my point of view lanzini is better player can offer more than biglia and pizzaro in attack and better then banega… he will be my chioce for the wc… in midfield..

  21. The next opponents are comparatively easy opponents. So we may win and qualify for the world cup. The problem is not whether we win or not. Selecting one group of players over the rest consistently will damage the future of our team. What if Maria, Romero, Biglia, etc. have one or two decent/good games (in wcq or friendlies), will it be a justification for their presence in the team?

  22. Sampaoli is talking that Messi is the only authomatic starter. But what about Di Maria? He is authomatic starter since Sabella. Wait weaker rival when he may do maybbe one thing good – assist or goal – but against the stronger always will give shit especially on his crossing. I don’t care what he will do against Venezuela. He may scored even hat-trick (and people will say naively that’s breakthrough of his performances – nothing of the sort) . But then we will face strong opponent and you will see him fucking up every pass, cross or shots. No more trust to the loser.

    • I was typing something similar Gonzalo (above)!
      I was also puzzled by this! He was saying that only Messi is the automatic starter, but the fact remains that Maria and Romero have been the automatic starters for a long time and it continues under Sampaoli. Should we give up World Cup 2018 hopes and wait till a new generation emerging after that? Now I am afraid that if Rojo recovers, we will have to see him in the left wing!

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