SAMPAOLI To Leave On Monday?

By
John
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264

According to renowned Argentine football journalist Hernan CASTILLO, Jorge SAMPAOLI leaving his position as head coach of Argentina has become imminent. An announcement is expected to be made on Monday.

In an article published on TNT Sports, the relationship between him and Claudio TAPIA has broken down following their meeting on Wednesday. The two are no longer in talking terms and right now all communication between SAMPAOLI and the AFA will go through his lawyer Fernando BAREDES who arrived in Miami to help mediate his client’s exit.

It is been reported that SAMPAOLI will not get his full compensation which is expected to be around $20 million dollars. Instead, both parties will agree to a settlement which is going less than $2 million dollars. 

It appears the L’Alcudia tournament was just another from trying to keep this news out from the general public although this outcome inevitable after the AFA have successfully removed SAMPAOLI’s coaching staff.

Pablo AIMAR is expected to take over the Under 20 side while plenty of rumours are flying around the possibility of who will take charge of the senior team.

Though Diego SIMEONE, Mauricio POCHETINNO and Marcelo GALLARDO are among the frontrunner for the job, it appears all of them have gracefully declined the job. Can’t blame them for the mess that the AFA created to itself.

Jose PEKERMAN, Ricardo GARECA and Matias ALMEYDA are currently further down the pecking order. To be honest, at this point, it’s hard to say if anyone really wants this job.

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264 Comments

  1. As long as the old guards are there, no coach will be good for ARG;
    All the Coaches Tata, Bauza and Sampaoli are good than what they have been with ARG;
    The Media doesn’t cook these stories easily; Why Lo Celso who was a starter until the start of the WC hasn’t got a single minute in WC? I don’t think Sampaoli is the reason; Sampaoli called him out of the blue and made him a starter, Lo Celso was performing well; Why wasn’t Dybala part of the starting eleven? Isn’t he good enough to play atleast as a sub?; During initial interviews, Sampaoli was talking about Messi & Dybala playing together, Later there wasn’t any plans; Not even in friendlies & Both r available; Why? Who/What can b the reason?
    Other than Masche & Messi, I doubt anyone would have such influence on the team (to keep a particular player out of the starting 11);

    Just go through all the interviews of all our coaches when they first took the job; They have said that the midfield have to be changed and Messi shouldn’t drop deep into the midfield, yet they couldn’t make any changes? Why? Even as outsiders(with half football knowledge), we can easily see what the problem is? Doesn’t the coaches(who have been successful) couldn’t figure it out? What can be the reason? The only reason can be they aren’t allowed to do that; It isn’t any media creation;

    • @Kitty The problem why Argentina was knocked out by France was purely due to two factors:- Lack of communication in defense between Otamendi, Mercado, Tagliafico , Rojo and the GK. Secondly, a proper striker was missing on field where Aguero should definitely have played from start.
      The fact that there was no proper communication between back players was because they were forced to play a high line defense which Argentina is never used to.Croatia almost knocked Argentina out of the tournament in group stages using this strategical blunder from Argentina side, but somehow, they survived the scare. But against France, we saw the same strategy of a high line defense and Mbappe and co. took that advantage to the fullest . Who is to blame for this? Its Sampaoli

      I don’t think either Mascherano or Messi in their wildest dreams would have suggested to bench Aguero and Higuain both for such a crucial encounter, so for the 2nd mistake , who is the culprit again ?Sampaoli

      Yes , Lo Celso and Dybala should have been given chances, but inspite of their absence, Argentina had enough power to overcome France challenge. Don’t forget Argentina scored 3 goals against France , the most conceded by the current world champions.The only thing that was missing was a proper planning in place which was unfortunately missing throughout the tournament.

    • Best comment and analysis…Argenrina kept making the mistake of benching Higuain …what a stupid decision…France was no match…but its the goals that win…and bias decisions by referees…penalties are quickly given to Europeans….Dimaria was fouled…no penalty…when its a European…VAR…VAR!!!!! People need to see …so so blind…blame Messi…those who cant even dribble while sleeping do that😉

    • @san isdiro it doesn’t matter mate as long
      Messi and co still playing for national team. They will always have influence
      That is why you won’t see simoene pochettino and Gallardo be manager
      While this old group still available for Argentina

  3. Ebo. The story about the war between FIFA s shadow people and Argentina national team begins
    in the year 1990 after the semi final game against Italy.

    it is common “secret ” that Diego and our players didn t sit to lose as they was ordered from FIFA s
    president in that time Joao Havelanze.

    the “crime” we did was that we destroy the plan of FIFA that promised to give to italians that world cup.

    that night everything begins.

      • No. we had the problems with the British true but FIFA that time wasn t care
        about that so much.

        in reality as my father told me ( because i was very small 1986 )
        the FIFA promote the rivalry with England for their benefit.

        They ” sell ” our hate with England to promote the world cup game that times.

        Everything begins after Italy game.
        With Cameroon and Soviet Union games the referees was friendly to us.
        we didn t have problem generally before.

        suddenly in semi final.
        Italians score an offside goal which count.
        Giusti take red card in extra time.

        our guys was rebels and ignore FIFA s orders.
        from then we are paying the price every time.

        This is the difference between us and Brasilians.

        They are always the good boys of FIFA ( 1998 world cup final example. they sit to lose as they ordered from FIFA )

        and we are rebels.

  4. Best achievement from a Nation since Mexico’86:

    1. Brazil 94 champion, 98 finalist, 02 champion. 2+1
    1. Germany 90 champion, 02 finalist, 14 champion. 2+1
    2 (1 ?). France 98 champion, 06 finalist, 18 (finalist/champion). (1 or 2)+(1 or 2)
    3 (2 ?). Italy 94 finalist, 06 champion. 1+1
    4 (3 ?). Spain 10 champion. 1+0
    5 (4?). Argentina 90 finalist, 14 finalist. 0+2
    6 (5?).Netherland 10 finalist. 0+1
    6 (4?). Croatia. (0 or 1)+(0 or 1)

    PS. Input a lot of (), because if France won or Croatia won the rank could shift.

    • 1990 Germany won on bogus Penalty
      1994 FIFA eliminated Argentina
      2006 Pekerman made the wrong tactics against Germany.
      2010 Maradona’s Failure
      2014 pure bad luck conceding in the last 5 minutes of Extra time, too much depending on Messi
      2018 Sampaoli’s huge failure and Media pressure on players

      Argentina will always be on top fighting external forces.

      • I just put facts. In the end, good or bad only determined by the result. Puskas never won WC. Cruyff never won it too.

        I’m simply saying, we’re not that bad.

        • I know what you meant, I am not opposing your facts, But it’s the pain that Argentina is that good and has to fight harder than the others.
          Lately, I feel that the NT is always under attack just because it’s always a factory of the best players.

          • @Ebo
            About the media, it should be similar in every dominating country.

            The difference is that currently we have messi, with many considered as goat, hence the comparison with maradona, and maradona was able to lift the trophy. And we’re such a traditional winning nation that Cr7’s failure mean nothing, since Portugal isn’t a traditional winning country.

          • I suspect that there is a hidden force behind the attacks on the NT since
            1982/1983. Most of the media is controlled by the British. FIFA, too is highly controlled by them.
            Diego did them good in 1986, I heard that he used his middle finger pushing the ball in the net, not the whole hand. LOL

      • Argentina has reached another 2 finals since winning the 86 edition.

        All these young football fans who’s born in 2000’s certainly think Spain is pinnacle of modern football. Guess what, just like England, Spain has never reach final before and after 2010. Spain only passed round 16 once in last 4 WC.

        I dont care what people say about Messi, but the problem if he stays in the team would be the other players will have the “pass the ball to Messi ” mentallity , even though each of them are great players on their own right.

        Messi scored and had 2 assists in last 2 games. His first assist put us 2-1 ahead against France, and obviously many idiots will think France scored another 3 goals was down to Messi’s fault. We scored 3 and still lost , that’s clearly shows our midfields and defence has been crap the whole tournament. Defence has been totally disorganized while midfield was slow as a snail with aging players like Banega, Masche (seriously), Perez and Biglia (who possess zero ability).

        If we beat France narrowly, teams like Belgium and Croatia would still beat us in semi or final, we simply wont win with that midfield and defence.

  5. Are people dumb enough to believe that a player did not start because he passed a ball between legs.

    If so, send me your email. I am a Nigerian Prince in need of some quick cash. I will pay you back I promise.

    • nice one. People have no brains to figure out what’s obvious.

      I heard that Messi Ran crying to Sampaoli screaming:

      Messi: Smpa… Sampa… Lo Celso is a BAAAAD BOY, I don’t want to play with him
      Sampaoli: Why my love?
      Messi(snotty with tears in his eyes) : Because he passed the ball between my legs in front of my friends and made me cry.
      Sampaoli: Ok baby, he will not play.

      sometimes Sarcasm works, hey you never know.
      But imagine that someone will come and take my words and spread them around as if this conversation truly took place.

      • Lol if someone stupid enough to believe that kind of conversation then he indeed has no brain, literally, (even if the dialogue is modified in grown up style).

        And still out of character <== finally found the term.

        • Maybe people who think that Messi has 22 legs and 11 heads to blame him for every failure think that he has 11 different characters, too

        • I had a feeling that this kid will be Europe bound before Inter snatched him couple of weeks ago. He played against Spain in place of Higuain, What a perfect fit.
          In Italy he will master striker skills against stubborn defense teams.

      • Oh, here you are, you should finally answer my question?

        Do you want just once again tell us we should go for Copa 2019 again with the oldies?! Come on! Do it! Say that you were saying for 2-3 years. Will they again guarantee of good result in 2019 as in this year? Come on I need the comment to record.

        With Martinez or not Argentina have enough talent to shine again. No matter Martinez, Meza or whoever Argentina will back in spite of your hates against our local talent sources that is always the root of every Argentina star.

        • From local league without european (big clubs) experience nobody.

          Half youngsters, half olders, right mix is needed. Something like this:

          Romero, Rulli, third GK

          Otamendi, Rojo, Mercado (sadly our best RB, but clutch goalscorer), one young right back Bustos/Gomez?, one young left back Tagliafico?, Mammana (after recovery), Pezzella, Funes Mori

          Paredes (i hope he will transfer into a serious league), young DM Ascacibar or Battaglia or Kranevitter or Caseres if he’ll be good in Villarreal, Pizzaro (i hate him to go back to Mexico, mental weakness), Lo Celso (has to be a starter and key player in PSG), Banega or Pastore, Lanzini (only after full recovery), Di Maria

          Messi, Aguero, Icardi or Lautaro Martinez (i wait from him at least a 20 goals season in Serie A), Angel Correa (need to step up his game), Dybala, and maybe one of these 3: Lamela (has to play or transfer somewhere else) or Pavon (disappointment, but talent is there, must go in winter transfer market) or Perotti

          • Bustos/Gomez are from local league.

            Argentina will always need local league players and I’m not mean as talent to emerge but to startin line up as there’s no full cover of every NT position in Europe. Fullbacks are good example.

          • “From local league without european (big clubs) experience nobody”

            This is childish criterion. We will never had enough players in big european clubs to have starting eleven that fits your demands. Another thing the big clubs players looks sometimes not that comittment to NT. Too much money?

            Finally do you remember Copa 2011? We never had so many player in big clubs. 4 players of Real, 4 players of Barcelona, 3 or 4 players of Champions League winner Inter and so on. On paper that was real dream team. But straight collect of superstars rarely brings best effects. This is not playstation FIFA where it works like that.

          • Good team for us will be balanced mix of European stars + few brave fighters of smaller clubs like Uruguay always had + few best talents of local league or older players like Lema if they were so outstanding in season.

          • “Bustos/Gomez are from local league.” OK, but no argentina RB in Europe. This team should have been the squad in this WC, maybe with Biglia instead of Pizzaro, right balanced squad with our biggest talents but Mammana injured, Lanzini injured. Lo Celso? I said several times maybe the Lo Celso-Biglia-Lanzini midfield will be ARG first well balanced midfield since a long time. With Banega as sub. Then Sampaoli ruined everything. Lanzini injury was sad, Lo Celso slight is inexplicable, mistakes after mistakes, Double pivot against Iceland, why? 4-2-3-1, then 3-5-2 without midfield presence against Croatia world class midfielders, then 4-3-3 and Banega in, finally some creativity in the midfield. At last without centre forward against France. Our 24th player Enzo Perez an undisputed starter on the WC?
            How this could have happened? He made simply everything wrong. Chaos on every possible level. And the defending, pathetic, 6 goals against Spain, 4 against Nigeria, 3 against Croatia, 4 against France, and didnt even count young or old defenders, defensive midfielders, strikers were playing , his team defending was always horrible.

          • @csabalala

            How can I takes you serious? I really don’t know. Now you say Lanzini could have been part of supposed balanced midfield – after of this your worst words about him. 0 creativity, weak club and so on. I really don’t want to play with you with this stupid rule “you’ve said… and that’s contradiction of your own words…” and so on. But as you see here we need players of smaller clubs too, from Europe and local league. Lanzini, maybe Bustos, Tagliafico, maybe some CB talent from there or DM, maybe Vargas and so on.

            Batista had team of superstars and they failed. Bielsa in 2002 had team of superstars from big clubs and tey failed. You need balanced team and being closed to local players is not good thing.

            Peace.

  7. It s really unfair to shoot all the desastrous world cup on messi do you think that messi should mark mbappé ? Or maybe he should 4 goals to a team which conceed only one penalty in the tournament ? The problem was about the defence great weakness is it messi s fault for conceding iceland goal or caballero s exploit stop saying sheet he was clearly out of his mind and level but football is played by 11. Look at the defensive plans settled against messi the defense is not about attacking ball to get it back as otamendi think it demands a lot of smart defenders

    • Messi only has one problem, He is not a leader, all know that. All know that Messi is shy and does not talk much or interfere with referee’s decision( that is his job because he is the captain). To me, Messi is the best player in history. He can not make things right all the time when everything around him is wrong, but he has to show leadership. Messi does not have strong personality like Maradona or christina,
      Messi needs to build bad boy character. all Messi critics agree that he is not a leader, most criticize him for walking around the pitch with his head down and do not interfere or shout or guide his players, SO EXPLAIN PLEASE how come he dictates who plays and who does not if he is not a leader?

      Messi attacks are attacks at the NT first, all Messi haters are in fact NT haters. I understand when people are critical of Messi the way he plays or acts on the pitch, but throwing wild guesses at him or any other player without any concrete evidence is just moronic. At the end this will only hurt the team as a whole.
      on the other hand, a lot of Supporters and fans of Messi have to understand that Messi is not Argentina, nor Maradona is Argentina, many support Argentina just because of Messi, That is pure fake. WE support Argentina First, not any other player. these are not true supporters of the NT. likewise, People who are painting Messi and other players as the enemy by throwing ‘Friends club’ ‘Messi and Co’ phrases around are not true Argentina supporters, Blaming Messi for the failures is just straight wrong just like praising Messi for the success. WE have 11 players on the field, none of them matter more than the NT.

      • Agree with you completely.
        This has to end.
        People that keeps repeating the past are like a man couldn’t get over with his ex and says bad thing even if he has a new one.

        “SO EXPLAIN PLEASE how come he dictates who plays and who does not if he is not a leader?”

        I SWEAR I was going to post the same exact words just minutes ago but I cancel that because the post is getting too long. Are you me ? I forget the term for this, but the description is ‘something that is exact opposite in character hence it’s impossible”. Again, one doesn’t need to learn psychology to understand this.

        We shouldnt also judge video from a shot take you see players laughing, there’s the coach there, and there’s a conclusion, out of nothing. It’s simply what cameramen do, to get highlight, to get viewership, rating. Unless there’s concrete evidence.

    • Messi needs to take time off from the national team. I don’t believe any of the nonsense but clearly young talents like Dybala and Icardi were frozen out and that is disastrous. I love Messi but I din’t want him around the national team for the next three years. Let Argentina build its own new identity away from Messi presence and its bagage. Just like after 1990, when a thirty years old Maradona semi retired from the national team. He came back stronger, leaner, wiser and more lethal. Like Pelé in 70, Maradona in 94, Messi could then come back in 2022 and lit up defenses with out of this world balls to new Batistutas.

  8. And England were thinking that by playing ANTI FOOTBALL they can win the Freaking World Cup, They were not playing Counter attacking or possession football, they didn’t have any midfield either,They would simply wait for Set pieces and corners and Long balls i mean what the Hell, For footballs sake it was great that England didn’t won, They would have destroyed the way football was played. England already have done enough damage to the world by Colonization. Leave Football alone at least. Let the ball roll don’t make it like American Soccer, like Hit and Run.

    By the way, For Gods sake whoever it is we need one good set piece taker. Look how many set piece goals are scored during this WC (England’s main weapon was Set piece)We have to utilize set pieces, How many goals we have scored from Set pieces i cant remember many recently, We never looks like a team who can score from a Set pieces, Because all our players r short even our strikers too, Icardi and Alario will solve this problem they both are tall and traditional Number 9. I remember Riquelme used to take all our set pieces he was so good . His Corner kicks were great. Messi is good in free kicks but not good on corners. Whoever it is we need one for the next generation. Paredes may be. Also defenders who r good in Air(Well its obvious Defenders have to be good in Air)

    • I was worried we would hear pundits gush about beautiful English football. Not that the remaining teams play beautifully, but at least they have something.

      Im biased, but I maintain all of Messi’s moments and goal(s), especially the last two games, were highlights. That assist on Aguero’s header..

      Anyways, Sampaoli had better leave soon

  9. If Iran, Iceland with their B grade players from C grade leagues could park the bus for 90 plus mins why couldn’t we. Had we hold off France from scoring for next 20 mins it would be a totally different game. After leading 2-1 against France all we needed was to sit deep giving no space to oppponents and only messi outside the box. But neither your god Messi, or his nanny Masche or the imbecile Baldy could read that situation. Imbecile Fraud Baldy’s foolishness, Selfish Oldie Baldy-2 Masch’s stubbornness and little cry baby Messi’s weak leadership cost us this world cup. Sometimes I ponder our optimistic group in mundo and Friends club, their thinking is so alike. They exactly did what these optimist group discussed here. I still recall how these positive bloggers were celebrating after Baldy had announced his world cup roster. It had Mascherno written all over it but they still refuse to believe it. For them Masche Messi syndicate is still a myth.

    • YES Mascherano and Messi (when he will retire too ) they will be forever in the history book
      of Argentine football as legends.

      They offered in the country national team for years ( little or much is not the point)
      and they will have the respect of all the Argentines and Argentine fans that really love this team
      Forever.

      Nobody said that they are perfect and that they didn t do mistakes and bad games.
      But other thing to make critic and other thing to speak bad and without respect.

      The different between the national teams and the club teams is that exist transfers and players come and go for money.
      The fans behave accordingly.

      In one national team exist the feeling which is much stronger than in club football.
      that is why the bond is much more stronger and higher.

      You my friend you remind me more club type fan which today your team have one player and the other day your team selling him and you look the next one transfer. without you care so much you forget and move on to the next player.

      Just we are speaking about Argentina national team.
      Especially in Argentina things is not cold as your mentality.

      Maybe your type is better but for the most of people the stories and players create strong bonds
      which is something more than just tactics and systems.

      to end this my point is that i respect your opinions. keep them.
      just don t accuse people because they are different than you.

      friendly.

      • Amazing!!! Even after getting knocked out in the 2nd round these so called Messi bandwagonist are still endorsing the Friend’s club !! Their bond is their life he says!! If you critize them you rightaway become Brasil supporter??? Why don’t you bring Maradona back then? He is the greatest player the world has ever seen right? This is exactly the mentality that destroyed our world cup!! Had someone ended this love affair between these friend’s club Romeo and Juliets and Baldy had implied his tactics with any common sense we would have been playing this final instead of Croatia. Sometimes I feel some of these bloggers are paid by the friend’s club just to support their love affairs!! Higuain gets dropped useless- washed up biglia cries in the media. Papu accidently knocks Biglia Aguero cries !! SMH!!!

        • SulaV my younger brother is a Messi fan and I swear I read sometimes the same arguments from some of our members. I don’t judge them cause its they are free to support the way they like. As I said below the other teams you mentioned are used to play defensively and for example iran has a coach who is around for 8 years. Our teams defense is not capable to park the bus and sampaoli is a coach who loves to play offensive football with high pressing. We knew it from the beginning and after he started to invite some fresh blood we liked the beginning and had Hope. But he lost his coolness he was like a fanatic fan on the sideline who suffered every moment like us and like us he couldn’t find a solution for any of our problems. He wrote in his book I dont plan anything it comes to me and I think it came to him like a massive storm and he got hit mentally by that like someone who gets hit by a bus.

          • You don’t need special kind of tactics to play anti football especially when you are leading with 35 mins left . You just need to populate your box with all of your players and clear the ball and with Messi and a no 9 outside of box waiting for ball to counter attack France would have panicked had we held them for next 20 mins. Friend’s club constant interfering could have let to his brain damage , Sampaoli’s did’t have the common sense to read that situation of the game.

        • i didn t say to you to don t make critic to nobody. i didn t say to you that Messi Mascherano or else they are perfect or they never had bad games.

          or you don t understand what i said or you don t want to understand.

          anyway. i didn t tell that you are Brasil fan too. we are different. that is all.

          Yes Maradona is the best player ever. he have bad character bla bla bla you can say many bad things for him as character but we love him YES and he is like God for Argentina.

          i didn t say to you to agree with me or i don t say anything bad for you because you are different.

          and one last as example for not say Messi or Mascherano all time.

          on 2002 Batistuta and Ortega they had very bad tournament.

          i didn t and i don t use bad words for them because they fail in their last tournament or because they did some bad games.
          i will respect and i will love them as Argentina legends forever.

          if you prefer to hate and don t respect who made mistakes then you can.
          it is not my business.

        • Clarin is probably the biggest media giant and newspaper in Argentina.

          …that however does not mean it’s reliable.

          For example, in the West there was huge negative media spin about Russia world cup. But for those of us who went there it was an ultra amazing experience!!

        • Clarin is serious source but it is not like Ole which they make detail search
          about sports.
          That doesn t mean that you shouldn t trust for information.
          if you want information it is ok.

          Just personally i don t trust some analysts because i have read many nonsense from some articles time to time.

    • Its time to stop.
      Enough with masch with Messi nonsense.
      75% of the problem is AFA and baldy, rest is the team (as a whole).
      They’re not going to play again in the future, yes, I hope Messi too will follow masche. People like you are one of the reason.
      Friends club is a myth.
      How far Masch influence decision is an unknown.
      Messi is not a leader type by character, that’s a fact. You can see he could only motivates by scoring goals, not with any other way. He’s the lonesome genius. One doesn’t need to learn psychology to know that.
      Friends club? No solid evidence, if you have a tape it’s different, or it comes from Argentina team internal crew who has his word checked by lie detector, and the more the better. Until then, it’s just media hoax.
      Just stop and move on. Let them do their work with new fresh souls.

      • His highness needs a tape or someone from the team needs to call him personally till then his highness won’t believe that Friends club had any influence in Baldy’s mad decisions. Forgive us Your Grace. We won’t talk about the sea monster or the Yeti or the Friends club anymore. How do we contact your grace if someone from the team like Messi or Aguero wanted to talk to you??

      • I agree, All these attacks and ‘fabricated facts’ are an illusion. People need to stop bashing our national players just because they read it somewhere on the net or some Bull s..t paper by some A hole reporter

        Many on this site don’t see the big picture, bashing the NT players is completely counterproductive. New young players will always be under pressure.
        Media is no.1 Enemy of the NT

    • Messi’s act was childish!! During the national anthem, his forehead rubbing thing was so annoying to watch!! He is an introvert guy so you can’t expect a leadership role from him. Nobody is more Messi’s fan than me here. But yes, his disappearing in the match against France and against Croatia doesn’t make any sense. He could have taken the control of the match the way he did many times for Barcelona. Anyway, for this WC failure, I blame 100% for Baldy’s stupid game plan, player choosing and his system like playing with 3 defenders. Mascherano almost cost us whole WC qualification. Masche and Rojo is a loose cannon!!

      • I agree he probably has rather weak mental and inappropriate as a captain. But I also don’t judge thing only by seeing it. Messi rubbing his forehead is a mystery, something must have happened. Even in his hardest moment, never saw him like that, and to sum it up, it happened during the anthem. People are not him, so it’s impossible to know. Antonella or Aguero should know though.

        Just leave it as past. It’ll never be known unless Messi decides to say something about it in the future.

    • i completely agree with @sulav787 here…If Iran , Morocco can stop teams like Spain or scorers like Cristiano Ronaldo using park the bus , Argentina has to do it….if they can’t , sorry, simply you are not good enough to win the cup..But that instruction has to come from manager , which was Lord Sampaoli in this case, who probably started thinking about the post match celebration rather than finishing off with the game first.
      Probably bringing on Aguero/Higuain right after the 2nd goal would also have helped , as France would have been a bit more careful on defending then because the 3rd goal would have knocked them down..But Lord Sampaoli did nothing and went on with Pavon and Meza and hoping and praying for some sort of ‘Messi’ miracle to happen

  10. Agree with @San Isidro point. 100% agreed about those 7 starter and Lo Celso & Paredes. Many would argue why wouldn’t any big club don’t take them. I would be happy if they play regularly in any medium average team. I have seen Gago destroyed by Real Madrid. I know many bash Gonzalo saying he is Messi hater. But i don’t think he is. I understand his point too. Doesn’t matter what it is Messi is a bigger name & brand in football . Any coach in NT will try and tempted to build a system around him. And this why we are in this situation right now. I am agreed with Kempas now that we tried 10 years with Messi system now we shall do something different. I don’t think AFA will afford to lose Messi as he is earning for AFA . I would like him in the team still but only as a devoted team player. I know he is i want him even more devoted. He will play in system. No more experiment to make him comfortable or bring him close to opposition box. I don’t mind Otamendi,Banega,Messi & Aguero stay around till Copa. But not as a regular or guaranteed starter. For experience. Maybe Messi can start with in system as a piece of puzzle. But Question is do we have coach that has balls to drop those generation and build a team. I would’ve upset after seeing these generation going but i am not that upset because i know we do have talents. They just need to guide to the glory. Enough wasted talents like Icardi please no more. Now it is not about players anymore now it is about DO WE HAVE A COACH TO HIRE WHO HAS BALLS & PLAN TO BUILD FUTURE

    • “Any coach in NT will try and tempted to build a system around him. And this why we are in this situation right now. I am agreed with Kempas now that we tried 10 years with Messi system now we shall do something different”.

      New coach should put aside Messi at least for a while and build a team that in some point will be enough good to win friendlies against strong opponents. First we need boost youngsters confidence. After that he may think about Messi as part of this or have him as superjoker.

      • correct. now arg should test with young player to organise some friendlies with top rated defensive

    • “But Question is do we have coach that has balls to drop those generation and build a team. I would’ve upset after seeing these generation going but i am not that upset because i know we do have talents”.

      This is what I’m afraid about

  12. Everyone has heard the rumors that Simeone does not want the NT job with Messi
    Mario Kempes “Its better to build the team without Messi and then integrate later maybe”
    Claudio Borghi “If I was Messi I would tell him not to play for the team”
    Gabriel Heinze” ” The fault belongs to everyone”
    Coco Basile ” A team that is run by players will go nowhere”
    Sampaoli to Messi “Who should I substitute ?”
    The supposed LoCelso incident
    Angel DiMaria to Lionel Messi in the tunnel at halftime in one of Martino’s last games managing ” I don’t know what the hell Tata was saying (both players laughing at Martino)”

    Read BETWEEN THE LINES of what people are saying. The toxic element here are the players, including Messi who is captain of this hot pile of shit. I am a Messi fan as a player, but people conflate his greatness on the field and him personally. Personally I see a weak insecure man child who refused to ever leave Barcelona, needed mommy and daddy to move their with him even after he became an adult, has NEVER gained captaincy of his club even after being there over 20 years, who is a phenomena in a system built for him but doesn’t have leadership skills that are transferable. Hence, he has never won anything at the national level and we have given the best player on the team the captains arm band. Its like working in a toothbrush factory and saying the guy that makes the best toothbrush should be president, and then wondering why the factory went bankrupt.

    My point, they all need to be gone. Going back 3 managers to Martino these players are all unmanageable as a group. All the players. Including Messi. Good Bye. Any remnants of this cancerous generation will destroy the future. We should thank them for their service but say good bye. We already have the seeds for a world class team with 4 years left for players to blossom and step in. Between Tagliafico, Mammana, Lo Celso, Paredes, Dybala, Lautaro, Icardi that is 7 starters. I GUARANTEE you that in 4 years there will be another 7 superstars to add to this bunch and never look back. We don’t need any of the old generation unless you plan on making a soap opera instead of a team

    By the way, if you think about it LoCelso and Paredes may be the most well rounded midfielders our country has produced in 15 years.

    • You just blame Messi Messi Messi and believe media.WTF .You’re only Messi haters.Why you don’t blame any player where the team are inconsistenr while WC qualify????

      • So it’s media’s fault Messi is not Barcelona captain after 20 years?
        It’s media’s fault DiMaria tells Messi , martino is saying shit and both laugh at him?
        It’s media’s fault Messi cover his face like a little girl before Croacia game?
        Media missed oenalty shot against Iceland?
        Media asked Messi who to substitute in game not Sampa?

        Open your eyes and pay attention. In the USA, we have a saying for people that think like you. We call them useful idiots. No offense.

        • Media isn’t 100% truth.But you believe whatever Media”s post about Messi.Yes, you’re just media’s victim cuase you cann’t filter news and hoax.I know Messi is weak leadership, weak defence, but why you just blame him.No teams can making open goal vs France, only Argentina. This team is weak before WC, As fan I was predicted Argentina will lose,not be Champion cause many team more solid than Argentina.

          • Please read my post carefully my friend. I am blaming ALL the players. Not just Messi.
            Players who laugh at coaches and do not look at them seriously will not win.

    • Simeone lives like a king in Madrid, They worship him at the Rojiblancos, He is not gonna the coach the NT at this moment of time, with or without Messi.
      I don’t understand since When Messi became the enemy.

    • @san Isidro
      I agree with you on the regeneration. It’s the generation that should go, including Messi.

      Particularly Messi, as he’s the lonesome genius, only to be understood by coaches and can’t say something about it.

      My take is that what messi wants truly is a working system, each player plays best in his position, not just there to give the ball to him, depend on him to score the goals. We see in barcelona he had xavi, Iniesta, busquets, pique, fabregas, alba etc they play together since very young, they work for goals, they assist to EACH other, there’s something you call HIGH LEVEL UNDERSTANDING. That’s why in their peak time, Barca was almost invicible. You could list the assists and key passes they have with each other and the list will go forever.

      Across the time, Argentina probably has two or three players with the level of ability comparable with the Barcelona greats I’ve mentioned before but NEVER in the same wavelength sync level as them with Messi. Even with this condition, the fact is we could still enter a WC final, something that after maradona days we could only dream of (until 2014). So what you’re saying is that 94, 98, 02, 06 team without Messi is better than 10-18 team with him. In 2014 we have a better coach. I also agree that Messi, Masche has decline, especially Masche. No one passed age.

      And that’s why… It’s better that he leave too. He should have quit after winning Argentina against Ecuador and making us eligible for this WC. But he still tried. For that I thank him.

      I believe It’s time for a new generation. I believe we could find a new working set of players and coach, but it’ll not going to be smooth, it’ll take years but it’s normal. Just like Germany, they’ll come back strong in 4 years, see if I’m wrong.

      And we can do that too.

      • “it’ll take years but it’s normal. Just like Germany, they’ll come back strong in 4 years”

        With the available talent at hand, and a smart coach, WE will have a good shot at Copa2019 with or without Messi.

        Look at these names We currently have
        Rulli,Mammana,Pezzella, Tagliafico, Paredes, Lanzini, Kranevitter, Bustos,Lamela,Dybala,Lo Celso, Pavon,Aguero,Martinez,Icardi,vietto,A.correa,J.correa plus many more.

        You tell me that a good coach can not build a good team in a year with this talent?

    • Yes. Best coach????. The friends club will continue. Icardi will never play for us again. Mafia don will make Biglia come out of retirement. This bald idiot should not come anywhere near NT

      • you can say your opinion and make critics free.
        just avoid use bad words which show no respect.

        You like it or not Masche entered to the book of Argentine legends anymore.
        he is history.

        you can visit Argentina to see with your eyes what is Masche for Argentinians.
        Everybody will respect him and love him.
        including me of course.

  14. I think Gallardo is our best option, People please feel free to correct me.
    He is known for attacking football with a strong identity(Guardiola), defensive duties(Simeone), and picking the right players who are willing to stick to his tactics with some degree of arrogance(Morinho).

  15. Hi
    Whoever in charge of copa19 we need more young players in our team. We have so many talented youngsters waiting to get a chance. Other teams r using couple of young players in their squad. Y nt arg
    We have best midfldrs like paredes pity lanzini palacios locelso guido rodrigz battaglia mouricio kranevtr rossi etc.
    And in attack a.correa lautaro centurian occampus dybla icardi g.carilo alario
    Rossi rulli moosa werner goalkeepers r now aging. Y dont thy get chances.
    Y our mgrs r not trying to experiencing these players. Thy f future of arg.soccer.
    If not getting chances at these age how can these boys gonna matured.

    • I have this strong feeling WE will rebuild and be back on top in no time, Argentina is full of talent. All we need is a coach who is smart and courageous enough to step up to the plate and have the final word disregarding Tapia and any player. In other words a coach who has the final word.

  16. Some people say the generation/Messi deserves last chance on 2019 Copa to win something. May I ask you on what right? Messi had 4 Copas, lost 3 finals. Messi had 4 World Cups, lost one final. How many players had 4 WC in history? Aguero had 3 World Cups, 3 Copas, 3 finals… + Olimpic Games. Di Maria the same. The generation is ocuppying NT since 10 years. Enough! They had enough and more chances!

    WHy they always deserves for another chance why generation of several categories youngsters don’t. A bit of justice claim to give the chance to win something to new players finally. Stop with this occupation of NT.

    Messi fans want just Argentina to win something for Messi. The want ot give him always another chance even when he will be player closing his 36 in December of 2022. They should read some signs heaven want to message us: they don’t want Messi – maybve best player in history -to win something with NT. For some reason the don’t want. I don’t want Argentina to be part of this curse.

    • Before messi Argentina was considered same like Colombia all thanks to messi Argentina getting success but only failed to cross last hurdle in senior label otherwise messi won u20 wc and Olympic for Argentina

      • “Before messi Argentina was considered same like Colombia”

        Hahahahaahah! Messi fanboys milenials than know Argentina football history reaching 2006 ancient year.

        So Argentina of Messi times won 2 World Cups and 14 Copas and before Messi no title?!!!

      • The NT is bigger than any player. Messi is the best, yes for sure. but he is not bigger than the team. If you know the history of the national team you would not say that. Argentina was/is always full of talent, maybe it will be long time to get another Messi, but if there will be another player like Messi, rest assured he will be Argentine.

        • @Ebo

          Godd to hear so wise words from big Messi fan I suppose.

          “maybe it will be long time to get another Messi, but if there will be another player like Messi, rest assured he will be Argentine”

          I think there will not be another Messi within 25 years or never. But all I know Argentina won titles in history without Messi. The last winners Germany, Spain or Italy had not Messi kind of player as well. We need just bunch of talents.

          • @gonzalo-pity-martinez
            Yes I am a Messi fan, but I am an Argentina fan first and I look for the goodness of the NT.
            I lived in Madrid 35 years ago, I support Atletico Madrid, when they play against Barca and Messi scores a goal, I applaud him just because he is Argentine. even when higuain or Di maria played for real madrid and score against Atletico, I applaud them.
            Why do you keep emphasizing that I think that Argentina can not win without Messi, or the likes of Messi?
            I am only against throwing the blame at Messi always.
            I am against building the team or drawing tactics around any specific player, throwing the blame at Messi for the failure of others (players,coaches,Tapia) -mentally or physically- is just as bad as thinking that the whole team will only succeed if Messi plays.

      • Sorry bud before messi we had a balanced team are you trolling us? 2002 and 2006 we had awesome teams messi was part of the team 2006. Messi is a great player who failed to shine most of the time for the NT.After messi there will be an Argentina team like they were one after Maradona.

        • “Messi is a great player who failed to shine most of the time for the NT”

          It’s not like that he failed. He always were giving 101%. Though for several reasons his magnitude over shadowed hidden team abilities Argentina always have had. I just believe Messi magnitude is not helping to build cohesive team and grow youngsters.

        • Ebo@ as I said brazil produce talents daily and best talents . but Argentina produces that one single talent which will rule the next 100 years .
          Its that simple , that’s why brazilian will never agree.
          Look , if there is a god of football , he is always an argentine .
          Brazil have always produced some of the greatest teams , but , argentine produces beasts that can carry any team single handedly , even if jesus brings his team , they need that argentine player , who will carry them . its in their gene . in their blood
          Thats how argentina rule the football world bitches .😎 😎 😎

      • i advice you to read little bit history.
        before Messi Argentina was even better.

        we have glorious history from 1930!!!

        you start watch football from Messi ?

        • Cox4: look I didnt say that Argentina have only produced Messi and maradona, I know about di stefano , omar sivori , redondo , burruchaga, basile , passerella ,kempes , brown , cannigia , riquelme , aimar till messi,
          Its not that I only support messi , so I will say he is best ,I do know about argentina ‘s past lories and failures.
          But what I wanted to say , is that , Argentina produces player , who are individually so good that they can cat any team.

          Vamos argentina.

          • my friend my comment up was not about you.
            it was answer to “romance king ” that he said
            “Before messi Argentina was considered same like Colombia “.

    • I personally don’t care who plays in Copa 2019 as long as we win, just because it’s in Brazil. If any don’t care about winning the Copa in Brazil, I don’t think they are true Albicelecte supporters.
      WE need a coach WITH FREE HAND who will execute the purge and only leave those players who are able to deliver.
      I am not gonna throw names around because at the end, I am not the coach.
      For the NT to succeed WE need to address the corruption at the highest level.
      This generation of players can go in peace, We are thankful to them for their service.
      Bashing the players is just COUNTERPRODUCTIVE and not helpful at all for future generations because new players will always be under pressure to win something or the media will roast them.
      WE NEED TO BUILD A TEAM WITH HIGHER MENTAL STRENGTH.

      • @Ebo

        I know Sampaoli is to blame as well as players but believe me the old players are some kind od symbol of the stagnation of AFA. They also should go as part of this standstill.

  17. Hi
    Some of our members said tata martino .i like him ver much. At the moment condition of our team is pathetic in all factors. Good is to bring tata and hand him 2019 copa job .He knows our team well.
    I like this lineup in 2019 copa..
    Aguro/ icardi
    Pity/dybla messi
    Locelso
    J.correa mouricio.mt
    Asacabar

    F.mori Mammana
    A.Barboza
    …RULLI…

    • Hi all viewers
      I m from india. Being a huge fan of albiceleste in last 15 years, very disappointed with our performance in 2018. In my per oppinion the reason y arg strugging in qualifrs and w/c is bcz of poor performance of masche in couple of cruicial qualifrs and lack of speed in w.cup f rm our 2014 solid plyr..

    • Argentina team in Russia could not defend for 40min. It was the right decision in theory to keep the ball and press early against France. Bringing fazio was the right decision because france played long balls through the defense and fazio is tall enough to take control of those passes. Too many unnecessary errors happened on the flanks and we were unlucky because the equalizer was extremely lucky.

      • Bringing fazio was the right decision?

        Are you sure? Our defenders were outrun by Mbappe in numerous occasions in the first half, and we conceded a penalty becos of that. We needed fast defenders to guard Mbappe.

        Fazio is our slowest defender, we should have brought in Ansaldi to replace Rojo, move Mercado to the centre and Ansaldi to play on the right. That could have prevented the 2 goals from mbappe.

        Mbappe is defintely more dangerous than france’s long balls.

        • I think the idea was to keep the ball as long as possible and force the French team to play only long balls like kick and rush. Our defenders had no pace at all so we had to slow down their playing pace.

          • In theory I can justify the decision at the end it was the wrong one because fazio was too slow. I think the French team took a break after the lead and that made our comeback possible. I felt the French was capable to change the pace by will. After 4:2 same thing happened and we could score again.

    • Let’s be serious. France had a lot more arguments not to score more than 1. Argentina scored only one goal that was a good team work rather than luck. The third.

      No obiective man who watched the game felt Argentina was enough strong to win the game. It was more likely to see France scoring more than Argentina. Even Argentina players looked surprised they score the third goal.

      As I said before 3:4 is confusing results to estimate real potentiall of the teams. France had more to spare while general feeling about this Argentina was that every opponent is dangerous for us as it was against weak Nigeria too, against Iceland or in qualifiers.

      • I didn’t say the match was even. I mean sampaoli did what was the best decision in his opinion and he failed. People complaining about Argentina not parking the bus for 40min is too optimistic. Our defense was not solid in the tournament and even before. How can you park a bus with no defense and when no one in team was used to defend. People say why Argentina can’t do what iran does defensively. The Iranian team is used to park the bus and their coach is in charge since 8 years. Sampaoli took over a mess and had to secure the qualification.

        • Defending does not mean parking the bus, always. Argentina is not known to park the bus, because WE are never afraid. playing smart and falling back would have given us more chance to neutralize Mbappe and Griezman.
          Switching to 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 by introducing a double 5,taking Di maria out and have Pavon take his place and introduce Aguero would have done it, most likely WE would have better chances to score and limit the damage of France speed.
          What’s done is done, no point in arguing about that, every time I think about that match and what could be done is just reliving WC2014 and WC1990 with that bogus Penalty, all over again.WE have to move forward.

          • High backline ruined us. I’m not saying park the bus but at least Fazio should have stayed backed and not give any opportunity to get caught

  19. It’s time to stop the vicious media attacks on the players of the national team. I am sick and tired of all the A holes who just read some news article some where without credible source and spread around just to spread more rumors against certain players, mainly Messi.
    It seems that Messi’s high potential and high caliber as a player that ever played the game is his own curse.
    I call on Messi to quit the NT for a while to counter the pressure built on other players by the F..g media.
    If WE lose, Messi lost. If WE win Messi Won. Messi is not a magician when all are working against the NT.
    The media should Talk about the corruption in AFA before talking about the players who cried their hearts out. All have seen how they cried, now leave the NT players alone.

  20. The onlh coach i want is PEKERMAN with assistant CAMBIASSO. Yes i know we lost in Germany playing against Germany and we should have won but for many years we won so many titles in youth teams we produced so many great players in all positions we played the best football. Bring him back give him control of all teams and make him at least 8 years contract. CAMBIASSO will learn from him and he will be our NEXT coach he is passionate and a very strong and hard working person and he is a very smart person. This ARGENTINA team was a disgrace for me i dont care WHO’S fault was it Sampaoli Mache Messi but you dont go in a WC without friendly games to fix your team you dont take Mecherano Biglia Enzo Cabalero meza salvio acuna higuain in a Argentina WC team and play them and expect to win you dont let Icardi best scorer in Italy leader of inter home you dont let Dybala to play 20 minutes in a game best player of champions juventus you take and dont play lo celco who play important role in Psg foul of stars. You dont take Gulli Romero Garay Martinez Paredes Ascacibar and many others. For me we went in this WC with team B and a crazy coach with seniors players do what they want no organisation and no plan.

  22. This has to be settled immediately and wisely for bringing the Arg N/T forward. Sampaoli have to leave as the players, AFA and fans did not have faith on him anymore. However, by bringing new coach does not solve the problem because the problem is in AFA and players itself. But one thing is certain that the undelivered coach did not get a second chance to continue. Carrot and sticks are normal in the thight competitive world..

    AFA with the money minded oriented management and players with all their big ego. You need a Menotti or Bilardo type and style of coach to handle all these turbulence. We have a year to prepare for the COPA and the team should be rebuild and reinforcement. Bring back Basile or Bianchi ! No Pekerman or mario kempes or even Gareca

    Anyway, Good Luck

    • “Bring back Basile or Bianchi”

      Basile? You do realize he’s 74y old now and as for Bianchi he’s 69y old… The later had a disastrous 3rd spell in Boca and he’s almost retired. His period was in the 90’s or early 2000. Now that’s too late.

  23. As expected, it’s just a problem of money. Sampaoli knows there is no point for him to stay because he will suffer with the journalists and with the players in the dressing room but he doesn’t want to give up his 20 million. Now they seem to find the deal.

    If we look at the most well known Argentine coaches, each of them has their impact:

    – Pochettino has huge influence on England team with half of the team who are his former and current players.
    – Simeone inspired Deschamps and French NT plays almost the same football style as Atletico, players style are very similar.
    – Pekerman’s Colombia deserved to win against England. Very solid in defense, unfortunately James was off durint the last game. If Colombia won that game, I guess they would have won against Sweden and Croatia with their football.
    – Gareca: good football, nice passing, good defense. I really expected them to qualify as the 2nd. Denmark, like Icleand and Sweden, do not deserve anything.

    Me I like Pekerman and I am always very grateful about his work for Argentina football from 90s to 2006. So many great players were trained by him and learnt from him. With 1-2 former top international player as assistant(Cambiasso for example) will be a great staff coaching team.

    • I’m a relatively new bandwagonner…

      There is something about Pekerman. It’s clear he devotes a lot of attention to his work. At the very least he commands a respect and authority that I don’t think Sampaoli ever did- that’s my superficial judgement at least

  24. The reason of Lo Celso didnt play at world cup. From Clarin: Lo Celso beat Messi in a football tennis game and than during the training match he passed the ball between his legs.. thats the reason why he didnt play..

    • If Messi wants to play, he’ll play and nobody will be able to do a damn thing about it and vice versa.
      I don’t know if this story is true or not and I really don’t give a damn but what I find very puzzling is when did Messi become the enemy? Did I miss something here?

      • Messi has been under attack from sponsored media & paid trolls the moment he became best they will use all kind of things to discredit him.
        Now the media is praising modric as best in the worldcup but messi who did more than him in 2014 was atttacked when he won the goldenball.
        Messi has never played in england so they don’t like him & their media is the most influential. Messi is for many the best ever & that upsets greats like pele, maradona who wanna remain kings so they & their fans discredit him.
        messi is also nice shy guy who plays football and goes home so basically he is a good guy & Bad people who influence society are preferred for obvious reasons.

    • No, it might have been that Messi lost a chess game against Lo Celso.
      What a stupid argument and reason. Next we will hear Messi abandoned players because they tackle him or abandon a goal keeper because he saved his shots on goal and prevented him from scoring, and so on. What a load of Bull s..t
      People are becoming more ignorant to believe anything in the media from any source.
      I can write up an article full of BS and guess what? in an hour it will be all over the net. Reporters don’t report any more, they just copy news without any credible source.

    • We will never know if it’s true or not. But should be one of the most mysterious choice ever and Sampaoli didn’t have the ball to give any explanation:

      – he played every game with the NT since the one against Russia of last Nov and he is in constant progression.
      – his recent performance before the WC, both with his club and with NT, was consistently good.
      – no report saying that he’s injured
      – no obvious incompatibility between him and the 433 or 4231 system.
      – most of all, he should be the most complete midfielder: he is creative, can run and can defend. Against Iceland, Biglia was the 1st choice despite his weak performance during the training. He was obviously not recovered from his previous injuries yet. Enzo was not prepared for this WC but still above Lo Celso in the hierarchy. Banega was completely lost against France but changes was not made in time. You put all that together, it just doesn’t make sense. Don’t tell me it’s a bullshit tactical choice.

      It’s just like, all of a sudden, he is banned. Lo Celso is not a Modric or Xavi yet but his absence clearly created an impact. I wish one day we could understand what happened exactly.

    • messi destroyed tevez, pastore, icardi, locelso, dybala, career.
      he don’t like some one surpass him.
      if locelso and dybala played in France game without messi we could win.
      if he stays till 2022….
      dear young players,
      please migrate to some other country you will get a chance to play.

    • There are many fake argentina supporter here in the group, they are other team supporters and trying to confuse us with bullshit news and spaecally want to demean messi .Beware of them.

    • Pure BS and makes absolutely no sense. as if they were children. More Media attacks on the NT.
      Imagine Messi running to Sampaoli crying: Sampi… Sampi… I don’t want Lo Celso playing, he is a baaad boy, he nutmegged me in front of everyone.
      Earlier it was because Beccacece put his hand on Messi’s shoulder. Yet the media talked after Croacia game that Mascherano and Pavon got into a fight and Mascherano gets a black eye and Messi let pavon play. when everyone claims Messi and Mascherano are the best bodies. STOP SPREADING THE LIES ABOUT THE NT. Only Haters and people who don’t support the NT will do that.

      I seen this news in aljazeera, world wide famous news corp. how stupid could reporters get to transmit such bulls..t. I am sick and tired of the mother f…g media that just copy news without any sources just because some A hole wrote it some where in the net.

  26. So many long posts that are too long to read!
    It will be Gareca or Pekerman. Most likely Gareca. Gallardo wants to go to Europe. The truth is the only one with a track record of developing players is Pekerman.
    The old players hung on too long. No country forgets about a generation because of the old generation except for Argentina. Not playing Dybala LoCelso Icardi is a sin and we are paying for it. Other players will blossom to round out the team. And in terms of the old generation, let’s look at it. No world class goalkeeper or defenders, average midfiielders and that includes Mascherano who was a great defender but zero skills in attacking (redondo simeone were both better rounded players), and a load of world class forwards in Tevez aguero Messi Higuain DiMaria when they were on their game. So really the old generation was 5 players maybe 6 if you are stretching it. 6 players doesn’t make a team, especially when 3 play the same position in aguero tevez and Higuain

    • Look i wanna say something that , maybe the ” beast simeone ” and ” silk of touch redondo ” have gone , but if you see cleary we have already find two players who could be pivotal for the next ten years.
      – Paredes remind me a lot of redondo , having a defensive quality with a pure class of attacking instincts.
      – Ascacibar remind me lot of simeone ,just see his highlights of his play with stuttgart, very aggressive, very rough , and having a very hot attitude .
      Look argentina generation have not died , they may have failed to win youth tournaments, but see , they are still producing talents .
      It doesn’t matter whether they win u-20, u -13 , u -3 or even under the mothers womb world cup , they will still produce talents
      Its in their gene , they have it in their blood .
      Only Argentina is capable of producing the ” gods of football” , brazil may produce talents everyday , they can be some of the most finest player ever, BUT,BUT , argentina produce that one single talent which will rule the next 100 years .
      Its not over , its not yet .

      Vamoooooosssssss ARGENTINA.😎 😎 😎 .

      • @rohandybala21, loved your comment. You had logic in your argument. People who are sighing with disbelief, may find someday, there is someone looking far more dangerous than Messi, CR7 or anybody else!! Only ARG can produce such talents.

        And that is the life of an Arg supporter. They’ll always have the best in the world but not the touch of the WC trophy. I sincerely beleives this was our best change. But no, not us! The two teams that beat us will play the final. Now I believe I will not experience ARG winning the WC in my lifetime. May not happen for my next generation as well. It just won’t happen. Unless a new God like Diego Maradona appears and win it with a spell, where everybody just remain hypnotises and he win it right in front of their eyes!! I’m waiting, I will keep waiting

        • Far han : its not over yet , its not , keep faith in messi , keep faith in god.
          You know what the one who suffers the most ,is the one who is the strongest of all.
          Its just the lull before the storm , the dark dawn before the sunrise .
          Argentina will rise again , and I know that very well.
          Just wait and watch it .

  27. One thing is certain, who ever becomes the coach must abandon the barca way! the high-line defence & the messi dependency.

    The good thing is both Masche and Biglia have now retired. Whoever the new coach is, needs to solidify the defense and midfield thoroughly. We need to really start working with players who have a legit shot at being part of the 23 in the 2022 worldcup team.

    This copa should be fused with the likes of Werner (as a backup) Ruli, Pazella, Mammana, Foyth, Gomez, Bustos, Ascacibar, Paredes, Lo Celso, Vargas, ocampos Lanzini, Joaquin Correa, Angel Correa, Martinez, pavon, dybala, Icardi… and add veterans like, romero, otamendi, tegliafico, aguero, Messi, pastore (I haven’t given up on him)

    I am sure there will be other players who will blossom in 4 years time, but I truly hope we give it a due-diligence to really work towards 2022. This copa, our aim should be to solidify our future players. It is held in Brazil, so they will be the favorites to win it (let’s be realistic!). Our aim should be to take a young team with a proper coach and take them to the semis. Anything above is a huge blessing. Let them play through the qualifiers & gain experience together. Enough with the chaos & the close your eyes, pass it to messi and let’s pull a rabbit out of a hat.

    Vamos Argentina!

  28. Can someone please give me a good explanation as to why Gerardo Martino was terrible for Argentina? Before you do let’s remind ourselves of his Argentina record:

    Games: 29
    Wins: 19
    Draws: 7
    Loses: 3
    Win Rate: Over 65%
    Achievements: Copa America – Runners-Up 2015, 2016

    Personally for me Martino didn’t change about 95% of Sabella’s system. We’re a little bit more attacking under him. As per win and lose ratio he was outstanding, I mean 3 loses; what more do you want (and before you mention attractive football, do you remember Sabella – our best coach in decades – there wasn’t anything attractive in his tactics but he got us to a final and knew our strengths and weakness). So he could’ve tried adding more systems? But then why would you change something that is working great? The biggest problem I had with Martino is he didn’t add new talent (especially younger) in the team which is one of the reasons we’re in this mess that Sampaoli has tried to fix. If he was our coach this WC looking at the teams (Iceland, Croatia, Nigeria, Denmark, Russia, England, France) we would have won this WC any day.

    If he was terrible then surely you’re judging him on sections and not his full Argentina record… unless I’m missing something please tell me.

    • @copa19 tata martino have done fantastic job for national team
      Personally he is very good coach
      He is well balance coach and play attacking football
      Especially under circumstances he was
      Because that time afa was even worse than now

    • I didn’t like martino because in my opinion he didnt have the courage to bring fresh blood into the team. He was too afraid to change anything. Players getting older and if you refuse to change the winning team after 2-3 years you will fail after some time. We missed the opportunity to bring changes into the team slowly that’s why we are in our current dilemma right now which forces us to start from scratch which could be avoided easily by integrating new players for each position slowly.
      Find a solution to play messi with dybala is just an example.

    • Martino didnt get paid for like 8 months at one point, the team securities even knocked Messi’s door during Copa 2016 because they havent got paid for 6 months. AFA is a circus.

    • to answer your question on tata-here is why,
      after w.c 14 he failed to introduce youth into the system and today 4 years later we are still pay the price for that stupidly and lack of foresight.
      he had little idea about what was going on during the game as we saw the same mistakes time and time again ie in the 65th min (give or take) a striker off and a striker on no matter what was happening on the field of play.
      he made it to the 1st final playing a certain style but then changed it for the final-why do that?, he was out thought in the 1st final and we lost.
      he makes it to a 2nd final playing a certain style and again changes it for the final and once again gets out thought exactly the same way-2 finals and both times he was out thought exactly the same way.
      and guess what? once he left the afa job their was no que for his services at all and it was about 1.5 years before he got another and today we find him coaching in the u.s-a massive step down from Argentina and barca.

  29. I agree. If a prestigious and enviable post such as the national coach of team argentina has become so toxic it HAS to be the administrative fuckups by the knuckleheads in the AFA.

    We need a top-down shakeup. What a pity! So much talent and pride and hunger wasted because idiots in suits don’t have the balls to call the shots and do the right thing.

    SHAME SHAME SHAME!!

    OH my beloved Argentina NT….what have they done to you?

  30. It seems that this reality show, backstage circus is neverending and it is really getting into my nerves! Argentina doesn’t deserve this circus and if you ask me, the first who have to be removed, fired and being nowhere near to Argentina nt are the stuff of afa! Unless people with footballing knowledge and honour when giving their word run the afa, any given coach won’t be able to work in peace!

    They managed to do the unthinkable: One of the most prestigious jobs and that is to coach Argentina, to be seemed like a nightmare for any coach!

  31. Good Article about the struggles. Best quote: “We always had too little money, organisational ability and vision – and, in our arrogance, too much confidence in our status as a predestined footballing power.”

    Argentina, including the coaches, have long been accused of being over confident/cocky. Maybe back in 1930 when we would win 8-1, I could understand that…but now all of WORLD FOOTBALL has improved. Argentina cannot expect to win games with the colors of their shirt and names on their backs. Germany knows this and works hard at the details. Argentina needs to employ European tactics of organization and attention detail. Quite thinking we are superior because we no longer are superior..and become a hardworking team that is organized and pays attention to detail. Brazil suffers for this at times as well but they have the jugo bonito..we need to become a combination of Brazil, Uruguay and Germany to return to the top. Don’t forget that Argentina historical football was heavily influenced by the English, Italians and Germans and the European frame of mind….that is in the Argentina blood…Argentina needs to recover that…We haven’t won anything in over 25 years…no need to be cocky or over confident…Instead become a student of the game and respect each opponent…respect them enough to study them, understand their tactics (France) and make adjustments. We beat France in possession 65% to 35%…but they baited us…they wanted to play the counter and succeeded with long balls to Mbappe..creating the 2 and 4th goal. We continued to attack instead of preserving a 2-1 lead…that was an error in judgment in acknowledging that France was in fact the better team with more talent…but Sampa was classically cocky, stubborn and overconfident.

    https://thesefootballtimes.co/2018/07/13/how-argentina-squandered-a-generation-of-outstanding-talent-and-why-the-future-remains-uncertain/

  32. If Messi stays around what will happen to Lo Celso? what about Dybala? Icardi? (will these young and talented wait till the old clay headed captain to retire from NT in 2022).
    .
    How crazy this has all become?
    .
    Every top player will invite and surround themselves with young and talented on the quest for glory but here we have Messi who had clay in his head and thought otherwise.
    .
    If Messi could not win the world cup for Argentina in 2018 how will he in 2022? He will be too old to even walk the pitch for 90 minutes. He has to go. We need a new team completely. Otherwise if Messi stays his friends will be back on team too. Funny part is Higuain has still not retired yet… he still wants to play for NT afterall what he did to us over the years… if Messi stays read my words Higuain will be playing Copa 2019 too.
    .
    Messi is my favorite player too like anybody here but when it comes to Argentina NT my team is above any favoritism.

    • If messi stays or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that the coach who ever he is needs to show balls he needs to say:Leo it’s great to having you in our team but there will be no aguero no higuain and no banega ( just for example) because we have better options and you need to deal with it. Its copa in Brazil and we are not going to vacation with ppl you love to play with. It doesn’t matter who screwed someone’s wife years ago if the person plays better than everyone else and is in good shape he will play and you need to deal with it.

    • I can bet my life that 2019 Copa America and going forward will again be a disaster for Argentina if Messi is not around… Building a new team is not easy and becomes 100 times more difficult when you miss a player of his status…
      Lets admit that Sampaoli’s decisions played the most crucial part in Argentina’s loss in WC…Benching the star players of your team, playing a high line defense with senior defenders, wrong team selections, encouraging the hyper dependency on Messi…Sampaoli left no stones unturned in making sure the world cup misery for the team. For people screaming to replace Messi with non-proven players like Lo Celso or Dybala must look back and check how Argentina played when Messi was not there in Russia qualifiers.
      Had Messi not come back at the right moment, this team would have watched the WC on television… Argentina is still a force to reckon with while on the attack just because of Messi , Aguero and Di Maria…France was a much better side in all aspects and the fact that Argentina could hit them back with 3 goals should be taken as positive…Areas to improve on should be defence and GK ( for which Sampaoli is mostly responsible) not keeping out the greatest player of all time from your side…and yes Dybala should be in the team but not as the replacement for Messi , NO WAY…someone should find a way to use them together

      • If messi remains in team with the same decision power we gonna see most of the old players in the next copa because it is again their last chance to win something. The next coach has to drop almost everyone else beside messi. For this kind of step you need to make messi to understand that there is nothing bigger than the result in the copa. If he accepts he will stay and we will take advantage of having messi in team. if not we will fail again because messi’s love for his friends seems to be bigger than our success with the whole team. Dont get me wrong I love messi and I’m thankful for having such a great player with us but we can’t take advantage of this situation if messi prefers to play with biglia for example over lo celso or higuain over Icardi / lautaro. Messi’s absence will be a huge blow for our team but still better than letting him force his buddies in to the team because the team performance will suffers for sure.

        • yes, everyone has to understand that this defense will not work for sure…Backline has to be reorganized with Sergio Romero as GK…Its really unfortunate for Argentina to miss him in crucial moment before WC…I felt Argentina plays much better with conventional defensive formation instead of going for high line defense…Lo celso should be included in playing 11 for sure… I feel Aguero can also continue since he was among the better performers of the team in WC and he still performs at his peak for a club like Man City, which is not the easiest thing on earth… Dybala should better understand that he’s playing with a man of Messi’s caliber , so he should focus on improvising his game accordingly to make a fantastic international career for himself , instead of complaining about it…these are minor adjustments every player has to make when he plays for NT and club. I hope the team does go through some changes , some miracle and performs great in Copa America 2019.

    • @Chalz

      I seriously can not take your posts anymore. I have 0 intentions of berating you, this is a public fan forum and anyone is open to share their thoughts. However, you my friend constantly post absolute conspiracy theories as if they were facts. Most of them are coming from your own invention. You are now speculating that Messi demanded Lo Celso be removed from the team because he beat him in a game of tennis? Are you okay?

      I’ve always ignored your religious posts and outlandish gossip posts, but you’ve gone way too deep dude. I get that our team isn’t succeeding and we are all expressing our despairs in our own ways, but chill out with this rubbish stuff man.

  33. If people think Sampaoli is only to blame for Argentina lose in WC you will be disappointed once again. Samapoli made mistakes. No doubt. But how is that Argentina is only worse and worse since Martino times. Every new coach was “good choice” I heard. I heard that when Martino was appointed. The coach with Paraguay NT success and European experience. At the end he was “the worst coach ever”. I heard “anyone but Martino”, “anyone must be better”.

    Once again when Bauza was appointed. “Best possible choice” Ive been hearing. Copa Libertadores winner with several clubs. It’s hard to imagine but at the end he was named the worse of the worst. Worse than Martino.

    Finally Sampaoli was dream coach. The best of the best. With his Chile title and European experience. And he turned to be… how to name that… worst of the worst of the worst.

    Don’t be naive people our main problem are just coaches. It’s impossible to have 3 so poor coaches in a row of which everyone had triumphs until took Argentina. If coaches are changing and we play only worse having finally oldest team on the WC and barely reaching 1/8 only complete fool may think we should just take new coach staying with the generation of players.

    Open your eyes. This generation will never win a tournament. The team is completely distorted by Messi presence. The mems you have everywhere in internet about Messi relation to team hold the sad truth. Enough! Enough of the telenovela, soap opera with Messi. Giving him comfort, giving him pleasue…. Whole world is laughing at this Argentina being one-man team. Tragicomedy which people still want to have thinking the generation and Messi should stay. Gareca is great coach but having similar success with South American teams to the previous our coaches we will see him falling in the same miastakes of Messi idolatry. No matter who will take NT, you wil not see improvement without general purge in NT.

    • Who of us really believe our oldies will suddenly play better after 30 if only new coach came? Who believe that?

    • @gonzalo you re absuletly right
      I’m real Argentina fan as said before
      I was happy when sampoali came our manager I had high hopes but reality is
      Messi as much as he done good for national team at same time he single handle distroy Argentina that is reality
      I can wait when he quit
      You will never see Diego simeone coaching Argentina while messi and his friends re still there even though I’m not fan of simeone style pochettino or Gallardo will not coach the national team while still messi playing for national team

    • sorry, but not quite. Messi led Arg to 3 finals. 2 of them we lost in PK’s, the other in 2ET. he wasnt at this best in all, but still quite an achievement.

      Whoever said Tata was the “Worst” will always bitch just to bitch. Tata was a good coach. We were playing beautiful football with him. Just got unlucky. It happens.

      With Samp meanwhile, we had someone who couldnt hold a thought down. It was like he was on shrooms 24/7. There is no reason for a double pivot against a team that parks the bus. Let them try the counter, but a counter is not as effective if your front line starts from 30 yards in their own half and does not have elite speed or talent. Iceland was always going to rely on long balls and set pieces. And, if you are worried about counters, why start a winger at right back? You have capable players in Mercado and Ansaldi. It was just nonsensical.

      Why change to 3 defenders against croatia, who have top class players in attack and midfield? Did you really think Otamendi was going to handle Tag and Mercado duties while they were covering for the wingers? It was a complete fools errand.

      No #9 against France. At that point it was literally Laugh Out Loud funny. But for everyone not supporting Arg.

      So, you basic premise, that coaches are always blamed, is not totally crazy, but Samp was a total, complete mess. One cannot deny that.

      • @Poli

        Messi didn’t led Argentina to 3 finals. It’s more thanks to our good defence. In the copa finals Messi proved he is really helpless and vulnerable when things goes wrong.

        From that Messi generation led us to 3 finals doesn’t conclude that they will do that once again. They won’t. The generation had their peak in 2014. And the result od cureent WC is one of proves. Behind the lost are both players and Sampaoli.

        • Messi didn’t led Argentina to 3 finals. WTF? He has 13 assists in 16 knock out matches, crazy, you are so blindly hater, and why so many assist and so little (4) goals? because our creative midfielders simply dont existence, or never played, who can pass the ball quickly forward into the gaps to the attackers, when spaces are yet there, so Messi always had to step back deep if he want to meet with the ball. Mascher-Biglia double pivot=zero creativity+Enzo Perez=even less (but good defense, ARG always played too defensive without real full backs, no support from the midfielders and no support from full backs (without world class players or due to too defensive tactics) for the attackers=few goals). When we tried to play attacking football vs Germany or vs France instead of stability we conceeded 4 goals.

    • “You can blame the team, blame the player individually, but when you’re doing this again, you’re missing the point. It’s not players’ failure, it’s coach who is to blame in this situation. Jorge Sampaoli is to blame for Seleccion Argentina failure at the 2018 World Cup.

      We know it’s not all over but it’s not Argentina. They suffered their heaviest defeat at group stage against Croatia and we all saw that coming. Sampaoli has done all wrong since taking Argentina job, but his success with Chile was so overwhelming no one even realized his plans were too fragile for bringing success to Argentina.

      He was hired as Argentina boss a year ago, he couldn’t blame he didn’t have enough time to prepare for the World Cup. But, he was so involved in finding the right squad; he forgets that Argentina already has a perfect squad. He only needed to bring confidence in them and let them aware of their potential, but he keeps searching for something unknown.

      Argentina never had that problem. Their players are playing for best clubs in the world and you can’t say that they are an average squad. Sergio Aguero, Gonzalo Higuain, Angel Di Maria, Paulo Dybala, Ever Banega, Nicolas Otamendi, Gabriel Mercado, Giovani Lo Celso, Marcos Acuna, Federico Fazio, Eduardo Salvio, and Lucas Biglia play for biggest European club. If they would have been an average player, they wouldn’t have find place in those teams.

      You don’t need to feel them inferior to Messi every time, they already know that Argentine great is on another level. They only need to feel that they are also special alongside Messi in this team.

      It wasn’t a poor game against Iceland; only the result didn’t come as expected. But some time it happens against determined debutant side because they only defend for 90 minutes of the game. Sampaoli needed to realize that and should have played with the same team and same tactics against Croatia.

      He didn’t need to make changes in the formation and the playing XI. His plans were total failure because there wasn’t a plan. You don’t make a plan to play against team like Croatia two days ago. Just like Mexico coach Juan Carlos Osorio said, he planned to defeat Germany six months ago and he got the result.

      Sampaoli played 3-4-3 formation against Croatia, and choose to play Messi on right wing. He knew Messi will have lesser of ball in that position. He knew Argentina midfielders don’t have such quality to pass the ball to always crowded Messi by opposition defenders. At least, he doesn’t play those quality midfielders. He left Ever Banega on the bench knowing he needs his quality considering Croatia’s midfield quality.

      The boss himself admitted, “I had thought that today’s game would come through giving pressure to our opponents down the middle of the pitch, because Croatia has a lot of talent there. The plan didn’t work and if doesn’t work, it is difficult for the players who were in that plan to make it work.”

      And, that’s where he got all wrong. When you know your opponent is so good in the middle you play on the wings to don’t allow someone like Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic on the ball. You had to good full-backs in Nicolas Tagliafico and Eduardo Salvio, but you don’t utilize their potential to go forward.

      If your opponent had the quality in midfield, you should have put your quality in the midfield to pressurize them. You shouldn’t choosen the players who were only good in ugly tackling. Ever Banega and Messi would have caused problem for them in the middle and they could have feed Sergio Aguero.

      Sergio Aguero has already shown his potential with a terrific strike against Iceland, but against Croatia – he had the lesser of ball along with Messi. Messi only had 49 touches over the match and Aguero even had lesser with only 9 touches in first-half. Argentina lost the game there.

      Jorge Sampaoli, Seleccion Argentina failure, FIFA World Cup Russia 2018

      Sampaoli apology at this stage won’t work. He is taking the responsibility of failure but it won’t help after breaking millions of heart back in Argentina. He said as Marca reports, “The responsibility is all mine, you cannot look for explanations based on the players on the pitch. It’s the manager’s responsibility.”

      At this stage, we can only say manager hasn’t taken his responsibility seriously. Knowing what’s at stake, he shouldn’t have risked that formation. He must have sensed that in practice but he proceeds with his weak plans and the disaster happened.

      Even, the opposition camp can point out to their problems. Craotian winger Ivan Perisic told Mediaset, “Messi is the best just like Cristiano Ronaldo, but you can only achieve something if you play as a team. Argentina need to change something if they are to go forward.”

      source:
      https://footballinall.com/russia-2018/jorge-sampaoli-is-to-blame-for-seleccion-argentina-failure-at-2018-world-cup/

      The above does not include the erratic, puzzling tactics and substitutions during France match which was the braking point and his highest point of failure

    • As soon as Messi cross your mind, your brains seems to stop working. Yeah, it is all Messi’s fault. Everything written on media/internet is 100% correct. Brainless is what you are…when you mention Messi.

    • Sampaoli changed formations 30 different times and tried 100 players and even changed during the goddamn world cup. NO SHIT the team played like crap with no identity and looked lost. Finally against Nigeria when the players had enough did we do well. You have a chip on your shoulder and are not rationale, your hatred of Messi is disturbing

    • @Gonzalo, no offence but completely bullshit. I think you are the most naive in thinking that purging is the ultimate solution for everything. Let me develop: So 2 years ago, when Croatia got KO in Euro, many stupid Croatian fans just like you wanted Modric and Mandzukic out. Exactly the same as you. People like you always blame on the senior guys when things don’t go well and expect the young dudes to do some miracle. And you dare to call people childish and naive. Maybe you should first find a job in an enterprise to understand how the world works before giving any lesson to people, which is always easier behind the screen than in real life.
      Thanks.

      • Purge is not ultimate solution for everything – maybe you think it’s may precipe, so you are naive. But purge is principal starting point to any good thing that may come in future.

        “People like you always blame on the senior guys when things don’t go well and expect the young dudes to do some miracle”

        Yes I blame the senior guys and it’s understanable: they were still core of the team and the team lost. That’s why I blame them. The youngsters are just given a chance sporadically. Isn’t it? Dybala, Icardi, Lo Celso, J. Correa, Bustos, A. Correa, J.l. Gomez, Paredes, Martinez, Kranevitter, Rigoni and many more. They get 1-2 games and coach is backing to the oldies despite the fact the oldies are poor. All they need, the youngsters, is more caps in NT. We have enough of talent but none of last 3 coaches had not courage to build on them.

        The fact is: the oldies are no more guarantee of any good result. Qualifiers prove that. World Cup prove that. What do you want more?

        The occasionall goals from Aguero or Di Maria cen’t change the whole view they are descending since at least 2 years. And you still want to invest in them. No No No No. Please step ahead.

      • You missed one important thing about Croatia. The generation never before win anything or went far in tournament. After they lost in last Euro still had something to prove. Unlike our oldies which had all the finals and lost. The know the chances to be in final and win will never back. They don’t trust themselves. THe psychological stigma is there. The mentality of loser must go. It’s contagious. I want fresh atmosphere for players to come.

        • First of all, did I ever say we should keep all senior players? Some of them still need to be part of the team in order to pass their knowledge and experience. Otherwise, there is no reference for the young players. The changes need to be progressive.

          Secondly, I don’t know if you have ever played football, probably not. There is no such thing about “psychological stigma”. When you are on the pitch, you just play your best. So you think our defense didn’t run enough to cover each other because they are not “hungry” anymore? It’s all about our tactics. When you are dominated tactically, no matter how many miles you run, you run for nothing, which makes you look weak.

          I never pretend to know football more than anyone in this forum and I never treated anymore “naive”, “childish”. Here we talk about football and people used to have constructive debate on tactics and players. It just irritates me to see people like you keep on giving lessons with few knowledge.

  34. Its really sad that no one wants to be the manager. Why would somebody. At the same time it is a very beautiful challenge too. This is what is my opinion…

    A manager/coach has to be one who can get the best results out of the resources he has. One cannot say I do not have good midfielders. Or full backs or something else. Build some capable players, scout well and find what you need and then implement from what you have.

    I see a man names Jurgen Klopp. I do not know much about him other than his Dortmund and Liverpool. He had wonderful midfielders in Dortmund – Ozil, Gundogan, Kagawa, Mikhitariayn (whatever the spelling) and he played accordingly. He is doing fantastic with Liverpool and Liverpool has a very ordinary midfield. When he came to Liverpool he had different strengths and weaknesses.

    Luis Enrique in his treble winning season mentioned, his strength is in MSN, lethal attack, so his sole objective was to get the ball to them as fast as possible, not after playing 15 passes in the midfield.

    Basically, we need a manager who can form a system from the players in hand and Argentina has plenty.

    • I think Gallardo is the closest example to what you said above. a Simeone like personality. correct me if I am wrong.

  35. Media is no.1 Enemy of the NT. along with many who believe and spread everything published or said about the players.
    Our failure in the WC is Sampaoli’s fault, regardless who dictates players selection. If Sampaoli accepted so called ‘friends club’, then he should have planned accordingly, his tactics did not suit players ability, it’s obvious to all who know how the game is played. unless he deliberately put a plan for them to fail. WE could have beaten France with or without Lo Celso, Dybala or Fazio. He was outsmarted by Deschamps who is not known to be a smart coach. if anyone here can give me a clear plan for Sampaoli during his year in the NT, say it. But he used over than 60 players with 15 different lineups in 15 matches. He was erratic in his formations and substitutions. Messi is not a leader, that is his fault and that’s why I suggest taking the captaincy away from him. all Messi critics agree that he is not a leader, then explain how he can dictate players selection if he is not a leader?
    I said it before, Sampaoli took a Toyota and drove it like a Ferrari until it broke a part. That’s what he did to the NT.

    • there are so many reasons Samp completely botched his coaching duties in the WC, but the kicker is…after getting a ton of heat for consistently changes formations, he goes with a lineup without a #9 IN A KNOCKOUT GAME. he never used it before, but I guess against France in a knockout game it is worth a shot! DUMBASS

      • False 9 requires 6 outstanding players.
        I am going to draw comparison with Pep’s Barca who mastered the false 9 tactics(I am not a Barca fan but they mastered this tactic).

        2 inverted wingers (villa and Pedro) to cut into the box to receive the ball from the false 9 or the play maker and shoot on goal
        Di Maria and Pavon should have switched places

        2 pitbull fullbacks (Danny Alves and Abidal) to take the wingers position when on attack and run back very fast when in defense.
        I don’t think We have any in our squad at the moment.

        A playmaker (Xavi or Iniesta) to supply ball ahead to the false 9
        Dybala or LO Celso could have been used here along with Banega

        Finally, the false 9 (Messi) to keep the CBs occupied, shoot on goal or pass to the inverted wingers in the box.
        3 of the goals we conceded against France were from Tagliafico side because he is not a pitbull fullback
        Messi is just one player, not 6

        Yet, putting Aguero as a striker from the start and play 4 4 2, would have secured us a QF place.
        Yet even better, falling back after the 2-1 lead and hit on the counter using Pavon’s speed or introduce fresh legs would allow us to hit France at least once and if France would score, it would not be 3 goals in 10 minutes.
        SAMPAOLI IS A FAILURE.

  36. I don’t know why many rooting for pekerman here, under him Colombia isn’t good like Sampaoli Chile or Gareca peru. Pekerman flopped in his first spell with Argentina and i don’t think AFA even considered. Either Simeone or Gareca is the best choice for Argentina

    • I tell you why:
      ARGENTINA under Pekerman played beautifully, the 2006 team that many here keep talking about over and over and over again.
      Colombia became competitive the SECOND he was hired and never looked back. It was right after they lost to ARG in Colombia in that Epic game where Kun scored the game winner when he was mobbed by Messi.
      He knows how to use talent, James, El Tigre and Guadrado (spelling).
      His teams always had a sound structure, always well-disciplined and tenacious defense.
      He is a proper coach with ton of experience, been to the WC how many times thus far, 3?

      I like Gareca but then again I loved Sampoali “BEFORE” and see how that turned out, so if somebody can guarantee that he’ll do a good job with ARGENTINA then please by all means like him be hired.
      Pekerman is my first Choice followed by Gareaca because realistically these two are the ones on the map now, forget about the other Jokers in Europe. Said before and I say it again, Talking and running your mouth about what is wrong with the NT(Simeone) is something and actually doing something about it are two different things. They wont leave their POSH jobs with their respective clubs and posh is exactly what it is to come manage ARGENTINA.

      I have to assume that Gareaca is the one who the AFA will hand the team to because of the obvious…..him leaving Peru.

      • My friend 2006 Argentina had the time which was needed to develop. They played under pekerman in our youth team. They played attacking beautiful football in our senior team under bielsa. No matter what result they had chemistry. Pekerman took the team and dropped a zanetti who was not known as a pekerman boy. He did his mistakes but he didnt have to build up a team in 11 matches under the pressure of qualifying for the tournament. Pekerman had time. In my opinion there isn’t any coach in the world who can fix our team in a short time.

        • The world cup is over, the short time period no longer applies. Hire a proper coach with no time frame breathing down his neck and let them do it right.

  37. I find it incredible that someone on this sight might want to defend Sampaoli. Sampaoli may have been a good coach before at Chile and Sevilla because those are teams that are not trying to do too much or don’t have to many options, so you are forced to work with what you have. In Argentina, we have so much talent in certain positions while falling way behind the world in other positions (Defense and Goalie). Coach after coach as struggled with this dilemma. But Sampaoli failed at the simple tasks like organizing a team with a central idea, conveying that idea, having the players buy into your idea and having those ideas show results. Additionally, he was stubborn in his love for Mesa, failed at making in game adjustments and failed with his substitutes. Don’t forget, the only game we won was when the players forced his hand…the little rat didn’t even want to celebrate with them after the win because they proved their point. His entire year has been a disaster. You cannot win a WC with a disorganized team. Germany is always organized, has 4 titles and will be back. England got to the semi just bc they were organized as they still lack talent. Croatia is organized and hardworking. France is organized, hardworking, agree with the coaches tactics and very talented. When we escaped the first half of the game vs France at 1-1…I thought surely he will make changes and realized with False 9 idea did not work and thank you lucky stars it wasn’t 3-0 already…instead he removes Rojo and remains on the same track…no ability to change.. Its like his “love” for Argentina gets into his head and makes it mush…This is the classic example of what players have alluded to before,, that wearing the Argentina shirt is heavy…some crack under pressure. Sampaoli may have been a false prophet this whole time and the pressure of the WC brought his flaws to light. He cannot coach Argentina because at Argentina we play tournaments to win them…there is more pressure and titles like the WC and to a far less extent the Copa are won with the details. Sampa failed at all the details and will not be improving from here to 2022… the pressure of Argentina will always be the same..the player/selection dilemma will always be there..the lack of world class defenders will be there for the near future. Sampa failed and failed miserably to the point that we had to embarrass ourselves with a player/locker room mutiny that forced his hand to play Banega and a line of 4 at defense. Infantino was quoted as saying that had Argentina closed the game down, we could have beaten France. Every Argentina fan knows France was there for the taking…but our lack of organization and tactical weakness did us in. In the last 15 years we have been to 5 finals. Beilsa (2014) Basile (Copa final 2007), Sabella (WC 2014) Martino (2015, 2016). Coaches that failed (Bastista, Maradona, Bauza). Please highlight the common tread. When Argentina has a coach with any significant futbol intelligence, we make the FINAL… When we do not…we get embarrassed (WC 2010), (Copa 2011), (WC 2014). Excluding Perkerman who failed by considering Messi too young, Messi has had one intelligent pragmatic coach (Sabella) and with him we got to final. Sampa cannot stay bc he is not cool under pressure and is not intelligent enough for the position. We do not show up to sign autographs, we are trying to win the whole thing. As football across the world continues to become a level playing field, we need to continue to seek advantages and coaching is the one spot that cannot have a shortcoming. You can become WC Champs with a subpar defense but you will likely not win anything or even advance with a subpar coach. He belongs at Sevilla, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Mexico. Please AFA find someone with half a brain.

  38. If Sampaoli fired, AFA will faces loss so i think Sampaoli should give another opportunity if not success then sacking would make sense. If Sampaoli sacked at moment then the reason is old guard neither respect nor young guard trust him. Farmers like meza, pavon played ahead of lo celso, Dybala in form Aguero benched with out any reason and benega not used properly

    • messI spoiled locelso, dybala, and sampaoli career.
      if messi is in AFA he will destroy Argentina youth players.

  39. Really??? Really??? When I read the blog from yesterday I was totally flatten. Hope is still alive, hope is still alive. We can get rid of this nightmare of epic proportions. Get him out and I’ll say this over and over, let him go coach whoever he want to coach. After reading Pekerman public appeal to take charge of Argentina I sent a message to Tapia pleading for his, Pekerman, hiring. Lo And behold, Pekerman read my message and tagged me with these words “Muy Bien Senor”. I know then first hand that he is ready to comeback, build a monster team and win World Cup 2022. He has unfinished business, experience and pressure problems will no be a factor with him. He regretted all the mistakes he made and want to finish, winning the World Cup for Argentina.

  40. Until people who know nothing about football are removed from the AFA then any success Argentina has will be despite the AFA. They have constantly undermined the seleccion.

    It is a place for idiots to massage egos and play power politics or even use football as a proxy for political games witness Kirchner for instance.

    They need to get people who understand the modern game, marketing, youth football and put the Argentine game before themselves into power. Tapia is another ignorant buffoon who I would not allow to run a nursery. You have other idiots like Angelici importing players over cantera products who then spout on about youth football.

    There is no concerted plan for youth football. No cooperation between clubs and the organizing body. No tackling of many of the issues that plague the domestic game such as the comical structure of club football. Anyone with the slightest common sense or with the best interests of the game in Argentina can see this and devise plans to tackle those issues.

    But nothing ever gets done. Always the same excuses, the petty power games, obese pig Tapia showing himself off in Moscow. No attempts made to recover the millions stolen by Grondona and his cronies.

    Gabriel Heinze one of the very promising crop of young managers sums it up perfectly:
    “What they have to do is fire those who are incapable and those who benefit personally, however, that is something which is going to be very difficult to do. There are many people who do not know what the Argentina National Team is, what the emblem represents, nor do they have what it takes to sweat for this shirt. There are people who do not have a clue about football. As long as these people continue to govern and make decisions, things will continue to go wrong.”

    Knowing how petty and childish AFA members are this probably means an end to any chance to coach the seleccion. Now having an efficient organizing body with initiatives and schemes to develop the domestic game at all levels from school/youth clubs to the juvenile ranks at the professional clubs, the womens game etc etc may not result automatically in more Copas and World Cups. However it would certainly mean we don’t fall behind others and have a far better chance in these competitions when they come around.

  41. I think the last paragraph is pretty wrong. I read many Argentinian coaches saying “who would not like to coach the NT?” including Gareca.

  42. It’s the first time i leave a comment here. The reason is I read some comments and it’s like people don’t know what is happening in the argentinian. Ok Sampaoli faled to bring the world cup but the reasons is because he is the worst coach we ever had? Jorge proved his worth before la Albiceleste and for who says he is a bad and with no skill tactics just go watch another sport. He was wonderful at la U Sevilla and National team of Chile. I have just one question? Is tata a bad coach too? He left because one reason and this is the same problem Argentina still has. There is no plans for the future (look at the young we don’t win anything for years) some wants Gareca as coach ignoring the work in Peru with Daniel Ahmad. They have the results there were working for. Pekerman? He was in charge in 2006 for what results? Now we want results without any efforts because we have one player the Best ever for sure but football is not tennis and no one will win single. I don’t think that Gareca Pekerman are better than Sampaoli I even think we will have the same regrets with guardiola mourinho ancelotti etc just because Argentina left his identity and want to have his glorious past without doing the same work than before.
    I do love Messi but I think the best thing he can give to Argentina is to leave for ever we will see the lack of our football and our place. It’s a shame for the country creator of El cinco to play 12years xith Mascherano and no other solution. Ascacibar is good ok guido Rodriguez too so many talents but they don’t even play toghether in young categories to create a team an spirit a way to Play as Argentina ever done

    • I want to focus on your point on Sampaoli. I will say the same thing to you, may be YOU should go watch another sport. Sampaoli was horrible, horrible and horrible for … Argentina. He was excellent for Chile, good for Sevilla. Granted. But, and that is the mistake you, and many others, are making, ARGENTINA IS NOT CHILE OR SEVILLA, ARGENTINA IS TOTALLY, COMPLETELY, A DIFFERENT ANIMAL ALL TOGETHER. There are four teams in this world: BRAZIL, ARGENTINA, ITALY AND GERMANY. A coaching job with any of these four is unlike any other any place. So, so, understand that Sampaoli proved to be totally incapable of rising to the level of Argentina. People look up to these teams, how can you explain, just for starter, the ridiculous lack of respect Sampaoli has shown to opposing coaches?? That is right there a proof that he doesn’t understand Argentina place, one of the four winnigest teams, ever, in the history of the World Cup. If you are a coach, you show respect for that, you walk over the opposition and shake hands. Sampaoli has no respect for Argentina, none, no pride in Argentina, none or else he would never ever allow Argentina to lose 6-1 to Spain and 4-2 to Nigeria. Watch him after those games, like no big deal. How disrespectful?? How disrespectful to the Albiceleste?? And people still defend him and want those of us who are totally furious to go watch another sport??? Please. Sampaoli was, is, not up to the job and I for once hope he is gone. Let him go back to show his brilliance with Chile, The Moon or Pluto and let Argentina move forward without his toxic presence.

    • O my friend you dont know nothing about football. Sampaoli maybe good for chile or Valencia but for Argentina he is nothing. You understand what is Argentina correct Argentina is 2 times world champions 2 times finalist ARGENTINA is copa america multi winning team the rivals of Brazil and Germany your understand that. The country of Maradona Batistuta Caniggia Pasarela Kempes Ardilles Di Stefano Messi Redondo Omar Sivori and many many others. If you think ARGENTINA dont have and will never have talented players and only messi is Argentina you dont know nothing about football. I am not Argentinean but i love this team for the players the passion the blood runs football. If you show this WC you show the crowd of Argentina that is and always be the best ever. Sampaoli is very little to coach Argentina.

  43. France vs Croatia final

    The two games we lost was against finalist…
    Iceland draw…bcoz penalty miss ..
    Too much ????
    Sampaoli not very bad… ?????

    • samp had 15 different lineups in 15 games. he rolls with Lo Celso for all friendlies and then inexplicably does not play him one minute in the WC. This after an opening match against a team that will play 11 players in their own final third. He uses a double pivot – again, after he has not done so leading up to the WC – for no purpose, with result of arg passing the ball backwards all game.

      He then completely panics for Croatia game and starts 3 defenders for high press; a formation that has not worked for him since he’s been with the NT. we get embarrassed 3-0 in the WC. not sure i remember a WC where we got beaten by three goals. forgot to mention he starts Caballero who hadn’t sniffed a minute for his club team and showed shakiness against Spain and especially Iceland (should have done better on that Iceland cross that lead to the goal).

      Nigeria game, he leaves out Aguero. the only goalscorer at that time. possibly as retribution for the interview. anyhow, when we need a goal, he brings in Meza. we have a world class player in Dybala sitting on the bench, yet Meza gets the call. a little luck by Rojo and we escape catastrophe.

      France game. A new formation again, this time playing without a #9. We have Aguero on the bench. Higuain on the bench. Can you imagine another team that does not start a striker of those quality in a knockout game? Start a unused formation his entire time in charge in a knock out game? Come on. He has to go.

        • No need, it happens, because you already made excellent points. Every single game at the World Cup this stupid coach had at the very least 60%, some would even say 100%, of The blame. You showed it, I’ve done so, all sain, rational, fans have done the same thing. The game against France was mystifying, in addition to be horrifying. I mean Argentina was riding high, fans and players alike, there was a sense of a new beginning. Commentators that didn’t like, didn’t give, Argentina a chance were saying that this new found, reborn, team could wreak havoc. Then this maniac went on sabotaging us from the get go, from the beginning. Starting the game with both Higuain and Aguero on the bench was suicidal. What a moron!!

  45. I can’t wait to see that guy leaving. No leadership, no personality, no tactics. No one will have respect for him there is no need to keep him. The yongest players like Locelso, Dybala, Parades won’t trust him while the old ones won’t respect him. Either way he needs to go. Give it to a new and energetic coach. I won’t might to see Almeyda or Gallardo. PLEASE SAMPA GET THE FUCK OUT THE HERE…..

    • WHy the old ones won’t respect him?

      Because they have not own self-respect. They lost too much and the atmosphere is declining, just decadent. This degrengolade and downfall will not end until the lost generation will not go. What do you think? Di Maria, Banega, Aguero, Rojo, Otamendi and others will suddenly start to play better and better after 30. Where from they will get the passion being sated in clubs career, having a lot of money and so on?

        • Who is Levandovsky for me?

          you should not comment about after your great predictions:

          “Argentina-Columbia 3:0, Columbia-Argentina 0:1, if finally the right players’ll play how they can ARG will beat not even Nigeria, France too”.

          Do you want just once again tell us we should go for Copa 2019 again with the oldies?! Come on! Do it! Say that you were saying for 2-3 years. Will they again guarantee of good result in 2019 as in this year? Come on I need the comment to record.

          • So you would approve failure with a younger generation rather than failure with an “older generation”?

            That “older generation” went to three finals! Unfortunately couldn’t win those finals, but name another country that has been able to consequently knock out its completion on the way?
            Not even Germany have been able to do that, getting knocked out by France in the Semi in Euro 2016.

            You hatred for the “older generation” is clear, but don’t act like they haven’t done anything for Argentina either.
            Messi, Aguero, Di Maria, Otamendi will never be replaced. Mascherano in his time was irreplaceable, not so much now.

            You put your hope in young players that either are playing in Argentina, or playing for small clubs (ex. Ajax, West Ham, Sporting, etc) or are not even starters in their clubs (ex. Lo Celso-PSG, Lamela-Tottenham)

            Throwing out everything to start fresh before another tournament against the likes of Uruguay, Brazil (At home might I add, we are not Germany), Chile, Peru, Mexico, etc. The youth would fail miserably against those experienced teams, and we would be back here complaining at the coach again.

            Experience + Youth = Success!

            Imagine a company firing all its employees and hiring only interns, that company would fail.
            Be smart!
            The main issues have now retired, Mascherano, Biglia, Higuain will hopefully be gone, I mean Jesus what more do you want?

          • “So you would approve failure with a younger generation rather than failure with an “older generation”?”

            Of course, because failure of old generation lead to nothing while failure of young one may be good lesson for another tournament.

            You say as if the oldies you want still keep with the team reached another final this time. But the fact is they barely reached 1/8! And which of them was so impressive to keep still? Which?

            Aguero did nothing that could be out of reach Icardi or Lautaro. Nothing. Lazy striker off the ball. What did Di Maria? What? When he was good at the WC???? We have many talented wingers. Did you ever seen potentiall of Joaquain Correa? Banega behind his assist against Nigeria??? Just prove he is too weak for opponents lik France. Lo Celso or Paredes may do easy more good things on the pitch because he did nothing apart the assist. Nothing.

            The stagnation we are since years is because of people like you with thier always attitude “it’s not the time”.

            If you think this oldies will competitor for Brazil next year you are wrong anyway.

            “Messi, Aguero, Di Maria, Otamendi will never be replaced”

            You are crazy, men. They win nothing for us and you want to say they will never be replaced. What do you know actually about Argentina potentiall? What the base you’ve said that?

            We are young strikers that already are as good as Aguero. Where from this absurds? Di Maria? The guy and his pitiful effortsis are object of ridicule everytime whan I’m watching Argentina with my friends.They are not fans of Argentina that’s why they see obvious things clear.

            “That “older generation” went to three finals!”

            “Went”. Currently they are not able to reach 1/4 and you still want to keep them. They will only worse.

            I would keep few older players if they will guarantee of lavel that youngsters does not give. But it’s not the case.

          • “Aguero did nothing that could be out of reach Icardi or Lautaro. Nothing. Lazy striker off the ball.”

            Lautaro? Your worst, and laziest striker in the NT history? 😀 A serious football competent with good eyes saw from the first minutes his God-level potential. In Meza the same, but the opposite.

            “Argentina-Columbia 3:0, Columbia-Argentina 0:1, if finally the right players’ll play how they can ARG will beat not even Nigeria, France too”.

            Exactly that happened vs Nigeria. Right players vs France? Where? Without centre forward genius Sampa? Arg only world class players play there, and we start without them 😀 Absolute hilarious, ofc after Aguero came in France defense instantly started to panic, before that sub France centre backs played against hmmm nobody? 70 mins handicap…Imo Deschamps still laughing. then with the Meza sub Sampa showed hes a troll nothing more.

          • And the old Enzo Perez from the local league, he was not enough 4 years back neither. Lo Celso? I always said 34 years old Masche from China will never be the answer, Biglia instead, our best midfield in Sampa era? Vs Italy Paredes (another satan in your mind, ofc completely blindly again like in Lauiaros case, in your psychopathological witch hunties -Biglia-Lo Celso it worked perfectly.

          • “Of course, because failure of old generation lead to nothing while failure of young one may be good lesson for another tournament.”

            Genius!!! Just put your faith in players and if they fail, keep your faith in them, they’ll reward you in the future! Ask Roy Hodgsom and his loyalty to players how that worked, because they were “young”. Along came Southgate and had to clean up his mess, although he didn’t have to do much, it was all thanks to great coaching by Guardiola, Mourinho, Klopp, Pottecchino training those English players.

            Your logic is trust players like Lo Celso? Who has played a lot with Sampaoli and has yet to impress. He’s played every range of team, from very strong (Spain) to very weak (Haiti) and in all he hasn’t done anything. He’s not even a starter for PSG. Lanzini had one good game against Italy, ppl said he should play, but against Haiti was invisible and now he shouldn’t play.

            Difference between banega (and old man in your eyes even tho he just turn 30 like two weeks ago😂) is that his impact in a game is bigger than anything Lo Celso has ever done and probably will do. Modric, Ronaldo, Messi, Iniesta, Marcelo are all 30 or above and they’re doing fine. He won’t improve that much not getting game time.
            Icardi at 26 match all that Aguero has done? He’s got a lot of catching up to do. Win the league twice, something Icardi has yet to do in one of the best leagues in Italy. Aguero was the undisputed premier league golden boot winner, while Icardi has yet to win any personal trophy undisputed. Always being matched by someone else, meaning he’s not the best in Serie A. Then again, it’s Serie A

            Which was impressive to keep? Messi, Banega and Aguero. Throw Otamendi into the mix as well. Those three are responsible for 4 of the 6 goals Argentina scored this World Cup. As a matter of fact, only the “oldies” scored this World Cup. And those oldies put 3 past France, and have been the only team this tournament to have been ahead of France, at least for a while.

            Fazio, Meza, Pavon, Enzo, Mascherano, Biglia, Higuain, Caballero, Armani, Acuna, Salvio had a terrible World Cup. Rojo was doing fine, until he gave away that penalty. Mercado was decent enough I guess, had an assist, did MUCH better than Salvio as RB.

            You need to win, not lose Copa America’s and then hope we suddenly wake up to take on the best teams in the WORLD, not just South America. If we can’t win in the Copa America, much less a World Cup, don’t be naive.

            That’s why this Copa America is crucial!!! We NEED to win it to have ANY hope in the future. That’s why, Banega must play, Aguero, Otamendi, and Messi (maybe not grouostage games but definitely KO rounds). The rest of the pieces then could be filled around them, such as fullbacks and a CB to accompany Otamendi, new DM’s as the Mascherano and Biglia have retired (too little too late), and other positions depending on the formation to fill up. But the base must be there of Messi, Banega, Otamendi and Aguero. Experienced attack at front, with at least one experienced CB leading the other defenders, with an experienced midfielder leading the other midfielders.
            You can’t have ALL new defenders and midfielders as that team would be DESTROYED!!! Give me one example where a brand new team from GK to CF was successful!

            Banega, Otamendi, and Banega can be replaced later, not all of a sudden now. That’s a recipe for disaster! You can’t plan long term to win the World Cup if your not even going to qualify for it.

            Be logical and don’t think with emotions!
            Out: Higuain, Di Maria, Mercado (debatable), Rojo, Enzo, Fazio, Caballero, Armani.
            Keep: Messi, Aguero, Banega, Otamendi (all for now)
            In: Dybala, Lanzini (out due to injury), J. Correa, Paredes, Kranevitter, Martinez, Rulli, Pezzella, Mussacchio, Peruzzi.

          • @Csabalaa

            so again you are Paredes supporter, you chamaeleon? After that what you’ve said about him not long ago that it’s no wonder he can’t even emerge in Russia. How many times you want to change your mind?

            You don’t wanted also Martinez on WC. Your opinions are changeable as crowd opinion. Because you have not any moral spine.

          • @Dontbethatguy

            How do you want taken serious after that comment:

            “I’ve always been saying Meza should start and him at one wing with Di Maria inanither looks pretty good! The only way it would look better is Pavon in place for Di Maria but it looks rather interesting this lineup!”

            You are another of those who want immediate effects if not looking for another one. Consumptionist super market attitude of blase teenagers

          • I will never stop fight against the stupid people that ruined our NT supporting far too long burned players.

          • The only your problem Csabalala and Dontbethatguy is that you can’t admit your generation lost. And now you want only find excuses therfore the far too long turbid and twisted posts. But truth is simple

      • Yes, Gonzalo they will play better. Except Dimaria and higuain, I will keep some of them so that we can include young guns slowly.

        You really think we are going to qualify if we include all youngsters. Common, although you are correct in some extent, we need change but not drastic change.

        We will never qualify only with our youngsters. Jmagine the kind of pressure they will have, I will have a mixif youngsters and slowly sub them. We can definitely start them in friendlies if they click then definitely they should be in starting eleven.

  47. What I LOVE on this site is we don’t even have a manager and people are still posting line ups. Unbelievable stupid. Is this site occupied by 9 year olds?

  49. I dont know if Pekerman would take the job after he received the same treatment in 2006 from AFA. afa forced him to resign citing he is too soft on players then

  50. Whoever comes in has a big job on their hands.
    1) Decide who will be the new starting DM.
    – This will be interesting, as all the great teams have great DM, (BAR-Busquets, RM-Casimiro, Man City-Fernandinho, Man U-Matic, etc). Teams that have great attack but not a great DM struggle (e.g. Arsenal)
    The addition of a good DM will GREATLY improve the squad DRAMATICALLY. Whether it be Paredes, Lo Celso, Kranevitter, or whoever it may be, the team as whole will attack with more freedom knowing they will be secure at the back.
    2) Fullbacks
    – As Guardiola has shown with his drastic change of Man City, full backs are vital to the team, both attacking and Defensively. There are many young fullbacks who can take the spot (Tagliafico, Bustos, Peruzzi, etc) but the position will be difficult to contest, and therefore someone will have to step up and prove to the new coach they are deserving of the position.
    3) Midfield
    – The midfield has been Argentina’s biggest problem. Whoever the new coach may be, has to take care consideration into who will pull the strings in the midfield. We need midfielders who will support the attack, rather than just passing to the offence and waiting to see what happens. Banega is the only midfielder that fulfills that task, but to mark a single midfielder is to easy of a task for the opposing team.
    4) Making Messi and Dybala compatible
    – This in my part should be the major priority. Honestly if the coach fails to fix any of the above, but has Dybala and Messi pulling the strings both up in attack and falling back to help with buid up, that itself would STILL make Argentina a force to be reckoned with. They NEED to play together. Success in these Copa Americas, hopeful Confederations Cup, and the World Cup 2022 rely on it.
    – They also need to play together and that Dybala learn from Messi, so that when Messi’s time with Argentina is up, he can “pass the mantle” onto Dybala.

    Sampaoli cannot accomplish this task IMO. We need a manager who is not afraid to take risks.

    My lineup (if it were my decision) would be as follows, either a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1
    4-3-3
    Romero/Rulli
    Peruzzi-Pezzella-Musacchio-Tagliafico
    Lanzini/Lamela-Paredes/Kranevitter-Lo Celso/Bangea
    Messi/Dybala-Aguero/Martinez-Dybala/J. Correa

    4-2-3-1
    Romero/Rulli
    Peruzzi-Pezzella-Musacchio-Tagliafico
    Paredes/Lo Celso-Kranevitter/Banega
    Messi/Dybala-Dybala/Lamela-Lanzini/J. Correa
    Aguero/Martinez

    Personally, Messi and Dybala would play together in a 4-2-3-1, like they did against Uruguay in their 1-0 over them, where unfortunately Dybala’s game was short lived, as he received a red in his debut (Similar to Messi’s debut, coincidence?)

    But Sampaoli is not the man for the job.
    SAMPAOLI OUT!!!!!

  52. if Sampaoli leaves then Either simeone or pothecino or conte or Garica become Argentina coach although i don’t mind if Sampaoli remains as a coach

      • if he will be mentally and physically strong enough as human then why not.
        Oscar Tabarez is same age and doing very good job with Uruguay.

  55. Shocking that nobody wants this beautiful job, absolutely crazy, Sampaoli doesn’t deserve anything compensation he should compensate all the fans for all the mistakes he made, I just can’t be bothered to write and point them all out as we could be here for a long time writing and reading, I won’t get over these World Cup loses that we had over the past decades, but this last one makes me sad upset sick, idiot Sampaoli

    • The idea of coaching a prestigious team like Argentina is enticing to any coach to be sure but because of the mess that is the AFA it would be crazy to take on such a task that -even in the most ideal situations- is very, VERY stressful.

  56. I said it before, but I hope Antonio Conte can be persuaded to take the job. It is however far from his beloved Turin.

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