The entire Argentina national team arrived to training with the exception of Lucas Martínez Quarta who is yet to travel.
Lionel Messi along with Angel Di Maria and Leandro Paredes were the first three players from Europe to arrive. The three of them flew in Messi’s private jet while Andrada, Armani and Montiel were the firsts to training. Per a report by TyC Sports, the entire team has now arrived with Lucas Martínez Quarta being the exception.
As we reported, Lucas Martínez Quarta is in Italy as he hasn’t yet received clearance to leave the country. Per the report, the Argentina national team coaching staff are optimistic that a solution could be found. While he could miss the first match against Paraguay, should Nicolas Otamendi receive a yellow card against Paraguay, he would miss the match against Peru meaning that Lucas Martínez Quarta would be a must.
Experienced player in central Defence is more important. Using two inexperienced and young central back is too much risky in any team in the world. If u see the whole Big team in the world…99% team are using experienced Central Defender or 1 experienced 1 young.
Unfortunately we do not have any proper Experienced central defender who is technically and defensively solid. Thats why Otamendi is the only option for scaloni…
I still blv using two young central back is not a solution.its too much risky…
Anyway my favourite option is….Otamendi and C. Romero for next 2 yrs. But in Romero case… We have to wait and Trust Scaloni, Ayala, Samuel. Vamos argentina
Sticking with Otamendi for 2 years i think it is too much much time. We better replace him in after next Copa.
Looking forward to see Nico Gonzalez.
I hope he will get some mins.
There would be an interesting competition between palacios and lo celso.
And I m really worried about defence, we all think C. Romero has done enough to get a senior call.
I have to say it’s strange how Scaloni is so ardent about ignoring Benitez, Buendia, C.Romero and (until just now) Licha Martinez. Now for the former 2 I can kind of understand because for the first time in a long time Argentina has a solid list of GKs to choose from while Buendia is an attacking midfielder and Argentina has so many of those (Ocampos, N.Gonzalez, Papu, Angel, J correa), however when it comes to legit defenders the list isn’t all that big.
Balerdi got called up last year despite not playing at all while Madina got called up after playing only a handful of games in league 1. Licha and Romero have been proving themselves for a while now in the CL (Licha) and serie A (Romero) and only Licha gets called up and only due to desperation. Now I am all for calling up youngsters like Madina, Perez and Balerdi to give them confidence but it doesn’t make sense to call them up over players like Romero and Licha who are also very young but far more experienced in europe, so strange.
U-20 link up. Balerdi, Medina and Nehuen Perez all played for youth teams, other defenders you mentioned did not.
Also Lisandro Martinez has played one game for Argentina. It was against Venezuela which resulted in 3-1 loss. Foyth-Mercado-Martinez backline was terrible and both Mercado and Martinez was axed during next callups. Scaloni must have this in mind. Also Lisandro Martinez isn’t starting regularly for Ajax this season. Weird, he only starts in CL games.
Romero will get his call eventually. A bit more consistent, he will be too good to ignore.
Some players are just highly rated by Scaloni : Palacios, Nico Gonzalez, Balerdi, Medina and Perez. They will get preferential treatment from him.
C Romero has played in Batista U23 teams. I remember he had also scored a goal. Licha was called in as captain of U23 in the U23 friendly that got cancelled before Covid.
Also the Venezuela game was Scaloni’s experimental stage & his first game with Messi back. We had a bad 3man defense formation . Infact Licha just played first half & both goals in first half had nothing to with Licha. While he was raw then ( pre Ajax days ) , Mercado & Foyth fumbled even more.
While i would love to see Medina or Licha play this time , sensing Scaloni’s conservativism i will keep my minimum wish that atleast Emiliano Martinez gets his debut. I dont see an easier game to bring on Emi . After this window , our next matches are uruguay, Brazil , Colombia & Chile. So if we dont integrate him now , he for sure misses Copa & the storyline then will be that there is very little time for WC & hence we shld continue with Armani.
On CB – for sure Scaloni will just play Otamendi – Kannemann & maybe one of them with LMQ for Peru effectively making it a missed opportunity to give Romero a look in.
Actually Balerdi didn’t play in the u23/olympic qualifiers because Broussia didn’t release him, yet they stupidly kept him on the bench. Balerdi also didn’t play in the U20 world cup so I’d hardly call it an u20 link up.
Excluding Licha because of the Venezuela game would be a poor excuse at best since Paredes, De Paul et al played bad as well. Come to think of it even Lio was terrible in that game as well and all thanks to Scaloni’s endless changing of formations and tactics. As you said Licha is hardly starting in the dutch league but starts in the CL where it counts, so to exclude him from the squad because he’s not playing the easy dutch league games would also be silly especially since last season he played the most matches out of all the players in the Ajax team and he still didn’t get a look in.
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“Some players are just highly rated by Scaloni : Palacios, Nico Gonzalez, Balerdi, Medina and Perez. They will get preferential treatment from him.”
Being highly rated and favored is all fine and well but to ignore C.Romero and Licha is completely illogical and that’s what I’m saying.
foyth is the best cb right now for Argentina he can even play as rb and certainly is better than montiel in that position so if he’s fit he should be a regular at any of those two positions. I agree with you that c. romero should now be a starting member of the squad and I’m sure sooner or later it will happen but balerdi is also very good but I’m not sure l. Martinez is at that level yet
Mafiaso…100% agreed.
I think Balerdi, Medina, Perez, Nico…they are in Olympic radar. Afa would be serious about next yr Copa and Olympic. Thats why Management take care Both of them very closely. And i am sure Both 4 would not be selected on Copa 2021 team.
I also wonder about C.Romero. I guess Ayala and Samuel see some flaws that may not be obvious to us. Or they are just wrong.
He will be called soon or later for sure. Ayala and Samuel must have noticed him but maybe they are looking something else what we do not know yet. Maybe he is not fall in their plan yet but never say never. Romero,Ballerdi,Foyth, LMQ,Perez,Medina,Sensei,Martinez all for sure will rule national team sooner or later. Scaloni & Co going in to right direction. Remember those days when we used to shake our head because our coaching staff didn’t even give chances to young CB now look at us…we have got bunch of em. Pezzella should have been in the NT long time ago. Like now Pezzella should have been in Otamendi place as senior member for experience. I like the new process. And I am confident all will fall into place soon
Agreed mmh…
Only Messi, Di Maria, Aguero and Otamendi deserves Copa roaster. If Armani is starting Argentina not going to win any tournament. I want goalkeeper like Emi Martinez he also helps in build up. Emi Martinez is a complete go keeper you can not deny the fact he deserves the starting spot more than anyone in the pitch.
Scaloni needs to take bold decisions.
Agreed…@kavi
Hopefully Cristian Romero is selected to replace Quarta martinez if he is not available for WC Qualifiers and Paraguay match is the best scenario to test new GK like Emiliano Martinez and Two new CBs in starting eleven like Nehuen Perez, Balerdi, Medina and if possible Romero too since it is a home match not an away match like Peru. No offence to Armani he is a decent GK but Emiliano Martinez is younger and plays in Europe and had good performance against top EPL sides like Arsenal, Liverpool etc. I also trust in Lionel Scaloni because he did what Argentina NT didn’t do for last 15 years i.e. winning at la Paz so whichever players he selects we fans need to support him.Hopefully Argentina NT qualifies soon for WC 2022 because once Argentina NT qualifies then remaining matches in WC Qualifiers could be utilised by Argentina NT for testing more new players as a way to prepare for WC 2022.
Cristian Romero >>> Balerdi / nehuen perez
A must inclusion. Best CB right now.
Scaloni must be feeling the heat of the fans, he must be feeling how badly fans want to see Christian Romero in NT and it’s sure cause Romero has done more than enough to prove how crucial, ruthless and effective he can be. With LMQ in huge doubt over his appearance, this seems that Scaloni might finally push that button and call Romero to pack his bags.
He shouldn’t wait anymore, instead he rather call up Romero before time run out. Cause we have no guarantee on otamendi’s performance in the first match, he can pick a yellow or a red. And if that happens we will have no solid defender left except balerdi and Nehuen Perez who have just started to get possible regular spot. So before anything worse happens Scaloni better push the button and call him up.
It’s now or never.
Everything getting harder and harder. This is really confusing how everyone else got permission but not LMQ.
Fiorentina is blocking his move.
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