Former Argentina coach Alfio Basile comments on team, Lionel Messi, Lionel Scaloni

By
Roy Nemer
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46

Former Argentina national team coach Alfio Basile commented on the current team, Lionel Messi and coach Lionel Scaloni.

Alfio Basile was the last Argentina coach to win a trophy with the national team prior to Lionel Scaloni. Basile won the 1991 and 1993 Copa America’s, in addition to the 1992 Confederations Cup and in 1993 lifted the Artemio Franchi Trophy.

Basile is also the only coach to have ever managed both Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi. Speaking in an interview with Sports Mitre, Basile was asked about Lionel Messi with Argentina and with PSG. Here is what he had to say:

“The problem that Messi has is that at PSG, he is playing on the right and with Argentina he plays everywhere, he makes everyone play and infects them. PSG have a very weak defense and are very messy.

“Of course PSG can lose the Champions League because, for example, they had Messi and Mbappe and the rest of the team are normal players.

“Messi was always a phenomenon, not just now.”

In regards to the Argentina national team:

“We are getting better every time but we have to calm down and not make this any bigger. We have to wait to play the World Cup and with the big European teams.”

Regarding Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni:

“Scaloni doesn’t surprise me, what happened was that I don’t know him because he had never coached. We could not speak good or bad about him. I think he’s doing very well so far and getting better and better. That’s the most important thing.”

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46 Comments

  3. @cox
    I am so overwhelmed by this game and so so happy we won, in fact I feel almost happier than when we last beat Boca. Like usual all of the circumstances against us but River still pull through! Now we have to make sure we don’t lose silly points against average teams (like the typical 1-1 draws), but the next two months are looking so bright

    • my friend last night the game was epic. i am so proud for our guys. i really can t find words to express my emotions. words like proud and happy is look tiny to explain my emotions.

      EL MAS GRANDE SIGUE SIENDO RIVER PLATE
      Y será más grande aun en el mañana
      Por el juego, por las ganas y el orgullo de tener
      Una banda roja que nos cruza el alma

    • Not bad. Playing in his natural position. Almost had an assist to Bryan Gil, but he hit the post.
      The problem is Nuno used entirely the second team against Vitesse. Hotspur second team is very weak. Their striker the 17 years old Dane Scarlett is 100 times worse than Gaich. I mean any 17 year old footballer on the street would be better than him.

      So far Lo Celso does not make the starting 11 of the Spurs as Nuno prefers not to change his winning team. The starter is Tanguy Ndombele. who scored a goal last weekend. Lo Celso is his back up. It does not mean that Lo Celso won’t play at all. His role is similar to Joaquin Correa for Argentina, the most important player among the reserves. Cuti though has won the starting spot.

      • Celso wasn’t playing in his natural position, he was playing, yet again, out of position, this time though it was as a ‘5’ in a double pivot as opposed to a RFW like the previous times, but atleast he played fairly well, which is more than can be said for the rest of the team. Just for once I’d like to see Celso in his natural position, does that bum Nuno actually bother to watch any of Celso’s matches with Argentina?
        I have no doubt that if Celso stays healthy he’ll be a starter because he went through the same problems in his first season with Mourinho but finished the season as Spurs’s best player. The guy is way too talented to be a sub and way too talented for this train-wreck of a club.

        • Yeah Tanguy Ndombele is not that hard to replace. Hotspur has a lot of players that are reserved players or not part of their national teams at all. The likes or Gil, Reguilon, Emerson, Bergwjin are all bench players for their country.

          Ndombele, Dier, Alli, Moura do not even make their national team squad.

          The key players for their national teams are only Son Heung Min, Kane, Hojbjerg, Lloris, Cuti, and Lo Celso. All of these are key players for the Spurs except Lo Celso. Nuno must be insane.

  6. I think Messi is going to be fine at PSG. The team is still learning to play with him but when I saw Neymar-Suarez-Messi at Barca for the first 5 games or so, they looked much worse than the PSG trio believe me. I am sure in a couple of months they will look as deadly as advertised.

    I disagree with Basile saying that PSG defense is bad. Yes they have been playing bad, but individually, they are among the best in the world.

    As for Basile, I am not a big fan of his coaching. He likes to use the best available players, but his tactic is way too offensive. In 1994 when we lost against Romania in the second round, in all Romania goals, we hardly had more than 4-5 people defending. I thank him for giving us 2 Copa America, but I hope Argentina will never have a coach like him coaching us anymore.

  7. Almendra with another MOM performance capped with a wonderful assist. You get to see the results when promising young players are given a stretch of games.
    The same applies to Luis Vasquez. Struggled a bit in his earlier games (under Russo). Now he starts regularly and he is repaying the faith in him. yesterday scored the winner from Almendra assist. His 5th goal. Though he finished poorly early after he created his own chance.
    Right back Weigant, back from loan and playing regularly is doing very very well.
    on the contrary though Medina and Varela, who looked bright early in the season have struggled a bit with the change in management and system.
    Juan Cruz scored yet again. He sure has goals in him.
    Julian Alvarez is strongly rumored to be heading to Leverkusen in January.

    • Any news about velentine barco?? I’ve seen him last 2 or 3 months ago to play in boca…he is really a promising LB for futune NT…

    • I hope not. Schick keeps Alario on the bench. Alvarez should move somewhere else as he won’t get much playing time at Leverkusen.

    • Not true, most of us here rate him very highly, heck I’ve said before that Musso is on par with Dibu and along with Musso those 3 should make up the 3 GK choices for Argentina.
      Mind you Rulli is stepping it up in recent times and seems to be returning to his early Sociedad level. This seems to be a golden era for Argentina when it comes to GKs.

  9. Alfio Basile speaks the truth. He was the one manager that always got player selection correct. It was just a tragic to lose 3-0 in Copa 2007 to the Brazil B team.

    Regarding CR7, I talk crap about him these days due to rivalry with Messi out of fun, but the man has a determination and mental strength every young player should learn from. Fans boo him and he still goes out there and fight on the pitch. Imagine if he was Argentine. He could do 3x worst than Icardi and still go out and play. With that being said, he still holding Man United back as they were playing well at the end of last season with Cavani. I respect the player’s mental toughness, training, and will to win.

    • We have average defenders during those years . The likes of G Milito, Heinze, Colocini, Burdisso, Diaz, Ibarra , etc they’re just average at best. In Confederation cup , we scored 10 goals but conceided 10 goals , in fact we conceided in all 5 games we played in that tournament. The defence has been Argentina achilles heels up till 2011.

      I still think Ayala unfortunate own goal right before HT killed our chance. After Brazil scored, we immediately had 3 shots on target, one which hit the post

        • No, they’re just average at best. Colocini was below average after 2004. Looked at our results. We conceided goal after goal. Do your homework. Conceided a goal in every matches in Confederation cup despite having good manager and great midfielders and great forwards, it showed how incompetent the defence was.

          The 2012-2016 era defenders, reached 3 finals, only conceided a single goal in 360 minutes. That only goal was at 113 minutes against strong German side.

          Now compare it to 2004-2011 lol, conceided 3 goals in 2007 final, 2 goals in 2004 finals, 4 goals in Conf finals, 4 goals in 2010 QF, what a joke.

          • Thats another way of saying Ayala Samuel Zanetti Heinze Demichelis Scaloni Cambiasso they were all jokes because all played from 2004-2010. Its just that Brazil team loved to feast on us and bad luck. Its not possible 2014 defense was better than the one consisted of Zanetti Ayala Samuel Heinze Scaloni and Coloccini. Especially as far I know Coloccini was one of the defenders who was underrated because of being an Argentine.

            G Milito when fit was a starter at Barcelona.

            They might not be great but good for sure

        • Many times, getting call up has nothing to do with quality. Remember he called Rodrigo Palacio and even Scaloni (nothing against Scaloni as a manager), for what? lol

          Zanetti didnt get call up by Pekerman, just sayin.

      • Have to disagree with you there, Gabi Milito was a starter for Barca until his massive injury and when he came back from injury he regained his starter status, hardly what I call average.
        Heinze was ManU player of the season and then was a starter for Real, not what I call average.
        Burdisso was a starter for Inter when Inter was one of the top teams in europe.
        Coloccini was incredible at Newcastle and was voted into the EPL team of the season in 2013 (or 2014 not really sure).
        All the above played at a world class or atleast a high level for certain periods of their careers, which doesn’t mean they’d be necessarily remembered as world class defenders but they certainly weren’t average.

        • Great players in their prime yes, but far from world class.

          Argentina conceided so many goals in tournaments ( including in finals or QF) during those years (2004-2011). Even when we played Brazil in friendlies at the time, they’d always hit us easily on counter and won 3-0 , 2-0. Those guys were just too slow and you just have a feeling once teams like Germany and Brazil hit us on counter, they’re going to score right away.

          So many average players gets a starting place in big clubs . Just look at those overpriced & overhyped English players decade after decade. Brazil’s Anderson started for MU and won CL, but you really think he’s world class player ? Pato started for AC Milan, Diego Ribas started for Juve… doesnt mean anything, they’re all average players.

  11. There has always been doubt about Poch. I have never quite understood what his team does. I have said this during Spurs days too. It never looks like his team can score, then suddenly Son or Kane would score. Not because his team create chances but somehow it happened. Is he just plain lucky? There are some says that his training methods are very modern. Who knows. But I don’t get what the big deal this. I feel he must be fired soon for PSG and Messi to win anything.

    Licha was always brilliant. I don’t know the short complains. He doesn’t lose much headers. The guy should play with Romero.

    Boy I hate Ronaldo keep not doing anything throughout the night and then pop up to keep scoring winners. I have never hated anything more. I guess I have to stop thinking about it and give him some credit about his desire to win. Oh well.

    • Lisandro is between 5’9 and 5’10 I believe. Some people make him out to be diminutive like Maradona or something. He is not that short and even if you consider that to be short his aerial numbers prove that idea wrong. About Ronaldo he does not make Manchester United a better team overall. Yes he scores goals because of his penalty box positioning but he does not necessarily make them a better side, if anything he will end up causing MU to develop a dependency on him. It’s a matter of time before it becomes noticeable. His pressing numbers are extremely low as well

      • People still make a big deal of defenders height? ever watch Roberto Carlos, Cafu, Cannavaro ? in fact, Passarella is only 5’8.

        Rojo or David Luiz heights doesnt makes them better than those guys.

  12. Well said coach, he said what we all have been thinking about Messi and Scaloni…………Messi is not being used properly by Poch but then again he is playing with fire because damn if you do and damn if you don’t.
    PSG is the culprit here simply for the fact that Mbappe WANTS to leave and he will once he’s a free agent for FREE (Messi 2.0) so why are they delaying the inevitable?????
    They got lucky with Messi and all the free agents and are messing it up with this guy.
    Is Kun playing today?

  13. What do you think is the impact of Aimar, Ayala and Samuel in the team? Do they participate in any decision making process? Tactics, formation?

    I think at the very least, they share their own experience with la seleccion and that contributes to the overall harmony in the team and creates a sense of continuity of tradition.

  14. Basile makes a very valid point. Why has Poch confined Messi to the right flank only. He is receiving extremely low number of passes, almost 50% less what he is used to in national team or Barca. Messi is the kind of player that needs to touch the ball every minute when attacking. Messi is a false 9 not a winger. He was able to carry mediocre Barca for last 4 seasons and here Poch and his management team are carrying out their attack mostly from the left flank isolating the most creative player currently playing the game. PSG looks like 2018 Argentina , every attack by opposition almost leads to conceding a goal. They need a proper defensive mid like Kante and play with double pivot like Sabella. May be then Messi Neymar and Mbappe can then unleash their true potential. But so far, Poch with his poor game plan seems like he is digging his own grave!

    • Messi gives more passes in PSG than in NT jersey (cca 45-50 per 90 mins) and quasi the same than in Barca post Guardiola cca 60 passes per 90. Some more 70 in last season, some less only 50-55 under Valverde etc

    • Unless I’m completely mistaken I haven’t noticed Messi play a RW role before this game for PSG, I think this is the first time it has happened and quite possibly the last. We will see what Poch does but I wouldn’t worry too much based on one game just yet

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