Lionel Messi and Lautaro Martinez are set to start for Argentina, after Lautaro missed their 0-0 draw vs. Paraguay due to muscle fatigue.
Messi is reportedly carrying a slight knock in his left foot. According to TyC Sports and TNT, he has been carrying the knock for some time. However, those who played against Paraguay did exercises in the gym on Friday and Lionel Messi was one of them. He is expected to start against Uruguay on Sunday.
Lautaro Martinez has been the undisputed striker for Argentina but coach Lionel Scaloni left him out of the squad for the last match as he was not fully fit. Lautaro was back in training on Friday as he trained with those who did not play in Thursday’s World Cup qualifier.
Martinez is set to start and Scaloni does appear to have one doubt. Marcos Acuña was substituted out for Nicolas Tagliafico in the second half of the last match and that is what Scaloni is reportedly contemplating. It would be one of Acuña or Tagliafico starting against Uruguay on Sunday. According to several reports out of Argentina, this is the rumored eleven:
Emiliano Martínez; Montiel, Romero, Otamendi, Acuña or Nicolás Tagliafico; De Paul, Paredes, Lo Celso; Di María, Lautaro Martínez and Lionel Messi
Best fit team should play against Uruguay who would be a more difficult opponent (traditionally) compared to Peru. Nico had been scoring for the team though he missed lotta chances. He should be in the starting XI. Di Maria is not in the best of his form. A Correa should start. Against Paraguay, Di Maria’s only contribution was a set piece for J Correa who headed it straight and a defender cleared the ball. If Nico is not given a chance, J Correa should be given another chance. He is young, enthusiastic and chases defenders better than Lautaro. If Acuna is injured, it should be Tagliafico. Montiel is a better choice. In the last match Molina was not good in either defence or offence.
That was an open play cross plus the through ball in the first half left Correa one on one with the keeper and created a third big chance.
Surely i will give j. Correa/Alario to start ahead of martinez we cant risk martinez for injury. I wont even mind alverz getting a chance up front
Why call injured, tired players and expect them to score..absolute naive coaching..
Do some rotation of players…
Problem with Argentine managers is when managing mediocre teams they stick to proper strategy and formations but as soon as they get hired as an Argentina’s coach , they start playing fifa in real life!! All the managers in the past who experimented with new players every next match failed miserably. Both Sampaoli and Maradona had disastrous WC qualifying campaign and the world cup. Scaloni did call some recovering players but he has also given his higher pecking order reserves some time on the pitch. Only after you properly test your reserves you can decide if you need to bring in new players. I really want Scaloni to provide both JCorrea and Alario adequate time on the pitch over the next two matches and also try L.Martinez instead of Pezzella, only then the management will be able to determine if they should stick with J.Correa ,Alario and Pezzella.
In world cup Qualifiers Messi is in 3rd position in scoring goals while he is not in top 10 in providing assists so Argentina needs Icardi, Aguero, Alario kind of player in playing eleven so that they can finish what Messi provides.
Icardi is not likely to be called, Aguero is still in recovery and who knows what will happen later. That leaves us with Alario and Lautaro.
By the way, Scaloni was a right back in his playing days Kavinder, FYI
Scaloni was not a well known player he rarely played even in clubs. Do not act childish.
Finishing touch is missing in Argentina front line only Messi is scoring.J.Correa as number 9 i do not understand. Scaloni is playing like Guardiola’s Man City last season.Old school no. 9 is needed
Kevin aka Kavinder, you can’t even Google things properly, very sloppy boy! And probably too young to have watched Scaloni play.
You said he was a left back, that’s an elementary mistake, just goes to show that nobody should take your opinion seriously.
Ha ha ha elementary mistake. Scaloni will be known more as a coach than a player. Scaloni was not a high profile player even he did not play 100 competive games in European soil. For Argentina in senior level he did not play a single game as starter he was either not in squad or on the bench so does not matter whether he is LB or RB
Kevin, your entire comment is completely uneducated and entirely foolish. Scaloni played 255 games in La Liga, 67 in Serie A, 54 in the champions league and even several premier league matches. I am definitely sure that is far more than the amount of games you’ve watched. Enganche is completely right in calling your logic elementary, apparently a player has to be Cafu or have a high rated fifa card to know about their position if they are a right back. Even if you were to add together the amount of reserve team plus first team players for every level of league in South America and Europe, plus academy players you still get an extraordinarily tiny percentage of the human population, ALL of them know more about their position and football than you, even if they never played professional football or “made it”. But according to you a player who made up to 431 appearances for TOP FLIGHT clubs does not know more than you. Absolutely foolish. I have memory that can go back five months ago, and I hope everyone else does too, because remember when Kevin was constantly asking to put Correa in odd positions? Look what happened. Funny I don’t hear him obsessing much over Correa anymore, wonder what happened
Olive are you drunk which weed are you smoking now days Scaloni played 255 LA Liga match, do you now that means how many seasons. Are you in your sense?
Look at transfermarkt. He was at deportivo la coruña for 8 years, so yes many seasons (including two other Spanish clubs)
What can you expect from a member of the “Mundo Hall of Shame”?
Will through out whatever in his disposal except accepting mistake. Such a character!
@Kevin
I think the person who is high is you mate. Need a hint? Your idiotic and uninformed comments. And the funniest one is nobody gets drunk with smoking weed. It’s called getting high. So, my friend, it seems like you are being high with weed. So, how is it? Must be some high-end premium stuff.
Go at goal. Com I do not think he played 255 La Liga games
200 at Deportivo.
30 at Racing.
28 at Mallorca.
Kevin, please listen even if u are not able to use Google or have not watched Arg play for decades like some members in here, then please don’t even to bother to argue with as your IQ is clearly for some reason at very low level, so please try recover as soon as u can and in the meantime i wish u all the best, but please stop all this nonsense as u clearly dont know u what u are talking about !
There are several members here providing u the facts of Scaloni’s career as i assume u have never seen him play for Arg for example at 2006 at Germany he did had some minutes, maybe most possible with Messi on the pitch at the same time or maybe not, but the fact is that they were both in Germany with a great team of Arg !
Not everyone get’s a chance to play in WC ! As if u are an Arg player unless u are not Messi or someone great from the past as DIEGO, RIP ! Or Riquelme etc…even great Redondo was dropped by Passarella as he did not wish cut his hair so Passarella went to 1998 WC without him, imagine how that felt amongst many supporters of Arg and by great Redondo himself while u are experimenting things in life at general ! LOL ! Btw. Menotti did not pick young DIEGO at 1978 even to be on the bench, which was shame as DIEGO would have been double WC winner by now !
I think Messi needs to stop or not play every World Cup qualifying game.
I remember when teams used to be so good they had B teams that play some of the qualifiers.
Messi needs to rest and be taken off games similar to how Zidane did to Ronaldo when they won 4 UEFA Champions League titles. Zidane told Ronaldo to trust him and they would win. Ronaldo would not play matches before champions league games and he would break a goal-scoring record and score crucial goals in knockouts rounds – he was known to go ghost in the latter games of the champions league.
Messi in 2010 WC got tired vs Germany. In 2014 WC he got tired in latter rounds. If we pay attention during the 2020 Copa, he got tired and even failed to score a 2nd goal vs Brazil when he was one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Messi plays all league games, Champions League, & other league tournaments for 90-minutes games, then plays all Copa games, all qualifiers, Charity matches, etc. This is too much.
Messi needs to respect his body and the manager (like Zidane was) needs to be bold enough to preserve him. Time management is key so that he can score in the latter games of World Cup 2022.
Underrated comment
Yes time passes by as Messi should try adapt to it also as every player has to at certain level so i think u are absolutly right if Arg and Messi want to be on their best at Qatar !
But, i’m not sure if Scaloni has the balls to say it to him as he should also realize this by himself as it would be more better for himself to understand and to TaKe care of his body whivh is Still at very unique form, but time does fly and the season are long as Messi allways want’s to play every single game until the end so Yes this might be an issue to tryfix as soon as possible the better it will be for Arg and also for Messi too !
I am glad Emi Martinez got recognition as one of the best in the world after a lot of morons make their list of top 10 or top 20 best goalie in the world, Emi is nowhere to be found.
Gianluigi Donnarumma
Emiliano Martinez
Ederson
Kasper Schmeichel
Edouard Mendy
Thibaut Courtois
Keylor Navas
Manuel Neuer
Jan Oblak
Samir Handanovic
I think we have as many as 6 players who are at least top 5-10 in the world in their position.
1. Emi Martinez (GK)
2. Cuti Romero (DC)
3. Messi (AM)
4. Di Maria (Winger)
5. De Paul (CM)
6. Lautaro (FW)
Can we please stop with that DiMaria obsession….. He is nowhere close to world class player….. But thanks for the goal then…..!
can we stop the hate please? Lemme remind u Neymar comment when Di Maria did not get called up a year ago:
“Are they all that crazy in Argentina or what?”
I am actually surprise Dimaria at 33 yrs of age is still able to keep up his pace and stamina!!
What? Di Maria is arguably the most world class player born in Argentina that isn’t named Messi! Of course there can be arguments about Aguero and Dybala but at the very very least top four. He is probably one of the most underrated players of this generation worldwide
I always said that. I would still say though ADM sub and Nico starter.
DiMaria is one of the highest assist maker in the world up there with the likes of Xavi. Now tell me if he is not World Class.
I don’t think depaul is among top 5 midfielders now and also lautaro is not top 5 strikers in the world right now. Others i agree. Messi, dimaria, emi martinez, Romero can be world class though Romero still unproven and he need to play at top for 3 years to call him world class even emi because he just broke through and depaul defensively fantastic bt im not seeing much danger attacking wise
I think Messi’s slightly subpar performances (by his own sublime standards) can often be attributed to injury as appears to be the case vs Paraguay.
I hope Lautaro can shake off his knock and be sharp vs Uruguay.
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