Marcos Acuña to be physically tested on Friday for Argentina

By
Roy Nemer
-
39

Marcos Acuña will be physically tested on Friday for the Argentina national team.

Acuña played for Argentina in the 5-0 win vs. United Arab Emirates and had an assist on an Angel Di Maria goal. He appears to not be physically fullt fit and according to Gastón Edul, the Argentina coaching staff saw him fit in the game but they will physically test him during training.

Nicolás González and Joaquín Correa will both not be going to the World Cup as Ángel Correa replaces Nicolás González and Thiago Almada replaces Joaquín Correa.

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39 Comments

  2. The time to chalk out strategies and all is over, gentlemen. This is a squad which has prepared for good 3 year period together. There is a brotherhood that has brewed amongst them, which has led to their camaraderie on the pitch. Yes, we will miss Lo Celso, whose understanding with Leo was pivotal, and his fluidity in the midfield will be missed. But if a team is to emerge as a champion, then someone has to fill in his shoes. We can’t just complain that because of one or two men we are going to become sitting ducks. This is the time Angel Correa and Almada have to step up and show their mettle. If we are to become champions, lets stop complaining about who’s there and who’s not and put faith in the lineup that Scaloni and the AFA have put together. Vamos!!!

  3. Yes almada is a mls player but he trained with messi and trained by scaloni. Scaloni must be impressed with almada and even messi praised him i trust messi and scaloni’s judgement. They r intelligent enough to know who is talented. Im sure almada will perform well. And don’t be surprised if almada starts in a match and play in locelso role

  4. Maxilopez830 calm down. I think its a best possible squad. Garnacho maybe included but i saw each minute of manu yes he scored and assisted but other than that he doesn’t track back he doesn’t press he lacks idea in tight spaces when there is no space he naturally back passes a lot. He didn’t play against top teams plus ronaldo fan boy will not be welcomed here. So scaloni is right omitting him.

      • Yes very rare. And whenever he tracked back opponents have no problem. He needs time he has speed good goalscoring ability and also passing is decent but i never trust his defensive work he needs more work. He played against soceidad and apart from his goal he was invisible. And Fulham is not a top side aswell.

        • he was also really good in tight spaces and dribbles through multiple defenders or raced past the defender to score. He doesn’t have the razzle dazzle dribbling of Di Maria but certainly left defenders in the dust with a simple fast body feints.

  6. another problem is the height of player. when you facing Europe team which is important . look at our list how many players are over 180cm ? only di Maria ,Molina, Romero, pezzella, foyth ,Guido . Not to mention goal keeper . I think argentina is the team with lowest averaged height .

    physically our forward or midfiled are weak ,lack of speed .only di Maria is fast enough . That means tactically we can’t rely on corner or fast counterattack. no to mention di Maria is injury prone

  7. Hope Acuna pulls through and passes the test.

    One of Messi’s biggest weapon these days is to pass the left footed player who makes the run behind the opposition’s RB and get the cutback. For e.g. Alba, Mendes etc

    All 3 Acuna, Celso and Nico did that in parts or completely.

    Acuna is the best in the current team who fits the role. The replacements are all right footed, so they will cut in, instead of making blind side run

    • yes acuna is very very very important at this stage when missing lo celso ,Gonzalez . If he is out then argentina probably game over . look at versus UAE SECOND HALF . THE whole team missing lo celso ,acuna ,di Maria completely turn into Venezuela

  8. Argentina ‘s tactics and formation basically a diamond shape 3 central midfielders( Lo celso ,Paredes, DePaul ) with di Maria on the right ,messi totally free and acuna , Molina overlap.

    Lo celso ,Messi as two attack engines on both side, de Paul, Paredes two no.5 connect the whole team .

    losing lo celso then one engine on the left is shut down .now if losing acuna then the whole team is game over . Versus UAE scaloni try to use mcallister, Enzo replace locelso but definitely not up to expectation. that’s why enter almada but I am not convinced a MLS player can take up the job .Then the whole team need to switch to 442 ,because the Diamond shape midfield is unbalance .

    .

  9. Don’t overrated almada ,he is 70% Gomez right now in terms of speed ,skill,shot .two Very similar players ..

    just wonder why scaloni bring so many central midfielders Gomez （Almada,mcallister,Palacios or Enzo perez）,Paredes(Guido), DE paul(Enzo ,mcallister ) ?

    At the same time too emphasize on right size
    Di Maria (Angel correa), Messi (Dybala).

    HOW about left winger (ocampos ,Garnacho)?

    If acuna is out the left size is really Oh my God. Di Maria definitely right size is better than left. correa ,dybala also ,not to say Messi.

  10. Nico Gonzalez not that important. Locelso was far more important than him. Nico Gonzalez is no more a dimaria replacement as now dimaria doesn’t play in left side dimaria is now a right winger.
    Under scaloni Argentina played 50 games out of which only 21 games played by nico. Angel correa will be our left winger he played lots of games as a left winger in athletico madrid. He is a work horse. He tracks back defends press he can do everything what nico does just except aerial duels. Nico is good at aerial duels and could have been a good option defending set pieces. Angel Correa is fine. I think scaloni realized locelso role cant be done with McAllister so he called up almada. Almada most probably in later stages will be our attacking left midfielder he has shown he has good connection with messi just he needs to learn our pressing patterns and needs to defend well and he may well become ideal locelso replacement

    • Both Gonzalez ,lo celso are important ,Gonzalez can replace acuna as a Left back .That is the point even di Maria can’t do that .Now missing lo celso ,Gonzalez or even acuna that is a disaster.

      You can’t rely on almada just a MLS player to take up their jobs ,even angel Correa can play in left size but he doesn’t have the speed and defensive skill as acuna or Gonzalez.

      As a result ,Acuna right now is more important than messi .no acuna the whole tactic should change otherwise left size is paralyzed. If you suddenly change formation and tactics in world cup 。It means you’better book the flight tickets after Group stages.

  11. Last time I saw Medina play LB was for our U23 or U21 team. I think he was pretty decent. However, he is primarily a central defender and I am not sure he can fill in as a proper left-back if needed at such a massive stage like the WC. Can he overlap, stretch the play and cross? I hope so. Either way it’s a significant downgrade from Acuna.

    To me huevo looked just fine yesterday, was active and dynamic, did not look injured at all. So even semi-fit Acuna can be an asset.

    • acuna ,lo celso are irreplaceable right now ,though garnacho can replace gonzalez . So acuna even not 100% healthy must go to qatar .

      Medina or Martinez can be LB but definitely not as offensive as acuna .so A left winger is a must .not to mention di Maria is injury prone

    • Given your love for Foyth, you’re not going to like to Medinas heat map. Almost non existent in zones 13 and 16 but i do recall Csbaala posting some impressive progressive stats.

      • I think Medina is still a better LB than Foyth a RB. Medina to me looks like a taller (184 cm) version of Licha, very similar profile, a pit-bull who likes to ping long, diagonal balls with precision. He had a great season at Lens, but primarily as a CB or LCB.

      • Followed almada for a period of time ,I would say right now he is equal to 70% Gomez in terms of speed ,dribbling ,passing,shoot .They are two similar players definitely not a pure winger .

        Argentina ‘s tactics depends on LEFT side acuna plus lo celso , right size DePaul support di Maria and Molina overlap. Messi as a free attacking midfield, Lautaro mostly on the left side supported by acuna ,lo celso .

        De Paul and Paredes two no.5 connect the whole team.

        without lo celso basically only Gomez can take up the job but not 100%, almada =70%Gomez ,if acuna is out then the whole left size is paralyzed. Acuna is irreplaceable right now .Touchwood if acuna out ,we need to use a powerful left winger instead of Gomez ,then the tactic or formation is totally different. As a result Enzo, Mcallister, Palacios is useless when you are playing 4411 instead of a diamond shape midfield.

    • Either way what we will lose in Acuna (crossing) is an ability that I don’t think Medina has and Tagliafico does not have as much (high crossing specifically, not that he’s blunt in attack), so fingers crossed on Acuna because if he misses out we lose that capability altogether from LB. It’s important to be able to shuffle between Tag and Acuna based on what we need but if we need an attacking, good crossing, overlapping LB and only have to chose from Tag and Medina then it can be a problem since we already don’t have any conventional left winger to chose from (and I don’t mean like an actual problem because Tag is a good full back but if we want to win this thing it helps to have players that are masters at things, Acuna is the closest to a crossing master we have apart from our world class forwards)

  12. losing two strikers or possibly two wingers and supplemented by two midfielders is a bad news. especially gonzalez who can be a striker winger or LB .

    try not to be so optimistic, losing lo celso and gonzalez is devastating. Now we only have two no.9 and no left side winger except di Maria. if acuna is out then the left side is totally paralyzed. Not to say Foyth is not in form .

    As a result we should amend largely the list right now .bring a substitute for acuna ,bring a left winger and a central forward. Instead I think mcallister, Enzo fernandez ,Palacios, are the same players can’t replace lo celso nor de paul.

    my suggestion
    1, take out foyth ,Medina in
    2,Take out one of Enzo, Mcallister, Palacios, Garnacho in
    3,If acuna out ,bring in Simeone

    • Also it is an unknown, if Gomez or Almada can replace lo celso or not but they aren’t left wingers too.

      I think almada ,gomez are substitute to lo celso .apparently mcallister and Enzo cant replace lo celso then one of those three (Enzo, Mcallister, Palacios ) should go home for a left winger

  13. Apparently nico gonzalez and Joaquín Correa hide and lies thier injuries which makes scaloni even more anger
    Happy for thiago almada he will be our secret weapon.

  14. My fragile heart cannot take this anymore 😭. Not Acuna we don’t have any backup for this. I just hope Scaloni can slow down, he needs to be patient. Acuna is a must even if he might not play the first match

  15. So after my months-long hiatus from here I was planning to write a longer post analyzing our situation and several players… But then I read the past threads…
    PTSD flashbacks from last year pre-Copa…
    Scaloni is again an idiot!!!!! Hang him from the obelisco!!!!!!! HOW CAN WE WIN WITH THIS NON STARTER AMONG THE TWENTY SIX?!?!?!??! AAAAAHHHHH
    PANIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

    Familiar feeling 🙂
    But I won’t waste my time and energy on it just like last year.
    Happy for Angelito Correa and Almada. For them, this is fate, and it will motivate them much more than being originally included.

    Enjoy the World Cup friends!
    See you after it’s over.
    Vamos Argentina 🤍💙

  16. If you connect the dots I think Garnacho’s own attitude cost him the WC. And no I’m not even talking about liking dumb tweets or idolizing Ronaldo. Let’s go back to July. I remember looking at Man United’s team every game of preseason and seeing him on the bench, while other more average talents like Mejbri, Iqbal, Savage, Laird, Fish, etc were getting plentiful minutes. I thought “hm, strange, since he’s much better than these players and you’d think that a preseason is exactly where you give a talent like Garnacho a ton of minutes”. Months later both Ten Hag and Bruno confirm that he had a setback in preseason because of attitude and that’s why he didn’t play. Clearly, that spilled into the actual season because we can see that he’s at the level to play for Man United but only started doing so two weeks ago, as opposed to two or three months ago. So it seems that at the beginning of the Premier League season he was still working through his “sentence”/punishment for an attitude problem in the summer. IF Garnacho had started getting minutes and performing that long ago we might have seen him in the Jamaica and Honduras friendlies (I mention these friendlies instead of just skipping to today because clearly we can see that being in those friendlies is one of the prerequisites for going to the WC. I can’t imagine Almada being called today if he didn’t get that chance two months ago). Almada was a surprise choice back then, and I’m sure that if he picked Almada it wouldn’t have been crazy for Scaloni to also pick Garnacho if he was pulling in first team performances by then. Hence, Garnacho’s lack of a NT debut and recent inclusion in the team, just as with Simeone, don’t put him on Scaloni’s pecking order which is very evident if you look at the preliminary list. Whether or not inclusion in the preliminary list is required for going to the world cup is almost irrelevant, clearly Garnacho is not in Scaloni’s pecking order/list of reserves if he is not on that list either way. A shame for him, so maybe get to working hard and looking positively to future goals instead of liking stupid tweets.

    • Yes agreed. The setback at the beginning of the season really hurt his chances. He missed crucial minutes and spot light. Like you said, if he had started off earlier and played just as good, im sure Scaloni would have called him. Ten Hag also cast shade when he publicly said something like “I don’t think he should go do the WC, needs to mature a bit first”. He said it in Garnacho’s best interest of course it wasn’t nefarious or anything.

  17. With this headline, time to send out positive juju or vibes, cross your fingers, light incense, pray, do whatever you need to do cuase we NEED El Huevo.

    • I was going to say the same thing. No matter what religion you practice or whether you don’t do ANYTHING to give us good luck. Nico G and Tucu are losses but I can bare them. If Marcos is ruled out that is different. He’s one of the last hopes we have on the left side. The dropping like flies thing better stop today.

  18. “Argentina traveled to Qatar with 3,5 tons of meat. They had ‘asado’ after their first day of training”
    ge.globo.com/futebol/selecoes/argentina/noticia/2022/11/17/argentina-leva-35-toneladas-de-carne-ao-catar-e-faz-churrasco-apos-primeiro-dia-de-treinos.ghtml

    3.5 tons = 7,000 lbs / 60 people (crew + players) = 115 lbs / person – 40% bone and fat = 70 lbs of consumable carne for 4 weeks = 2-3 lbs of meat per day.

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