Exequiel Palacios injured, will miss Copa America for Argentina

By
Roy Nemer
-
61

Exequiel Palacios has suffered an injury and will miss the Copa America for Argentina.

That’s two Argentine players for Bayer Levenkusen who will miss next month’s Copa America. In addition to Lucas Alario, Leverkusen reported earlier that Palacios has suffered an injury and will be out for eight weeks.

Palacios was getting called-up to the Argentina squad and was expected to be one of the names who makes the final cut of 23 players. A muscle injury in the area of his right adductor, he will not require surgery but will miss the rest of the season.

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61 Comments

  1. Arsenal is also scouting Romero. Actually I am not really excited about Romero to Man UTD. Argentines in UTD never did well. Veron, Tevez, Di Maria were stars/super stars. Rojo was one of the best defenders of wc 2014. Did not work. Sergio Romero performed brilliantly as second choice goalkeeper but has been treated poorly. Only Heinze did well for one season, then it fell out.

    Other South American stars like Forlan and Falcao failed there too. But soon after leaving UTD, they found themselves again.

    I think Man UTD is too English/European to work for Argentine players. They tolerate their underperforming EU players but vilify SA players.

    • Totally agree. I am not a big fan of our players going to Utd either. Tevez had couple of terrific loan seasons at ManU and Heinze rose to be a captain. Other than that they all had both personal and professional problems.

      Better to stay in Italy. Spain is in a decline right now. EPL would be good and competitive, but not ManU

  2. Anyone following Bundesliga ? When is Nico g expected to be back & any update on his fitness recovery ? Even today’s Stuggart game he is not in substitute bench

  3. Can C. Romero and G. Rodriguez play as CB pair, in Barça even Frankie de jong played as CB. DM many times plays as CB

  5. So much negative comment about Argentina coaching staff.I am quite assured that Emi Martinez and C. Romero will be in the squad and Emi Martinez going to be starter. I also hope to see Emi Buendia in the list. Lionel Scaloni is very wise coach Argentina team is looking good in paper.

  6. Btw the situation in Columbia is not the brighest, neirly civil war conditions, demonstrations against Ivan Duque goverment, the Amercia Cali-Atletico Mineira Libertadores match had to interrupt 5 times+COVID+Conmebol…

  7. If no more injuries Scaloni list will be neirly 100%: Armani, Musso, (Marchesin, Emiliano Martinez, Andrada)—Tagliafico, Acuna (as a back up LB and back up LMF), Otamendi, Pezzella, LMQ, Cristian Romero, Montiel, Foyth—Lo Celso, Paredes, De Paul, Guido Rodriguez, Papu Gomez, Di Maria—Messi, Lautaro, Ocampos, Dybala, Aguero, Nico Gonzalez. Joaquin Correa as 24th player if somebody will be out in attack. Acuna and Foyth are utility players in several positions so Scaloni will select only 7 defenders (Acuna 8th), and 4 real midfielders (Acuna 5th, Papu/Di Maria 6th), and 7 attackers (Di Maria/Papu 7th). Worst case scenario even no Cristian Romero with Foyth as his 4th CB and second RB. Scaloni is really stubborn to do this. Last option his favourite Roberto Pereyra instead of Papu, Scaloni will not dare to miss Di Maria, so the 2nd midfield line Acuna—Guido Rodriguez—Pereyra.

    • So the team will be neirly the same as in Copa 2019. His dream selections deep in his heart would be Marchesin/Andrada, Pereyra and would say no to Cristian Romero.Tipical Scaloni.

      • Loved the comment.

        Nothing has changed regarding Argentina football’s negative aspects.

        Would Enzo Perez be included in France, Germany or Spain’s top 50 selections?

        What did we learn from 2018 wc? For any top footballing nation, it would be end of Otamendi for his stupidity in France match alone.

        The way local clubs and CONMEBOL bully AFA is so painful to watch.

        I agree with Scaloni’s one comment. Argentina is no obligation to win Copa America given all the problems. But Scaloni himself is part of the problem.

        • I am 100% with you on Otamendi. Which senior player in the world would kick the ball at opponent player`s head in the additional time when your team is 1 goal behind. it’s not the behavior. we should just move on with other players.

          • Otamendi is our co-captain to Messi….and a man that is feared by opponents. We have a lot of pussies on the team that opponents punk so otamendi is a must. Nico stands up for them and should be paired with C. Romero as CB

          • Pussies? THIS Argentine team? No way!
            Lautaro, Ocampos, Paredes, De Paul, Celso, Nico Tag, Acuna….. Come on Tony, you can say alot of things about this lot but “pussies” is the one word I wouldn’t use.

  8. Scaloni really deserves the credit for searching N. Gonzalez and De Paul for Argentina. These two are most important player for Argentina in near future.

  9. Palacios is an important part, a loss for the team. Hopefully De Paul, Parades, Lo Celso, Papu Gomez and Lamela will be fine and in top form

  10. I don’t understand why ppl here keep on saying Lo Celso top player, 1st choice, have you guys ever watched a single game of Lo Celso with his club this year? even his team mates didn’t even pass him the ball when he plays, I have feeling that many of you say things just based on the rating of some websites. The guy played as 8 or double 6 during the entire season and he cannot be good in this position.

    • *unabashedly putting up my hand* that would be me canadien, alot of people here rate Celso but I am the only one who called him a top player and I make no apologies for it.
      Have I watched him this season? Yup, I watched every single match of his and while I agree that he has been subpar I won’t change my opinion that he’s total class.
      I said this before several times, you can’t get an attack minded CM and play him as a no.5 in a double pivot, you won’t get satisfying results, not to mention that Spurs as a team are a disjointed mess and have been for most of the season.

      Now regarding the topic at hand, our Argentinian boys need to get their injuries under control, honestly Celso, Nico G and now Palacios. In Palacios’s case this is sadly par the course, his fibular injury stopped him from going to Real Madrid (maybe it was a blessing), then he got injured before the last copa and missed out and now he’s gonna miss this copa, the kid is either really unlucky with the NT or he’s not taking care of himself.

      Palacios’s loss is a big loss for the albicelestes because he would’ve been an important backup (maybe even competitor) to Celso.
      As it stands right now and barring injuries this is Argentina’s most likely starting midfield:

      ——Celso————Paredes————-Rodrigo DP– I call them CPR

      The back up midfield would be:

      ——Papu————-Guido———————?——

      So now the question is who replaces Palacios?

      – Nico Dominguez? Out with a collateral ligament injury that usually take up to 5 or 6 weeks to heal (speaking from medical experience), this was 3 weeks go so he may just make it in time for copa but he will be out of match fitness and considering how intense Argentina’s match schedule will be next month I fear that he may not be up to it.

      – Roberto Pereyra? In his defense he has been doing fairly well in Italy but we’ve all seen him with the NT and his performances left alot to be desired, so I say Nay.

      – Emi Buendia? Well he definitely should be in the NT anyways, but the question is can he play CM? Logic says yes considering his incredible ball skill, vision, passing and defensive discipline but we’re talking about a player who is naturally an enganché but spends his time mostly playing as a winger.

      – Alexis? Good player but hasn’t impressed enough in England to get a call up to copa not to mention that CM isn’t his natural position even though he has played there several times before.

      – Martinez Quarta? The kid has the ball skill and passing/vision to make a very solid CM, but then again I said the same about Foyth and was proven somewhat wrong.

      – ‘Local’ (as in SA not Argentina) players such as Nacho Fernandez and Zaracho are options but personally I haven’t been keeping up with either of them in Brazil, does anyone know how they’re doing in yellow shirt land?

      – Actual local (from the primera) players such as Boca’s Almendra, C.Madina or Varela are an ‘outside the box thinking’ type players. Those 3 have been fairly impressive for Boca in recent times but Medina and Varela in particular are maybe a tad bit young (18 and 19yrs respectively) and all 3 and Boca in general have been fairly poor this last month in particular, so not sure.

      What do you all think? I’m really interested to know your opinion regarding this.

      • I watched some of Lo Celso’s games at the beginning of the season and he was good but recently I don’t know. Midfield is the most fixed of our positions and we’ve seen how good Lo Celso can be with the albiceleste shirt. He is in fact one of my favorite players. I beg to ask — if not Lo Celso who? Palacios is injured and I am not sue Papu can play the same role in the same way (maybe that is up for debate). I have not watched Nacho but based on goal and assist return he seems to be in great form at Mineiro. His last assist for Hulk for instance was a perfect cross. Nonetheless the idea of having so many injuries that we have to play him scares me, hopefully he serves as an unused back up and everyone else stays fit.

        • Lo Celso seldom shoots from distance. He’s good at snatching the ball from the opponent and driving forward not like as often as whenever he wishes to but only when he thinks he’s capable of pulling it off – may be once or twice per match. But can he make the difference, yes of course! Palacios is more of an ambipedal whereas one’d have rarely seen Lo Celso using his right foot ever. This could potentially cripple us in one or two dimensions of the game.

          But again, there’s definitely one or two extra things that Lo Celso would bring into the system. Let us hope Scaloni gets things right. At times, I dream of playing Ocampos instead of Lo Celso at LCM with Acuna at LB which might not prove to be an ideal case for a balanced 11, but since it costs nothing to dream…

          About Buendia, well honestly I don’t think it’s technically possible to consider anyone outside the already submitted 50 names now. If yes, we do have plenty of options in Nacho, Palavecino, Miranda, Galoppo, Almendra, etc.

      • Great write up as always Mamoun. I am also not worried about Lo Celso’s current club form. Even in the last WCQ where he played – he really lit up the midfield. But jus hoping we dont have any injuries & suspensions during Copa for our ‘ CPR ‘ I tend to think Scaloni will choose between Pererya or Lamela . In the two i would prefer Lamela ( if fit ) as he seems always a good sub & can virtually fit in any role ( AM / CM ) . While Pererya also can do that , as you rightly said he has always been off-color in NT . Out of the box – i wld think Licha as he last season functioned as a DM & he can give defensive cover up for CBs also. But my vote is for Nacho Fernandez . I think even at 31 he can pack a punch as a sub midfielder in a South American knockout tournament . Btw he has settled well at Mineiro

      • wow many young players that you mentioned I didn’t even heard of. I just don’t think.you can have Lo Celso as one of double 6 and if you play Paredes, you need a defensive player next to him in order to release him space and to press the opponents. I think using a CB for that temporarily can work over 1 or 2 matches but not the solution for a competition. As of now, I only see Guido + Paredes as the only solution but not perfect coz they play in the same zone. Guido seldom quit his zone to press. Apart from Palacios, the player with the most relevant profile is Nico Dominguez as you mentioned but I haven’t found him good and now he’s injured so make it even more uncertain. But maybe there are some local players that I don’t know can do the job. let’s hope. you need a high volume player who can press , that’s how Paredes performed well with psg.

      • that kind of comments has just no sense, the players recent performance with the club will reflect his future performance for competition. btw why not having 4 strikers and 4 midfielders and only 2 defenders?

    • That doesn’t change the fact he is still our best midfielder, yes he seldomly shoot from the distance but I think that’s a good thing, we already have de Paul and Paredes who can shoot from the distance. But what I like about lo celso is his willingness to win the ball plus his movements, this guy always looks for a ball and he has some vision. When he is on the field balls move faster in the midfield and gaps appear in the field. And not to mention his involvement in the final third unlike de paul(1 goal and 1 assist in Copa America 2019 despite playing very less) and 2 assists(should have been 3 if messi’s goal had not been ruled out) in only 2 wc qualifiers matches.

    • Lo Celso is having a difficult time at Spurs as the entire team but when he playing at his level, he is a very good player. Too many changes affect his game. When you say that the teammates don’t pass him the ball just look when he has the ball. Oftentimes he has the ball he creates something dangerous for the opponent. Go back and watch the last games that he played for The NT…..

  11. Is Buendia capable of playing in left midfield? He is utilized a lot as a Right winger in a 4-2-3-1 at Norwich and even going back to Cultural Leonesa. He seems to play a bit more attacking and like a winger than any center mid we may use in our formations (like lo celso)

    • Totally agree olive. Buendia actually will be a messi position. Attacking right winger who cuts in. He has not shown that he can click deeper in midfield in a 4-3-3. Considering we already have messi & dimaria in right wing, buendia missing scaloni squad is understandable. Buendia will be perfect as a right winger for batista who prefers a 4-2-3-1. ( like norwich).While pererya or lamela may benefit from palacios injury, i think scaloni shld give nacho fernandez a chance. His experience & good form can be helpful for a CM sub role.

      • When Emi Buendai plays in Norwich he plays all over the pitch. He can easily play in as Left Central Midfielder. Do not make a conclusion without giving anyone a single chance.

        • Kevin-He plays all over the pitch in Norwich because he is given a decent amount of freedom (proven by his heatmap), so like Amit said a Messi position. That being said it is not guaranteed he will do well in a fixed, controlled position like CM. With the NT he will not be given that freedom unless he is in his preferred position and role in place of others

        • Kevin, playing all over pitch is Messi’s rightful birthright in NT. Other have to stick to formations – else we will be like 2010 vs Germany. Also WCQ/ Copa is not the stage to give chances for an unproven role. We have Papu for an attacking midfield option . We need someone who can play central midfield /deep lying with a good passing range. Doesn’t make any sense to experiment when we have other options.

          • When Messi drops deep in Barca,Barca level goes down. Messi is most effective upfront and it is for sure. De Paul and Emi Buendia are good chance creator so they should play along. Emi Buendai has close ball control, vision for pass, good tackler, good work rate what else is needed for Central Midfield or Attacking Midfield. Emi Buendai is not injury prone like Lo celso and Palacios.No doubt Lo celso is great player in his day he is the best but Buendia also deserving candidate.

          • Should Buendia be in team -100% yes is my view . He deserves to be in the 23 for what he has done with Norwich in last 3 seasons .
            Should Buendia come in as a CM – 100% no is my view . We have ready options in CM role & this is not a FIFA video game where any high rated player can be put in any position .
            Other than RB – we dont need to even think of doing out of the box experiments in a key tournament.

    • I really don’t understand all the enthusiasm for a player in 2nd division….. He is a young player why don’t we wait to see him again in PL. BTW he played for Spain already….

      • Gromoso, I beg for you to read his stats in the championship and even in the Pl last season. Also watch some highlights or a game of his. He is really an impressive player

  12. What a shame… He is an important Lo Celso sub. They have both been very unlucky with injuries the past 1-2 seasons. De Paul’s sub Dominguez also injured.. Buendia would make the perfect sub for De Paul but I think he is planned for Olympics instead before being integrated to senior squad. Perhaps Pereyra/Papu Gomez/Mac Allister will take the spots

    Scaloni quote:
    WE CALL-UP PLAYERS WE BELIEVE IN AND IF A PLAYER DESERVES TO BE IN THE ARGENTINA NATIONAL TEAM, WE CALL HIM UP.

    There are very many people here with the apparent ability to see the future. Freaking out over a list that hasn’t been released yet. “10000% Scaloni will do this, i guarantee you Scaloni won’t do that, this player and this player are the best but Scaloni will never call up bla bla bla”

    Here is reality: you don’t know what the coach will do. Patience for a couple of days. See the list, then patience until the games start. Like the coach said, they will call up players they believe in that deserve to be in the squad. If they exclude several of our top performing players, they prove that their squad selection skills are poor. But no need to freak out about it now before having seen the list.

    I personally believe that Emi Martínez, Cristian Romero and maybe Lisandro or Senesi will get called up and get playing minutes in the upcoming 6 matches. We don’t need both Otamendi and Pezzella. One is enough to have an experienced defender with leadership capabilities, and in that case I would take Otamendi. The younger defenders can learn from him. A central defense of Romero – Lisandro/Senesi (Otamendi – Quarta subs) would make me very happy

    • you believe that exist possibility after list will revealed that certain amount of people here will not start crying here because of one or other player will be out?
      it is more than sure. they are crying even now with the list of 50 !!!
      even if the list was 70 i am more than sure that again they will cry for someone else.
      i am not saying names because everybody is free here to say their opinion.
      it is welcome. just i feel sad because i see that a lot of fans here have poor knowledge about football. this make difficult to have productive conversation.

    • A bigger problem than selection is injuries. May we pray there are no more. I am starting to think it is impossible for Scaloni to ignore the controversial players so there is no reason to worry about it for now. I just hope he stays true to his word. Something to mention is everyone has forgotten about Senesi who was one of these controversial players that people complained about being excluded. I am very happy to see he was included in the list of 50 and I guess Amit (who I believe said this) was right that Senesi being excluded from the Japan games meant he was going to be called up to Copa

  14. Guys , who here knows websites where you can watch football live matches like Livetv.sx for the Argentina matches later on in June .

    Thanks .

  17. What else is new? This is so typical…ugh!

    Pray that Lo Celso stays fit…I guess Pereyra, Mac Allister, Zaracho (?), Papu Gomez (as a central mid) will be in contention now…

    • I am thinking if it is a sub role, nacho fernandez can also be a possibility. He has been on a good run for some time. Pererya, papu( who will anyway make it) will be more advanced roles

  18. This is a massive blow for us. Palacios is such a key player for Scaloni. If fully fit Scalonis midfield trio is Paredes-De Paul -Palacios. He is even favoured over Lo Celso.Lo Celso will have to step up now. There is no Palacios, No Nico domeniguez who could have somewhat replaced Palacios.Nico Gonzalez, Ocampos and Palcios are literally Scalonis favourite starters.

    I have a gut feeling either Enzo Perez or Pereyra will make the cut now. Well as much as both r gud players but their prime time is gone. I dont know. This injury leaves a huge hole in our midfiled and our chances. Palacios is one of our few players who not always look to pass to Messi only(That adds a new dimention in our midfiled now thats gone)

    • Lo Celso seems to be chopped liver to a lot of fans. Palacios was chosen over him in the starting lineup in one of the WCQ, and after Palacios got injured, Lo Celso came in and was the best player on the pitch.

      The only knock on Lo Celso is that he is injured a lot

    • Starter or not, Palacios is a huge blow. We rest our hopes on Lo Celso’s fitness. Lets play nothing happens. When it comes to subs Palacios is very important. I remember Lo Celso’s form in the WCQ and he should be undisputed starter but still this is very bad

      • He injured 2 times as i remember in River.
        in 2019 it was bad for him. we missed him from February till April and after that he return again he injured and we missed him for one more month.
        this is what i remember.

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