Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni on Gio Lo Celso’s injury, replacement

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Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni commented on Gio Lo Celso’s injury and a possible replacement.

Lionel Scaloni was in Ezeiza in Argentina and spoke about Gio Lo Celso’s injury. He had given an interview at the airport but gave another one on Wednesday talking about possible replacements in the team. Speaking with TyC Sports, here is what he had to say:

“Numerically, there is a replacement but football wise, no. There are others with other conditions but it’s obvious that for us, he gives us a lot.

“It’s what you get playing a World Cup in the middle of the season with a crazy month of October, with games every three days and after that releasing the players three days before starting a World Cup.”

In regards to the rumors that Lo Celso will go to Argentina to be treated by the Argentina national team medical staff:

“It changes nothing to have Lo Celso here. We will be travelling on Sunday and we would not be doing him a favor to be on the plane for so long and then have another trip to Qatar with so many hours of flight. He is being treated there with trained people.

“One of the things that every coach wants is that the player gets there healthy. It doesn’t matter if they get there in form or not.

“He who gets on the plane is ready to play the first game. It’s our idea but there are some nuances that we have to assess in positions and we will take these days.”

Regarding the defenders:

“We should wait to see how the guys with complications evolve. If any of the defenders arrive with a knock, there is the possibility of taking one more.”

43 Comments

  1. “If any of the defenders arrive with a knock, there is the possibility of taking one more.”

    The sudden inclusion of Kannemann is because of this?

    • Our defenders are fine Who has a knock? Licha, Otamendi, Pezzella, Molina, Montiel, Acuna, Tagli are fine. Cuti just has a mild problem. Who does he mean? Foyth, Perez, and Medina also fine.

      • I think he meant the possibility of injuries of our CBs in the coming days, especially Cuti and Lisandro playing regularly.

        His immediate earlier comment ““We should wait to see how the guys with complications evolve”, i believe, was about Foyth. I think Scaloni considering him an important part of the team. But, I could be wrong

        • Yes seeing our right back’s dissmal showing no wonder he is waiting for the better right back he knows he may need better defensive player to tackle dangers in knockouts.

    • Speaking of defenders.. yesterday thinking of Locelso I imagined replacing him with…. Acuña! I feel after Nico.G he is a good option to improvise. He plays very well in the left wing, dribbler, good crosses to Lautaro, and certainly hustles and defends. He is young where a gruelling tournament is not a liability (Papu, Dimaria).

      ……………………..Emi…………………..
      Molina…….cuti………ota……….tagla.
      ……….. Depaul………..Paredes…….
      ….Dimaria………..messi……. Acuña.
      ……………..lautaro………………….

      • I don’t agree. His creativity ,ability to break the lines, ability to play 1-2 with messi or other forwards is way lower than locelso. I don’t know why guys r so against enzo who is in hot form and surely will play better than acuna atleast. Even palacios can play there. Why u guys hate Enzo that even acuna is fine who haven’t played in midfield for a long time. Even we can easily play enzo and paredes/guido double pivot and play depaul in locelso role.

        • I for sure don’t hate Enzo, at least I wanna see Enzo playing Lo Celso for good minutes as I am sure he can. If Scaloni decides to give him a chance, I will be happy.

          But we are discussing which players can play Lo Celso’s role. Based on the previous performances, these players played Lo Celso’s role and did well: Papu, Nico Gonzales, Palacios, Acuna, and Almada.

          I won’t go as far as other candidates suck except Enzo though as those 5 above did well replacing Lo Celso.

  2. Messi plays a match in Italy on November 14 with Buffon, Ronaldinho and others as tribute to Diego.

    What a useless event as time is short to prepare for WC.

  3. Chillwell also out pulled his hamstring. Im now concerned about lisandro Martinez, Enzo fernandez, Molina and most importantly messi they are playing each and every game. Even lautaro playing every game. This 2 weeks will be very tensed for me. We already lost locelso we cannot afford to loose anyone now.

  4. Lo Celso has to get well soon for the World Cup, he needs a nutritionist. This team is a family, they will certainly talk to each other about the best way to recover.

  5. Good news. According to some sources Dybala with fast recovery could be back for Rome in their 13th November match. If that happens he will go to Qatar surely

  6. “Football wise we have no replacement”– that’s true. We don’t have a replacement of lo celso. It’s a huge blow. Enzo, McAllister,papu, even palacios can’t do what he was doing for us.
    However, it’s football we need to be ready for everything. I still can’t see who is going to pass the ball as quickly as him to the forwards and who will find that little space in the midfield.
    We have to change style that for sure.

    • Enzo passes the ball very quickly he plays like a barca midfielder. He can be our xavi. We miss our Iniesta that’s the prblm. Our busquets could be paredes but he lacks the concentration of busquets sometimes. Our yaya toure could be depaul. We just need a Thierry Henry iniesta and dani alves. Vamos we will be world chanpions

      • To win trophy doesn’t need star player all the time.otherwise inter 2010,porto 2004 Couldn’t win ucl.you all ways bringing negetivity in this forum.real madrid won 5 ucl last ten years while xavi,iniesta,buesqutes won 2.it doesn’t matter how many star player you have but it’s matter how you utilise your limited resources.

        • Xavi iniesta won 4 ucl. 2006,2009,2011,2015 and real madrid was full of stars literally had kroos modric casemero cr7 bale Benzema dimaria ozil ramos etc in those 5 ucl winning campaign for madrid. That inter side was also full of stars with sneider, eto, cambiasso, walter samuel, zanetti, thiago motta, millito etc. Big tournament always win by big clubs or big countries.

  7. So shitty pathetic Premier League rejected our request to rest our players in their stupid last fixture just before WC. I really want all the players to boycott or just let the English players to play. I am freaking furious. English people never care about World Cup. Their former players or people just crazy about club football. I think Cuti did good. So should Martinez. He has nothing show or prove anymore. Martinez been playing almost every freaking game.

    • You can’t blame Premier league, it’s business remember they were always going to reject this kind request.
      It’s most watched league in the world.

      • I get it but come on! It’s most watched tournament in this world so atleast postpone last game for sake of football. All just greed over advertisements and shit

      • It is not technically a business. It is an association. They behave like a business – that is the problem.

        Actually I can understand they do not want players to leave early. What was done wrong is that the leagues did not change their schedules to accommodate moving the world cup to November.

      • I’m not from Qater but I can’t stand prejudiced comments. If you talk about corruption, name me a country that isn’t corrupt. What about your country or my country or the most developed countries?
        If you are talking about behind the door exchanges that some speculate for Qater becoming the host, doesn’t a country in that region deserve to host the tournament such like many other countries. There are millions of people living there are crazy about football and they have never hosted the competition. They have also invested a lot of money for football- think about the money being circulated through psg, man city and so on. Do i personally like it, NO. But, I think the people living there have every right to host a world cup and the climate in that region should not be an obstacle.

        Now, could the European clubs have done more to accommodate the World cup? Absolutely. They will not miss the show if they find an opportunity to suck some money from oil sells but at the same time will not miss the chance to portray oil countries as corrupt and abhorrent.

        Now, do you know where I think the next (or next next) world cup should be played? South and South East Asia. Alas, there is no nation in that region playing the world cup regularly. Otherwise, it would have been a crime to ignore the enthusiasm of billions of people living in that region. The number of Argentinian or Brazilian flags raised in that region during the world cups could actually be more than that raised even in South America.

        • > What about your country or my country or the most developed countries?

          My friend, your statement is called “whataboutism”. Just because other countries do X, Y, or Z, it doesn’t mean people cannot criticize Qatar.

          > doesn’t a country in that region deserve to host the tournament such like many other countries.

          Ask the families of the 5,000-10,000 dead immigrant workers (some are modern day slaves) that died helping build the stupid stadiums and infrastructure to host the world cup in Qatar.

          I agree with you that countries should host the cup but it’s a tough pill to swallow when those countries abuse their workforce or spend money on a stadiums when the country has way more important financial priorities. Brazil was a great example, they spent billions and literally destroyed favelas just so tourists didn’t have to see poverty. That money could have been spent on real domestic problems. Now some of those stadiums are nothing but gigantic storage units and parking lots. In the end, big time real estate brazilian developers profited millions while the the majority of people still suffer.

          I guess it’s a catch 22 because on one end, it’s not fair to only give the WC to countries with existing infrastructure but at the same times, its horrific when thousands of workers die and poor people displaced just to host the tournament.

  8. Hope that Lo Celso can at least travel with the team, he was selected in the last world cup but he did not play a minute, it was a waste of talent by sampoli, I think Lo Celso was disappointed, I do not want him to be disappointed again.

    • Yes, Sampa completly ignored him like allmost he did not even exist as that was some of the most crazy one’s from Sampa, though there were actuallly whole bunch of crazyness from Sampa and it just went more crazier as far as all way until the end, which stopped his crazyness like he was completly Lost and broken to an such an puzzle with himself that no one could have figured out how to rescue him from that as he completly broke down, had an system error or what ever everyone want’s to call it etc…

      Therefore i agree with your idea of taking Lo Celso to WC even if it means one lost spot, but i doubt that Scaloni will do that….just praying for some miracle to hapoen with GLC, but i quess i’m just hopeless of thinking about miracles…

  9. Honestly I never doubt Julian Alvarez. His stats when as a starter not bad 11 games (8 as a starter) 5 goals 4 assists. For a first year player who plays in Europe that’s already much better than Lautaro’s who scored 9 only total in his rookie year or Icardi’s first year.

    People doubt him because he failed to score in the previous couple matches. Yes he is not as good as Haaland (yet) but he deserves to be our Lautaro’s back up. I am not against Simeone’s inclusion but Simeone can play Julio Cruz/Martin Palermo’s third back up role where Alvarez is the direct back up of Lautaro’s.

    I am sure if he plays more regularly, he would join our list of great forwards in the last 20 years who scored around 20+ goals/season in Europe like Aguero, Higuain, Tevez, Creepo, Icardi, and Lautaro himself.

      • Anuparno I thought you were complaining other day due lack of games for Julian Alvarez but you never thought what you are saying that he is training under best coach in the world which huge of his development rather than playing Lower mediocre team.

        • I was complaining because i know training under best coach huge beneficial but with no minutes whatsoever that can kill anyone’s confidence and sharpness but as he starting few games im happy. If it was not a wc year i would not have so annoyed with him not getting minutes. A sharp confident Alvarez can contribute a lot

  10. Missing Lo Celco means the team depends on RDP and Parades more. Very bad news indeed. But have to be realistic and optimistic that replacement could bring surprising and good things. Scaloni have got a long list, There is Palacios, Nico, Enzo, Almada, Guido, Mac Allister even Buendia. Yes, good chemistry has been built for years and it needs time to start a new one.

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