Paulo DYBALA of Argentina: “It would be better to avoid France”

By
Roy Nemer
-
100
Paulo Dybala Argentina
Paulo Dybala speaking with TyC Sports.

Paulo DYBALA spoke to TyC Sports regarding the World Cup, his Argentina debut and Lionel MESSI.

At only 24 years old, Paulo DYBALA has already established himself as a star player for his club. With Juventus, he wears the number 10 shirt and younger kids watch him play and try to learn from him. But DYBALA himself tries to learn and he tries to learn from his idol, Lionel MESSI. Here’s what he had to say about Argentina’s captain:

“I always had Leo (MESSI) as an idol. I always admired him and I continue to admire him for what he does, for what he did and for what he will continue to do. He’s an incredible footballer, one you try to watch and learn even the smallest of details.

“Watching him play is incredible but I’m also lucky enough to be able to watch him train every day and that’s even more (extra).”

In regards to the upcoming FIFA World Cup, DYBALA sees France as one of the nations to look out for.

“They have a team with very important players and young players with a big future in their national team. It would be better to avoid them.

“If you want to get to the final, a lot of the time you have to play against the best. Brazil, Germany, Spain or France are the teams that will be at the top and they have been showing that for several years now.”

Having been handed his debut for Argentina by coach Gerardo “Tata” MARTINO a few years ago now, DYBALA recalls his debut stating that his hands began to sweat.

“When MARTINO called me to go in, my hands started to sweat. It was something unusual because it had never happened to me before. Everything just happened so fast. From my first year at Instituto to making the jump to Europe to being in the National Team at just 21 years old.”

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100 Comments

  1. Keep in mind you didn’t achieved anything yet despite playing good on certain level. But ground reality is you are far from precise dribling past player neither precise shot for scoring goals. You must need to practice hard on precise shots and dribbling defenders before WC.

  2. So instead of Lanzini Meza or Banega will start vs Iceland? I have highly doubts about Meza’s defending skills, and ofc Leandro Paredes IN. A Biglia/Mascherano-Lo Celso(AM)- Paredes(ZM) midfield is more balanced than the Lo Celso-Lanzini duo. Paredes shooting is at least as good as Lanzini’s, better in dictating the tempo, keep possession, better defender, better passer, but not that mobile. And know the russian athmosphere very well.

      • Sky high, he started his career as DM, Meza? An attacking player, maybe can maybe not, never played so high level football before this WC. Look at the Sevilla matches vs MU and Bayern, where Banega played in the exact same position and was so dominant. Not in useless friendly matches. If not Paredes, Banega is an automatic starter for me, Im very skeptical of Meza performances in the WC. Tell me 1 local player sincs 98WC (since Bosman-rule and the exodus of home players) who contributed anything for the team. You can name zero, ZERO.

        • Has played few times CM in Independiente. Besides is rather aggresive in defence.

          How is the european clubs “high level ” so high that Banega never played in NT so good having the stupid defensive mistakes. It’s just like the NT level was too high are european clubs too low.

        • Who contributed anything IN A WORLD CUP since 98, not in a friendly, where we lost with 5 goals lol. Tell me one! So every coach is stupid and prefers star players, NO, they just all see the young local players are not ready for a WC.

          • If he is not ready what for he is there? You contradicted himself when you have said our coaches does not want local players for the reason and at the same time Meza is there.

            The fact it’s our biggest European stars have biggest problems in NT to deliver in recent years. Not the players of smaller clubs but our biggest stars of biggest clubs are biggest disappointments.

            Peasant Meza being best player against Spain is another prove of the ironic fact. Di Maria is struggling most of the game to do anything while Pavon makes assist coming from the bench within so much less time than Di Maria.

            Pratto scored 2 in qualifiers having so much less minutes than Higuain who didn’t scored light years.

  3. What rotten luck 😢😢😢😢…Lanzini must be gutted to miss out so near to the world cup. that’s two of our starters gone. hope the team is not morally dampened and recovers soon. But this opens door for both Lo Celso and Meza to start.

  10. Very sad news. Lanzini is one of my favourite.
    When the team announced, common comments were the team is loaded with attackers….and we badly missing a player like Enzo/Battaglia/Paredes.
    I am sure Sampaoli now know where we lack the strength and act accordingly.

    I believe Sampaoli will call one of Enzo/Battaglia/Paredes that’s the area we lack strength.

  11. Feeling Sorry for Lanzini. Poor Lad. He would have been a part of the winning group in Russia. He must take extra care for his fragile body to have a long shot at his club and International career. Wondering who will Sampa call to play. whoever it is He will bring back good luck!! Someone coming must be destined for great things this world cup!!

    Vamos Argentina !! Heroes Argentina !!

  13. I don’t think we need another LM/RM/winger like Perotti. Rather central midfielder like Battaglia or central forward like Martinez/Icardi/ Pratto as Higuain is poor and Aguero injury prone.

  16. No chance for Centurion
    As he had operation of appendicitis& need 10 days of rest … Will he have a miracle and will he have his chance in Russia after Lanzini’s injury?
    10 days are not enough for coming back from appendicitis operation.

    Lets take a good and sensible option about selection —
    D.Perotti
    E.Perez
    P.perez
    A.Correa
    G.Pizzaro
    R.Battaglia
    L.Paredes
    {No papu Gomez (my opinion)}

    I would have gone for Icardi 🙂

  18. Actually we are really good when facing Spain, I have watched the replay, part of it,though.

    Lo Celso and meza are our future. Yet, what is lacking is the finishing a certain man coughiguaincough couldn’t finish and meza also weren’t good with his.

    And all is even ( if not our advantage) until the 50s. Yes, we’re down 2-1 but that didn’t picture anything. And then a few mistakes, and there they go. It seems like the players were not given direction for coming back against fast enemy counter. They only run back without looking enemies’ movement.

  20. This is a very BAD news for all Argentina fans around the world.

    Manu is one of my favourite players and he could conrtibute a lot to the team success but sometimes you can expect such heartbreaking incidents. I had high hopes for him in this WC.

    Wish a speedy recovery for Manu!

    Now, a good replacement is needed!

  25. What about Portugal and other 2nd row favourite teams: as far as a team has very strong defence they always may beat us in final stages. And also Argentina may beat every team as far as they will have such defence. In final stages that’s not problem to solid defence teams lead the knockout game to penalty kicks and then win than if fortune favors.

    So if you have two teams of really strong defense then even if one of them is weak in attack there’s always good chance for the weaker to win that in penalties. With good defence you may always go far.

    So we need arrange better defence first. Central midfielders are vital element of solid defence so my concern is first of all our central midfield. I’m not sure duo Biglia – Lo Celos is enough good defensively.

  33. Big Blow in Our team
    Out of Russia !!
    #LANZINI injured

    🙁 Manuel suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee this Friday. The AFA officially informed him. The West Ham is without World Cup.

  34. People are taking wrong Tagliafico. Tagliafico is first of all outstanding DEFENSIVELY. That is his main trait since U-20 WC 2011. The he was always one of best defenders in league. Both in Banfield and Independiente. He was always braveheart warrior in defence. Tagliafico was not outstanding in attack. For those who watched him for the first time in last friendlies it may seem as it is the other way: he is better in attack. No, Tagliafico was always first of all defender. But I see it clearly he is developing much.

    Now I must to say: despite the fact he is our best LB and he is very very good defensively it would be great challenge for him to stop Mbappe. No guarantees he can do that but for sure he is more likely to stop Mbappe than Marcelo for instance.

    I think even Neymar would be easier rival to Tagliafico. Tagliafica has played good against him in youth teams.

  35. “If Colombia>France… And Argentina>Colombia…
    Then… Argentina>France… so no need to fear!”

    These kind of comments makes me wonder whether people are really watching football or just following results.

    Competitive football and friendlies are 2 different thing. Teams approach these games with different mentality.

    Competitive France vs Colombia game will be a different result and similarly Argentina will not be a cake walk for Spain if they ever meet in the world cup. In fact with Messi, Argentina can beat France and Spain.

    But I agree with Dybala, France is the team to avoid until final.

  36. The other worst thing about Argentina is Di Maria.His understanding of the game is just like a child who just wants to run and sometime or other makes one or two tricks.His mental age is like a child. To control him on the field we need a strict father for him,a disciplined one or we should drop him.The things at which he is bad he continuously tries and result is always sucks.He has no brain(no offence). We should drop him as we have other young talented players like Pavon Meza Acuna etc.

  37. One thing I do not understand is that why Mercado over Ansaldi.Mercado has nothing to do in Sampoli’s plan.He is no effective in going forward.So why to choose him.He can not provide crosses to CF.On the other hand Ansaldi is much better than him.We need him in right back.He is offensive as well as defensive.If he plas as right back we can even see him scoring goals.If Sampoli plays Mercado as right back as a starter that would be great mistake.

  38. According to TYC Sport observations on 8/6/18,
    “The 11 that lie in the head of the coach are: ”

    Wilfredo Caballero;

    Mercado, Otamendi, Rojo/Fazio, Tagliafico ;;

    Masche/Biglia, Meza/ Lo Celso;;

    Lanzini ,Messi, María ;;

    Higuaín/Agüero .

  39. Dybala is right. Tagliafico is no match for Mbappe and Mercado lacks speed to handle Dembele. Tagliafico is a good going forwards but defensively he is not that strong. Even 2nd rate attackers in the Dutch league run past him. Mercado is red card waiting to happen. Ansaldi a must against France.

    On the other hand, French defenders will fear Messi and Aguero 😁

    • That doesn’t work like that.
      Mbappe is nothing compared to Robben of 2014. He came to win it to make history for Netherlands. Mbappe or any other French Overrated forwards doesnt have that fire in them..
      Still we know what happened to Robbens team.
      Since you brought in Tagliafico’s ability, what was Rojo before 2014 ? Nothing, if I’m not wrong FIFA gave him rating 65-75 range.. Robben could hardly do anything in the left side. Rojo outrun him. & Don’t forget rojo was playing out of his normal position…

      Football & so defence is a team game. That doesn’t work like Tagliafico <<<< Mbappe kind of logic… If we can defend well as a team, we can defeat France or even spain. France is not that great team. They have individual brilliance. But that wont guarantee them anything..

      Argentina is a proud footballing Nation. France is nothing Infront of us. They are inferior to us in general despite having more world class players in their side.. Argentina won't show any respect to them for sure..

      Of course, i am not saying we will defeat them with 120% certainty. What I'm saying is, It will be a great fight. A fight of equals. And our team have everything to defeat them….

  41. I afraid of cry baby penaldo’s Portugal with great goalkeeper rui Patricio, solid defence ( pepe, fonte, Bruno alves , joao cancello, Raphael guirero etc) strong midfield ( joao Mario, moutinho , geltion Martin’s, Bernard Silva, rony lopes , William carvaholo etc.) And ofcource Ronaldo, Gonzalo guedes, Andre Silva. What about your thoughts ?

    • Portugal is a solid team. They have as much chance as Argentina (with Messi).

      Portugal team for this WC is stronger than 2016 Euro winning team which won the cup without Cristiano.

    • first they need to beat Spain.
      until they do that we should not be afraid of them.
      but even if they do – Portugal is more easier opponent for Argentina than Spain.
      so either there is nothing to fear or situation is anyway better than expected.

    • Portugal is easier than Spain to play against in Semi Final. Portugal is decent team, as good as England, Belgium or even France…
      But said that i don’t think they can beat Argentina in direct play.

  42. According to some report sampaoli will field this. Eleven against Iceland
    Caballero
    Mercado otamendi rojo taglia
    Mascherano Meza
    Lanzini messi dimaria
    Higuain

  43. Germany has fallen behind France Brazil and Spain. Those three are clear favorites now. But I believe England would be the surprise team this year to reach semifinals. EPL clubs together had a very good champions league after many years. and nobody seriously expects anything from england this time. I liked what I saw from england yesterday against Rica. It was more or less their shadow team but they controlled the game incredibly well. Good defence, decent in the middle, runners in the wings and lethal finishers should be good enough to get this star-less side to the quarters. as for my argentina, i can only see the dreams crashing to a premature exit 🙁

  44. France is nothing but the European version of Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon etc..I just can’t see France going deep in the tournament. When is France going to stop stealing African players to represent their homeland?

    • 49 players out of 736 in this world cup were born in France…please dont link skin color and race to nationality

    • KidultHood OH MY! Finally someone who see’s reality!

      France are names lol. People look at names they don’t look at which leagues they play or form anymore.

      *These professional “pundits” are brainwashing people into a betting trap.* They ain’t stupid they know the game very well but they also get paid to lie. That’s why they keep saying France who have in and out of form players – the same team who couldn’t beat a crappy Portuguese side – are favourites.

      They also say Argentina won’t get out of the group people buy this crap. The hype of Iceland is unreal, we’re a ARGENTINA not England lol.

    • @Kidulthood: Stop this racist bullshit. Do you think Spanish speaking white people have been living in Argentina for forever? Then by your logic Argentina is actually a Spanish team and Messi is Spanish. Race and ethnicity has nothing to do with nationality. This is 2018! Wake up!

    • Before saying words like stealing provide evidence. If the players themselves that choose France nationality and they happen to be the choice of coach, I don’t see anything wrong.

  45. In my opinion, of what I have seen, Argentina could have easily had 5 star if not more by now. I grew up in the 80s so i ll talk about only what i Have seen.
    Argentina fielded 2 Champion teams in my era where luck did not favor or you can say misfortune struck. On top of my list is
    *94 WC in USA- Yes that team heavily depended on Maradona but it had all the ingredients for Maradona to easily win the Cup. And the rest of the World was not brilliant either. Probably the worst Brazil team to win a WC. That Final match was pathetic. Maradona had In-form Cannigia at the peak of his career. Just watch the game vs Nigeria. An Emerging Young Goal Machine in Batistuta, Ever reliant charismatic mid fielder Redondo and young Simeone. We all know what happened to Maradone and the rest is history. We should have had our 3rd star only if….
    *2006 WC in Germany- Pekerman messed up big time against Germany. What a team we had. Probably our most Balanced team with Emerging Teves and Messi. Ayala, Sorin, Simeone, Veron, Cambiassi, Zanetti, Walter, Maxi, Saviola and Crespo to name a few. The best team of that WC. I remeber Germany did not give us a sure penalty in that QF and Pekerman went for Cruz instead of Messi. What a mess. Lil decisions can make huge impacts. For ex Goetze in 2014 Final. What a miss.
    *2014 in Brazil.- We were not as good as we were in 94 or 06 but Messi carried us, Mascherano saved us and Higuain robbed us. It could have been ours. Though Messi seems to be in a better form this time around in 2018.
    Honorable Mentions-
    *2002 in Jap/Kor- A very good team prolly the best team in papers at that time we where no 1 ranked team but we did not deserve to go thru even with star stubbed team we failed to score goals. Something was missing and i dont regret that WC.
    *1990 in Italy- We were an zverage team but Maradona, Caniggia and Goychochea carried us to the final. Maradona and Caniggia magic passed us thru the Dangerous Brazil. Only if Caniggia was not red carded!! We could have been….
    *First World Cup in 1930.- WC was easy back then. No Wonder Brazil took advantage of that era. That WC could have been ours but Uruguay beat us. Fair n Square. But it could have been us.

    Out of all these WCups i think we missed grave opportunity in 1994 (Robbed), 2006 (Foolish Decision and bad luck)), 2014 (Higuain). Could have been 5 stars by now. Anyway lets get that 3rd star. Its never too late and you never know in WC. We usually play better than our form in World Cups.(except 2002).
    Vamos Albiceleste. Go Leo.

  46. Avoid France?
    France vs Colombia = a 2-3 Loss against Colombia at home.
    Argentina vs Colombia = a 1-0 at Colombia’s Home (WITHOUT Messi as a bonus) and a 3-0 win in Buenos Aires…
    If Colombia>France…
    And Argentina>Colombia…
    Then…
    Argentina>France… so no need to fear!
    Also…
    Portugal vs France = France lose 1-0 WITHOUT Ronaldo at home!
    France lose against Portugal WITHOUT Ronaldo…
    Portugal /w Ronaldo > France
    Messi>Ronaldo
    Therefore…
    Argentina /w Messi > France!
    So no need to fear! 😌
    Be more cautious of Spain, Germany, and Brazil. France chokes to often so they’re not too big of a threat. They shouldn’t be ignored either, but shouldn’t be taken as favorite as well.

    • Dontbethatguy You mentioned Spain.

      They beat an Argentina B and experimental team with most players not making more then 3 caps, 3 midfield fielding of Biglia, Mache and Banega which will never be used again and not to mention the striker at the top. Forgetting the first 55 minutes we were only 2-1 down and we’re the better team…

      You do know before that they they drew:

      3-3 to Russia?
      1-1 to Germany who’re out of form themselves.
      Lately they drew 1-1 to a defensive stubborn Swiss team. They managed to beat a B squad 6-1 who didn’t play defensive football because Sampaoli wanted to see who would be good play with Messi. Spain are not all that.

  47. Dybala could be the Gotze of this world cup – A super sub.

    I’ve a sensation that he would be preferred over Higuain to sub Aguero from QF stage to surprise the opponents.

  48. poor guy, he will probably get only 2 min of play time when sent in the 88th min of every match. Ironically, he’s the talisman of Juventus while Higuaín is his 2nd, but Sampaoli sees Higuaín who scored less goals and half of the number of goals Icardi scored as our number 1 striker.

    • It’s just coz we have another player better suited for Dybala’s position. A certain Messi.

      Do you want Sampaoli to field Dybala instead of Messi because he had fielded Higuain over Aguero?

      Don’t tell me Dybala should be the number 9. By default, Dybala is a ST. However Sampa may play him as a #9 sub if we need a goal in later stages.

    • If it was upto him sampaoli would not have called back higuain but he said this is not his team clearly indicating he is not independent.

    • Exactly!! Like pekerman thought Saviola,Tevez and Julio cruz were better than Messi!! Oh you fool pekerman!! I pity you !!

  49. he has such potential and what a brilliant sub to be able to bring on, id rather Dybala comes on over the likes of di maria or hig any day.

    • His time will come. Against top teams sampaoli might go 3-5-2 or 3-43 something like:

      Willy/armani
      Mercado. oto. Rojo.
      salvio acuna
      Lo celso biglia
      Messi. Dybala.
      Aguero

      Salvio & acuna were picked for this formation.

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