Leandro Paredes trains with Argentina team after win in World Cup qualifiers

1. It would be good to see Paredes back to the squad against Brazil. It is going to be tougher than the match against Uruguay and we should learn from the mistakes made against Uruguay. Uruguay chased hard. We do not have anyone upfront who can chase as hard. Nico was the one. He is unfortunately down with Covid. Wish him a speedy recovery. However, he lacked the scoring ability. Joaquin Correa has been a disappointment in several games now. So the likes of Simeone and Alvarez should have been given a chance. Anyway, we are meeting the best South American team and the focus is back to Messi. Can he either contribute in a big way or motivate the team or drag away a whole lot of defenders of Brazil to ensure that Di Maria or Lautaro get more free space.

   • The best south american team is Argentina not Brazil

2. The most inform player for Us is julian alverz the fact that he is 21year old or he is playing in argentina legue all these thing doesnt mean he needs to be on bench always time to give this lad 30 minutes per game at least.
   And papu is a real weapon whenver he comes he adds value i never seen him ghosted as a sub

3. Yeesh, that was a hard watch, but those kind of games happen to every NT and real contenders can go through matches like this one and still come out on top and that’s what Argentina did.
   Dibu and the backline did very well and the no. of clean sheets Argentina has amassed in recent months indicates that this team is tight in the back.
   Maria scored a golazo and Dybala did very well to steal the ball and square it off to fideo but apart from that the midfield and attack were non existent, atleast not until Papu came into the game and things started to (slowly) happen.
   J.Correa wasted 2 very good chances, chances that someone like Icardi could’ve or would’ve done better at, but that’s neither here nor there because I truly doubt that Mauro is in Scaloni’s plans but that doesn’t change the fact that Argentina needs a good backup 9 and Joaquin Correa isn’t it. It was unfortunate that Dybala had to be subbed at half time because he’d be a good back up for Lautaro and if not Dybala then maybe J.Alvarez or Simeone if he keeps his form up.

   I mentioned above that the midfield was non existent with Celso, De Paul and Guido all being a no show, which is very unusual but a huge part of the blame lies with Scaloni. The team’s formation was:

   ———————————Latuaro——————————

   ———–Celso——————Joya——————-Maria——-

   ———————-Guido——————-De paul—————-

   As you can see, Celso, De Paul and Paulo were all playing out of position hence Lautaro was isolated and only Maria was playing in his position and no surprise that only Maria was performing decently in the first half. Honestly Celso at LW? (just as bad as when he was played as RW with no growth Spurs), Depaul as a ‘5’ in a double pivot?? And Dybala played as a 10 several times for the NT and Juve and it never turned out well. What was Scaloni thinking?
   Look Uruguay were playing at home, they were desperate and Tabarez clearly learned his lesson from last month but Scaloni’s line up was all over the place and I hope that, like Tabarez, he will learn his lesson against Brazil or otherwise it will be WCQ 2017 all over again when Argentina lost 3-0 to Brazil at home.
   The last 2 games against Brazil, Scaloni used the following formations:

   —————————-Lautaro————–Messi————————

   ———–Celso————Paredes————–DePaul———–Ocampos/Maria

   Ocampos played in the 1-0 friendly win in late 2019 (I think) and Maria played in the famous 1-0 win in copa. The formation was a tight, compact 4-4-2 where most players were playing in their natural positions, except Maria who was playing midfield but luckily Brazil’s attacking style gave Fideo lots of space to explore, and Argnetina nullified Brazil almost completely. I hope Scaloni goes back to basics in the next game because there was never a need to change in the first place.

   @ddr1123
   Regarding Celso, I don’t know what you mean by ‘cute type player’ but the general term definitely doesn’t apply to Celso. The reason why ‘some’ of us (only some, lots of people here turn on him in a second just like Spurs fans) is because we watch him play regularly and know that, when used properly, Celso is pure class.
   Also saying that he hasn’t established himself during the last 5-6 years indicates that you’ve never really properly followed the guy’s progress.
   5-6 years ago Celso was one of the brightest talents in Argentina, playing regularly with Rosario at the tender age of 20, hence why PSG signed him in the first place.
   4 years ago he came to PSG and managed to become a starter under Emeri and when Tuchel got rid of him the Parisian papers criticized the crap out of the German for letting him go.
   3 years ago, Celso went to Betis and with 16 goals/9 assists and 2 destruction jobs against Real and Barca, Celso was declared by MARCA as the ‘signing of the summer’ ahead of Arthur and Vinicius Jr.
   2 years ago, Celso came to the ‘cul de sac’ we call Tottenham and after struggling at first, he convinced Mourinho and become Spurs’s best player in the absence of Son.
   It’s only last year that things started to turn bad for him due to his thigh injury and COVID stopping him from getting regular football. This season he had a clueless manager like Nuno who played him out of position but lets not forget that Celso kicked ass and took names at copa only 2 weeks prior to the start of this season, which clearly says to me and everyone that a player doesn’t drop form so suddenly unless he’s being handled incorrectly.
   Lo Celso if hella talented, great vision and passing, has an eye for goal and doesn’t neglect his defensive duties. The ‘cute type of player’ you’re referring to applies to someone like Pastore or Riquelme not a fighter like Celso, because if you go back and watch copa 21 you’ll see that it was more MMA/UFC than it was football and a soft player would’ve never survived, let alone thrived in such a tournament like Celso did.

   • To be correct in Copa final, it was more 4-2-3-1 with the ball and without the ball 4-4-2….Paredes LCM De Paul RCM, he player very deep, Messi in the middle, Lo Celso left midfielder or winger, Di Maria played totally on the right side as right winger, from where he scored the goal.

     • On left a more attacking Acuna gives the width, on right Di Maria with a more conservative Montiel behind him.

     • Disagree, it was very much a tight, 2 rows of 4 behind Lautaro and Messi, with Messi having the freedom to roam in the final third of the field i.e. playing a hybrid no.11/10 behind Lautaro. The reason why Scaloni used a 4-4-2 is because it was very effective in the previous friendly match against Brazil and also because he knew that Brazil’s fullbacks were much easier to contain with Acuna-Celso and DePaul-Montiel double teaming them and blunting their effect. De Paul in particular was MVP in that match were he pulled a double duty of feeding the forwards (assisted Maria’s goal and put Messi right in front of goal where Lio should’ve done better) and helping Montiel.

   • I was waiting for your view of the match… You are the one I can trust. Thank you mamoun!

     • Thanks for the kind words Jazz.

4. […] Source link […]

5. It has been a while since I havent wrote on MA. Please guys tell me if Im wrong, but dont you think Licha Martinez could be a better option in Paredes ou Guido’ spot. In my opinion, I think he could play in the midfield in front of Romero and Otamendi

   • Exactly! Lisandro Martinez has played on the 5 position at Ajax and did well. Would be a great positive influence on our midfield.

     And his services are needed as Brazil will want to revenge the copa loss. They can play without pressure having qualified already.

   • Yes, T-Ben this exactly what Arg and Scaloni has to do to improve the play from middfield even more as using Licha as DM/no.5/pivot would be the greatest benefit Arg could have not only having Licha on the field as he can either be Direct replacement for Otamendi or used as DM/no.5/pivot and i think he will do a marvelous job in this position and that way Otamendi can Still keep his place at CB and this move will not only give more space and freedom to breathe for the life’s of De Paul and Lo Celso who won’t need to drop so deep for starting to create the play as using Licha at DM will let them be more close to their natural position and Licha would eventually start the play from back with his accurate and great passing not to even mention his great vision of the game and LoCelso and De Paul in more advance position receiving balls from Licha would give them that xtra very needed time and space to either give the last final pass though balls to Arg players up front or just go for it by themself and try to get more shots on goal !

     As defence wise it will also benefit Arg as Licha can cover for example Otamendi or Cuti if they kind of find themselfs in possible trouble trying to defend more directly by trying cutting the opponents passes by running forwards and capturing the ball before the opponents player can even receive the pass from his team mate trying to pass the ball forward as i prefer CB’s who are able to defend in this fashion, but sometimes accidents does happen and idea of the trying to cut the opponents pass before their player upfront actually receive the ball can sometimes be wrongly timed or just by bad luck somehow the opponent’s player upfront are able to get through and with Licha as DM can surely catch theese situations and read them more better than Guido or Paredes as i see Paredes more as central middfield player and not really as DM and Guido had hard times as did the whole Arg middfield for very long time in fact against Uruguay and it was kind of more than worrying to watch how there were no middfield literally at all against Uruguay who indeed present very hard as was expected so there will be others trying implent the same strategy agains Arg as Uruguay did so well and deffenetly deserved at least a point from that game, though i’m happy that they did not score and Arg won, but not happy to see non existing middfield completly clueless of what to do and how to get passed by Uruguay hard and constant pressing !

     This must be fixed straight away or Arg will end up playing like without nonexisting middfield as we have seen at past and before so many times that it was just horrible to watch players with such a talent not been able to play at all because there was no middfield at all in the past times of BAUZA and Company actually since the days of Riquelme, Cambiasso, Lucho etc. there were no really a proper middfield for Arg until Scaloni came and started to worked with that maybe just ocassionaly under Tata Arg could utilize the capacity of Pastore, Lanzini and Lamela and offcourse Banega himself!

     But it did not last for long and also they could not win with the rest of team against Chile as they should have and also offcourse deserved to win, but luck was not on Arg’s side etc..

     That is why it has been such a joy to watch Arg’s middfield play which been great u til the last Uruguay game were they were completly clueless what to do with Uruguay pressing constantly so hard and that was not a good sign at all !

     So Scaloni has to fix this imeadtly unless Arg might find themselfs suddenly at trouble again specially against teams pressing constantly so hard and there are plenty of teams around the world who are more than capable of doing that !

     So here we go back Licha who for me is the Solution and the ultimate key to unlock Arg’s super middfield to totally new and amazing path that we all have just not even been able dreamed about yet as we have not seen super fluient play from Arg’s middfield only maybe twice as once before Copa against away with Colombia, which lasted only unfortunatly for the first half as things got a bit vompilicated after Dibu and Cuti were suddenly out of the game by injury and Scaloni’s subs went as wrong they would and the whole second half was just completly opposite to the first half were Arg played as superior against their opponent asthey did against Uruguay too with bit of luck perhaps on Arg’s side, but Still dominated Uruguay during most parts of the game!

     So from now on Arg should try play with Licha as DM and with 4 at back and attacking as much as possible by using Molina’s and Acuna’s runs forward and moving the ball with De Paul and Lo Celso and Paredes when fit again having Licha just behind them as DM will give even more time and space for to be able to pass the ball even more quicker than before which offcourse means tnat fullbacks have to ran their ass of as they will have to participate nonstop from end to other end and back again etc…

     I see Molina more than capable of doing this and also Acuna can last allmost the whole game and if not then just sub him to Tagliafigo in the end of game before Acuna has no more to give as he has keftbit all to the pitch as allways !

     So i would go for 4-1-2-2-1 as kind of diamond shape which can be switched to different formation even during the game and not necessarily even needing tomsub anyone off until it is needed and offcourse it will be and Arg must also use the sub’s either at Direct replacments or maybe because of needing to change formations to either more offensive or deffensive towards end of the game, but not too early as it will cost the doninance if that is allowed during the game for Arg then Arg should control the game by having the ball and trying to play with it ti score as many as possible, but against some oppents Arg will be better off to letting the opponent to have mote posession, but not more than 60-40 as higher Numbers of % will be too much dangerous specially if dropping too deep so in this kind of games Arg should try to press with as unit to certain point, but at same time make sure that they do not over fo it as it will lead for more Open places and spaces behinds Arg back or at Arg’s side of the field etc.,, well we will see soon how things will end up, but with no organized middfield at place there is simply no chance of keep on relying to luck as Arg was super lucky to get 3 points from Uruguay which offcourse was the most important,but Still one has to be critical with such a poor performance over all so hopefully it was hustbonly a one game where things went wrong tactically and in the future it will not repeat itSelf !

6. 3 points in the bag and that’s amazing. A giant step towards the WC. What to say about Angel Di Maria’s goal? He is aging like fine wine. At current age he seems to have a better longevity that Messi.

   Now about the game, few thoughts

   1. We were lucky to win 1-0. I get a feeling any good European team would have dumped 4-5 goals even with Emi in the goal. Like, think about Germany. We were really lucky. I am happy we were lucky. Just worried when will this luck run out.

   2. When we won against Uruguay at home, I thought, this is the softest Uruguay side I have ever seen. This time it was more like normal Uruguay.

   3. Emi was great again. He infuses confidence in the team and doubt on opposition strikers. He puts a lot of pressure on strikers to come up with special angle or extra power on their shots, which causes errors.

   4. GLC has super fan following here in mundo. He is a cute type of player. Good skills but cannot impose himself in a tough game. That’s the reason he has not been able to establish himself over last 5-6 years. You have all seen the pic of RDP over Richarlison in copa final. GLC cannot toughen up like that, cannot impose himself over opponents. And no he is not Luka Modric. The day he changes his mindset to “this is f***ing my midfield, I own it”, he will be a top player, else not.

   5. Two players I would really like see getting some playing time are Alvarez and Licha. I wonder, did Scaloni luck out with Romero and Emi? Would he have give them chance over Pezella and Armani, if circumstances didn’t force him to? someone made a similar comment in another thread.

   Anyhow, good the horrible performance is behind us. Let’s put up a show against Brazil. I want a win. That will elevate the confidence to a new level. Predicting a 2-1 win!

   • I agree with all of your points except Lo Celso. Your opinion is shared with several other people on this site, basically I’ve noticed that:
     Lo Celso will play very well for several games in a row, people say that he never plays well
     Lo Celso plays one bad game, people will say he always plays bad

     I don’t really understand why. I mean do you remember his last Uruguay performance? That was only a month ago

     • Sorry my friend you are getting me wrong. I have not saying he is a bad player. He played great in the Uruguay game at home.

       I am merely pointing out a pattern. It’s my observation. He lacks the grit or physical bullishness. He has to add that to his game. Then he can take him to the next level. Else he is going to struggle in games like this one.

       And I won’t agree that he plays many great games and then one poor game. If you take a sample of 10 games, he plays 2 great, 2 bad and 6 decent games.

       Ask yourself a question, if you are not an Argentina fan or if he is from another nation, will you consider a top midfielder?

       • ” He lacks the grit or physical bullishness. He has to add that to his game.”

         I see what you mean now. If he were to adopt that to his style of play (something which De Paul has) it could help our midfield be that much better. Imagine Lo Celso with De Paul’s physical characteristics playing full games for us. Would be an outrageous midfield. I don’t think Lo Celso lacks physicality overall but maybe he could be more bullish as you say. He also has lacked fitness at many times having to leave at the 50th minute.

         Now if I was not an Argentina fan, I would not say he is a top midfielder. The reason for that is I would most likely form my judgment based on his club games, which at the moment do not make him look great. Assuming I would have seen him at the beginning at Tottenham and at Betis, I would probably think he is talented but currently just a run of the mill midfielder. The reason my opinion is different as an Argentina fan is precisely because I have seen him play well with Argentina several times.

         Either way I believe he is very talented based on the glimpse he has shone of world class potential. Not exaggerating. The issue is that he is now 25 and constantly injured at Tottenham, played out of position, not given enough minutes to build match fitness. I could be wrong or misremembering, but I remember hearing about a couple of months ago that he has only ever played 5 full 90’s for them. In short, he needs to leave ASAP.

   • Lo Celso had a poor game and he has to be more consistent for sure, but I think what does not help is that he sometimes being asked to play out of position. Yesterday our formation was 4-3-2-1 and Lo Celso was asked to play left wide midfielder, which he ain’t. Still, he should have done better even in that less than ideal role but I think he is at his best when played as an AMF or no 10, or a number 8 box-to-box central midfield role or even as a second striker, trequartista type of position as he often did in Betis. Playing him wide left or wide right is a bit of a waste in my opinion even if he tucks in. He is not a wide midfielder or a winger.

     • Yes Lo Celso should be used as u said it more centerally than rather in wide position’s specially never on the right, but as u also said it even playing out of posession as left wide middfield player, Yes perhaps he should have done better, but at same time this applys to whole middfield during the game which was completly nonexisting as Uruguay pressed so intense and hard constantly so basicly Arg’s middfield was over runned and also the tactical aproach to the game did not clearly work as Scaloni tactically and maybe with a bit of luck masterminded great home victory against Uruguay so did this time the Uruguayn mastermind Oscar Tabarez who has been around the game for quite some time, thumbs up for him and his team, though super happy with even a scrappy win for Arg as 3 points were ultimatly a super important, though i did not like the way how Arg got it in the end, but as i said only points matter at this stage and there is Still time to fix theese kind of tactical misstakes were you’re whole middfield is overunned by opponent so in the end i think it was good learning session for Scaloni and his crew and a bit of reality check too which will only benefit Arg in da future !

   • @ddr1123 I agree with you 100% on all points. Thanks for sharing your opinion on Lo Celso as well. The comparison to DePaul is very on point as well.

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