Argentina preliminary list for September matches, Lionel Messi, Enzo Fernández

By
Roy Nemer
-
32

The preliminary Argentina national team list for the September friendly matches has been announced and there are two additions to the team.

Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni has named his preliminary team for the matches against Honduras and Jamaica in the United States. Enzo Fernández and Thiago Almada are included in the preliminary list with the final list expected in a few days.

Here is the list:

Franco Armani (River Plate)
Emiliano Martínez (Aston Villa)
Juan Musso (Atalanta)
Gerónimo Rulli (Villarreal)
Gonzalo Montiel (Sevilla)
Nahuel Molina (Atletico Madrid)
Germán Pezzella (Real Betis)
Facundo Medina (Lens)
Cristian Romero (Tottenham Hotspur)
Nehuén Pérez (Udinese)
Lucas Martínez Quarta (Fiorentina)
Nicolás Otamendi (Benfica)
Lisandro Martínez (Manchester United)
Nicolás Tagliafico (Lyon)
Marcos Acuña (Sevilla)
Leandro Paredes (Juventus)
Guido Rodríguez (Real Betis)
Enzo Fernández (Benfica)
Rodrigo De Paul (Atletico Madrid)
Exequiel Palacios (Bayer Leverkusen)
Alejandro Papu Gómez (Sevilla)
Giovani Lo Celso (Villarreal)
Alexis Mac Allister (Brighton)
Paulo Dybala (AS Roma)
Ángel Correa (Atletico Madrid)
Lionel Messi (PSG)
Thiago Almada (Atlanta United)
Ángel Di María (Juventus)
Nicolás González (Fiorentina)
Joaquín Correa (Inter)
Lautaro Martínez (Inter)
Julián Álvarez (Manchester City)

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32 Comments

  1. Franco Armani (River Plate)
    Ángel Correa (Atletico Madrid)
    Nicolás González (Fiorentina)
    Joaquín Correa (Inter)
    All the above player should have out of the team.Sensi should get another chance to express him. Ocumpus also should get a chance.

  2. F-Messi Lautaro Dimaria Alvarez N.Gonzalez Dybala =( 6)
    M- Locelso Paredes DePaul Guido Enzo McAllister Palacios Gomez=( 8)
    D- Otamendi Romero Pezzella Lisandro Acuna Taliafico Montiel Molina Foyth =(9)
    G- E.martinez Rulli Musso (3)

    I am eager to see how many goals Chimy Avila can score…
    In forward line Gio simeone , L.Alario ,A.Correa ,Garnacho all are freezing in bench & looks like they are out of the scenario

  3. 26 players squad,9 Defenders, 7 midfielders and 7 forwards. 90% of the team has already been confirmed! Barring any injuries both Foyth and Montiel will make it. Only 4 spots are causing some head-ache to Scaloni.

    3rd Gk-> After watching Rully against Liverpool last season, it raises big question, Is he mentally tough enough to step in for Dibu in a crunch world cup match. Some neutral fans in that match against Liverpool were shocked to witness such a miserable performance in a Semi-final match of Champions league. Rulli single handedly knocked Villarreal out. My choice is Musso.

    7th Forward-> Angel vs Joquain Correa. Unlike Angel, Tucu has been getting adequate time to play at Inter and has scored couple goals (most tap-ins) but his positional awareness is quite good which is why he gets a lot of scoring opportunities but his finishing has been quite poor and could cost us if he misses like Palacio. Angel Correa has one problem and that is his coach and fellow countryman Simione!! Atheltico madrid not giving a flying fuck about Angel’s world cup selection make sense but Simione not helping Angel is quite shocking to be honest. He was the highest scorer for Athletico last year even with his limited time on the pitch and with world cup team announcement happening soon, it is quite frustrating to see a very good forward rotting on the bench.

    6th and 7th Midfielder-> Right now both Macallister and Palacios have upper hand over Enzo. Both mids are versatile and can play in any midfield position and have been performing quite well. Palacios is the first sub to replace any of the three starting midfielders and his chemistry with the team is very good. MacAllister is average on all aspects of the midfield play and his recent form along with his regular past selections makes him a strong contender for the 7th midfield position. Enzo is getting picked the first time and he will most likely get 15 to 20mins time, which isn’t enough to judge any player. He should be truly judged based on his performance in the champions league , against Juventus and PSG (2 matches) as the team should have been announced before the other two fixtures. Unless he really impresses Scaloni in the training session or one of our midfielders get injured , it hard for Enzo to make the list, unfortunately.

  4. GLC smashes it in! Keeper didn’t stand a chance. Great to see GLC shooting with conviction. i think some people are giving too much importance to his lack of scoring but hopefully he found his scoring boots. Its funny, i forget the name but someone once criticized GLC with a made up scenario that he wouldn’t score a penalty kick as if that’s how we are to judge midfielders lol.

    • @Choripan LOL you’re speaking of me.
      I said I can imagine LoCelso (hypothetically) missing a penalty kick in the knockout rounds in WC because he always looks like a scared player. I also said that I hope he proves me wrong. I have not been convinced about him as my expectations for him were great when he was in PSG. Years ago I expected a higher trajectory for LoCelso than for DePaul. However, DePaul peaked tremendously and is a rock for our NT.

      Btw DePaul doesn’t score that much, so it’s not solely about goals. It’s the confidence I want to see in a midfield player. For me Enzo is already better than LoCelso (from what I’ve seen).

        • Lol so according to your farmers logic
          Enzo isn’t scoring against world class teams either
          Lol Enzo hasn’t even played for Argentina yet
          And lo celso has done it for Argentina and was one. of the key members for Villarreal in UCL

          Lo celso is far better than mediocre enzo

          • If Enzo stays injured free, you will see. Time is the teller of all truths. Liverpool already monitoring him.

            Enzo’s only weakness is that he holds the ball a little too long (Riquelme/Parades style). Those days are gone as counterattack football is key and requires the midfield to release the ball quickly. LoCelso at the moment is better at releasing the ball quickly. However, the calmness Enzo possesses is that of confidence and maturity beyond his years. He will be World-class (again if injured-free).

  5. 32 Prelim list
    5 Out – Medina, Nehuen, LMQ, A Correa, and Almada

    27 Squad
    4 keepers – Armani, Emi, Musso vs Rulli
    8 defenders – Molina, Montiel, Pezz, Romero, Ota, Licha, Tag, Acuna
    8 mids – Paredes, Guido, Enzo, RDP, Palacios, Papu, GLC, MacAlister
    7 attackers – Dybala, Messi, ADM, Nico, J Correa, Toro, Alvarez

    2 possibilities assuming 1 of Musso or Rulli are dropped –
    1) 3 KP /9 Def /7 Mid /7 Fwd
    Foyth comes back for the 9th defender. 1 of MacAlister or Enzo dropped.
    2) 3 KP /8 Def /8 Mid /7 Fwd
    Scaloni goes with 2 RBs and 1 of Montiel or Foyth is dropped and all 3 of Palacios, MacAlister and Enzo make it.

  6. Quarta, Medina and Perez are still in the orbit of the NT, although probably with a pretty slim chance to make it to the WC unless some of our regulars get injured.

    Mac Allister had a good day but something about him does not click for me. He does not ooze class that you see from Lo Celso, Palacios, Nico Dominguez (in the past) and possibly Enzo Fernandez these days. All things being equal formwise, if in the end it’s between Palacios and Mac Allister, I would prefer Palacios.

    Lisandro was mostly good today but not flawless, there was one episode when he was brushed off way too easily. I think with time he will adapt to the most physical league in the world though and minimize these situations.

    • Actually the 7th midfielder spot and the 9th defender spot is quite meaningless to be honest. The reason is Scaloni already has 5 midfielders who will always start/rotate: Paredes, De Paul, Lo Celso, Guido, and Papu. None of these deserve to be dropped to the bench. We will see a lot of these 5 in the World Cup.

      But I know every 4 years, it has always been an interesting discussion who the final 23 (in the past) and final 26 gonna be.

      We saw what happened in the previous tournament, Copa America. Scaloni relied heavily on 19-20 players only although we had 28. Back then the likes of Marchesin, Musso, Armani, Nico Dominguez, LM Quarta, Julian Alvarez, Licha Martinez rarely played. Even Aguero was playing very little. I think just 1 start and 1-2 other very few minutes off the bench.

      • U can’t compare world cup with copa America. Its like comparing copa del rey or fa cup with champions League. In wc there will be heat factor of qatar so this time injury and fatigue will be far higher than previous editions plus referees show card quite easily in wc that will lead to possibilities of suspensions

        • U have to check the coach record to judge this. It is not about Copa America or World Cup. It is the tendency of the coach.

          For example in Copa America 2019, Scaloni called up 23 players but only 15 players of them played at least 30 minute throughout the tournament.

          In Copa America 2021, Scaloni called up 28 players but only around 19-20 played significant minutes (not counting those who played just less than around 30 minutes in the whole tournament).

          Some coaches are different. Some likes to rotate, some likes to keep their winning teams. For example Jose Pekerman liked to use his whole squad during a tournament. He did it during WC youth and the WC 2006. Scaloni is different, he has his own favorites and he relies on those he trusts the most. I mean 15 out of 23 and 20 out of 28 say a lot. That means the rest of the squad (back ups of the back ups) are just for “insurance” only in case many are unavailable at the same time.

        • Heat factor in Qatar? In November the average daily temperatures are 24-26 C, not that hot and the humidity would be down especially towards the end of November. Plus in case you failed to recognize, many countries in South America have a hot and humid climate too, e.g. Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, etc. So it’s entirely unfamiliar conditions for our players.

  7. Btw I just notice that Senesi is out too. His decision to move to Bournemouth cost him. Things can change quickly among the players who are still fighting for the spots.

    Btw Lo Celso scored too.

  9. Who the fuck is that Almada from Atlanta United?? When France and Brazil only consider players from UCL contenders, we are still considering junk players from MLS???? This is utterly ridiculous and disgraceful. It’s also disrespectful for all the hardworking young players who pursue their true football dream in Europe.

    • I haven’t watched him live but statistically he seems to be doing very well in the MLS, an excellent 3.0 key passes per game and a couple of golazos here and there. 2.2 dribbles per game. It’s a shame he went to such a mediocre league but I don’t think it’s bad to include him in the preliminary list because it will help give him some exposure to clubs in Europe which Scaloni has done in the past and with good results. Consider Balerdi getting a move to Marseille with hardly any minutes at Dortmund and Nehuen Perez now keeping clean sheets against Roma in Serie A when recently he was an Atlético Madrid B player at a newly promoted club in Portugal. Of course, our main and by far most important goal is arriving prepared for the WC so it would be very questionable if he makes it past this round for the friendlies but I don’t see the harm now.

  10. Gabriel Jesus 2 Lisandro 0, not good.
    First time he stole the ball from Licha and forced a foul, second time he went passed him but missed the goal.

  12. 4 GK
    11 DF
    8 MF
    9 F

    Total 32. 6 of them will be out.

    Notable absences: Nico Dominguez (safe to say he is out), Juan Foyth (only due to injury), Vera, Buendia, Alario, and Simeone

    6 who will be out?
    1. Rulli/Musso
    2. Medina
    3. Perez
    4. LM Quarta
    5. Enzo/MacAllister/Palacios
    6. Almada
    7. A. Correa? (7 if eventually Foyth will be added)

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