Changes expected for Argentina vs. Mexico, Lionel Messi holds team meeting

By
Roy Nemer
-
127

Changes are expected for Argentina in their game vs. Mexico as Lionel Messi held a team meeting.

Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni is not expected to field the same starting eleven vs. Mexico as he did against Saudi Arabia. According to Gastón Edul, Scaloni is set to make at least two changes to the tam.

Lionel Messi also held a team meeting after the game between Mexico and Poland. Messi told the players that they should be more united than ever and to be calm.

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127 Comments

  2. What a football match… ger vs Japan…….to be 1 nil and completely outplayed in the 1st half and then you do this…..brilliant.
    Germany didn’t play badly intact they could have scored many it was just an open football match……in our case our opponents didn’t come out to play football but we still we were clueless and no effort whatsoever…….they couldn’t put 2 passes together in the second…….Molina, Acuna and the lot won’t even make the squad of many teams……but hey you can only whine and cry now……I hope Tapia has the balls to make a whole scale change…..pick players on merit and not on quota(montiel, Armani, Almada if u guys know the real story behind their selections) and bring in a real coach and a real warrior captain, who is a leader not just a fancy names who wears the armband and disappears when the going gets tough.
    Now u know why the name Maradona is still brought up by old time football fans who’ve seen it all.

    • @sergio, I’m intrigued to know the story behind picking Almada, because I’m still puzzled by the rationale of his selection, like someone here said, he’s MLS fraud.

      • Yes he is a fraud. Scaloni had best chance to pick Garnacho but instead allowed politics to prevail and now we paid dearly yesterday. Look at Spain philosophy of trusting in youngsters like Gavi and Pedri it’s reaping dividends. Whereas Scaloni is rigid sticking with retired players like Papu Gomez, should he fail to deliver he will be rated worse than Sampaoli.

        • Sergio my friend we are all frustrated so i understand yours. But where would we find these players? They put on the best team after years who brought us success. Atleast the best in the last 30 years. If we cant do it with this team I dont know what will. Lets see what they do in the next 2 games.

  4. If we think we are haveing tough road ahead. Hold on. Germany just signed their death sentence. Its even harder for them, Their next up is Spain.

    We can draw inspiration from that. Atleast.

          • That’s not what I mean.
            I mean that Brazil almost never gets out early. And it hasn’t happened in recent times.
            I knew Brazil got out early in 1966, but still asked because I was thinking of recent cups and couldn’t remember even 1 WC where brazil struggled to get past group stage while most other strong teams have.

            In 1966, it wasn’t even the same trophy – it was the jules rimet cup. When we talk about trends, we usually don’t look that far back. I definitely didn’t mean to belittle anyone. Just pointing out that Brazil do not tend to go out early.

    • My thoughts too.
      Personally, I was wishing for Brazil to get the ARgentina, Germany treatment and then, we see how they get out of that hole.
      I believe they’ll progress.
      Germany is dead. They’ll not overcome that Spain machine unless of course, God intervenes.

  7. Japanese players look much fitter and faster than German players. The physical aspect has become a crucial factor.

    Let it be a warning for Scaloni. Use fit players only.

    • Honestly playing this WC in the middle of the season has caused havoc ON EVERYBODY, having ONE FRIGGIN WEEK to prepare for it is INSANE that’s FIFA’s FAULT all the way

      • Exactly! I will say this and i don’t care if it will annoy people. Three teams can kick Brazil out: Argentina, Germany and France.
        All of a sudden, 2 of the 3 are with their back to the wall!
        I just hope, it is not a 2002 wc all over again, where everything was wide open for Brazil to the final.

        • Really ? Germnay ??? Only team can beat brazil are spain… Because they will control mid field.. Germany don’t have any goal scorer everyone knows.

          • Yes really! Germany! I don’t know from where you have reached to the conclusion that THE ONLY team that can beat Brazil is Spain. I am talking with facts! Germany made Brazil a hall of fame laughing stock by nailing in their asses 7 goals! This is enough for Brazil every time they face Germany to bring up to their minds this trauma!
            In the last three years, they faced Argentina 3 times, lost two and drew one, without even scoring just one single goal in any of these matches!
            And as about France…i really can’t remember if they even managed to beat them once before! 1986 kick in the ass, 1998 kick in the ass, 2006 again their own bitches, so…. yeah really!

    • Next I will be rooting for Brazil, England, and Saudis to lose. The fact that they cheated on our second goal made me even more irritated. I want them lose big time. I wanna see the face of their coach when Poland or Mexico beat them. Better seeing Lewandowski hattrick against them than them winning. I read there is a fan losing $160.000 because he lost a bet of the Argentina-Saudi game. And those cheaters eat all those money.

    • Lol.
      The only saving grace for Germany is that they won the title four years ago. They can afford to go home next week.
      Japanese are fast.
      I am Kenyan and if you remove Kenya, Ethiopia and the USA from distance running, the Japanese are among the best.

      Kenya and Ethiopia are the two leading marathon running nations on earth.
      Japanese men are third i think.
      Yuki Kawauchi won Boston marathon in2018!

      For the women, the American women are third and the Japanese men place highly in either fourth or fifth.

      Sani Brown and Yamagata are very fast. in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Japanese won Silver in the men’s 4x100m relay.
      Even America’s Michael Norman is half Japanese.

      Oh, and the Japanese pick up trash………that is perhaps the headline! Lol!

  10. Anyway, I ain’t no racist, but this is Argentina forum. I know people are from everywhere here. I don’t like any teams that beat Argentina that include: Brazil, England, Germany, Croatia, France, and Saudi Arabia.

    If you want us to show respect to the Saudis just because it is your country, sorry man. This is not the place. Go find another forum for that. This is purely Argentina forum. Anyone who beats my team, I have the right to say nasty things to them no matter what. I would say the same to Brazil, England, or Germany to example. I would be the happiest one anytime they lose. The same as Saudi.

    Stop expecting people here to respect the country that is not Argentina. This is not a global soccer forum. This is Mundo Albiceleste.

    Here join this forum all you Saudi fans.

    bigsoccer.com/forums/saudi-arabia.1072/

    Leave us alone. We support Argentina only NOT Argentina plus any other country here.

    Go eat your shoot German! (Sorry if there is any Germans here but this is Argentina forum)!

    • MY FRIEND, we ALL HATE the Germans, Brazilians, the Redcoats, …..etc but we respect them as great footballing nations….Losing to KSA will always hurt but we should respect them because they played their hearts out, defended and attacked and didn’t play dirty but above all are Human beings like everybody else and them being from a much less footballing pedigree doesn’t make them any less people than anybody else.

      I said all that I doubt ANYBODY in here doubts my Loyalty to the Sky-Blue and White

    • Sorry to say i should fuck usa because a stupid useless live there..no i only fuck this useless fucking pandit..Main reason of Argentina loss is for fucking pandit favourite papu Gomez.. If he stop watching football Argentina will be champions.. ass old child
      You should leve this forum, its for all Argentine gentle smart people Forum unlike you donkey

    • “This is purely Argentina forum. Anyone who beats my team, I have the right to say nasty things to them no matter what.”

      This is purely your personal position, el_principe.

      As much as we like reading you, maybe it is not necessary to be disrespectful to others or your opponents no matter which forum you are attending. Moreover, I don’t think the admins of any forum approve of such a policy.

      You are one of the good commenters here. Let us keep enjoying your comments!

  11. Argentina mentality should be we will score 5 or more on everyone. Not this one goal and sit back and defend. My question did anyone see Argentina players or Mr Messi complaining to officials when offside was called three or four times? This is the time to do it not after the game.

  13. Make that 2, Second historic upset in 2 days, Common things both 2014 finalists, both beaten by minnow asian teams, both score line 2-1, both favourites only scored via penalty.

    Its gonna be a tricky WC i feel.

    • With all my respect to your comment, do you have an idea about the preparation and stringent training the Japanese team went through? Again, the world cup requires fresh healthy legs and lungs, not much of experience. If you play a full season long and come to the world cup with bruises and strains everywhere, you can’t win. Saudi Arabia won against Argentina due to their physicality and squad’s average age plus a genius tactics orchestrated by their veteran coach. Argentina’s top weapon lies in the hands of 33-35 age of footballers, not going to help, sorry. Bring on the young if you want to be a champion. This year is different because there was no recuperation time given like previous world cups.

  16. Argentina’s youngest player is 21+(almost 22)?

    I think Argentina selectors tend to have a mental bias against younger players. They didn’t play Messi against Germany in 2006 – which probably cost them the match. And they didn’t select Maradona in 78. Which probably would have won them before extra time.

  17. 4231 or 442 are both the worst formation possible for Messi and Argentina. You cannot expect Messi to drop to the midfield to defend and Messi is not a receiver, he need to have the ball to make difference with his pass. Argentina always plays with 3 central midfielders and should have stayed with this formation no matter what.

    I think of the following replacements:
    Romero->Lisandro
    Tagliafico->Acuna
    Paredes->Enzo
    Papu->De Paul
    De Paul->Mac Allister
    Di Maria->Correa

    There is a lot of changes but think it’s the only way.

  18. As far as changes go, I don’t think we have too many options to change.
    Just bring in Dybala in place of may be Papu Gomez. Papu can come in later as a substitute.

    And may be replace C.Romero because he didn’t look fully fit.

    (And since Norway hasn’t qualified, bribe Haaland to play for Argentina and bring him in after showing some fake injuries.:))

  21. More than 24 hours after the defeat, I still can’t believe we lost to Saudi.
    We couldn’t even manage a draw!
    No wonder, some data companies are saying it is the greatest upset in world cup history.
    edition.cnn.com/2022/11/22/football/saudi-arabia-argentina-world-cup-upsets-spt-intl/index.html

    Also, apparently at least one of the 3 offside goals were legal and was misjudged by VAR referee.

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/argentina-saudi-world-cup-var-28561341?int_source=nba

  22. Argentina lost was Scaloni’s fault. We’re basically 4-2-4 in the field because ADM and Papu mostly lurking upfront and never drop back to midfield to press.

    Before the match started and I saw the started line up I knew the midfield will get overrun. The midfield is too thin and nobody is going to provides Messi close passing option or take some defenders away from him when we’re on the ball. We need Mac or Enzo to do that task since GLC isnt there. Against Italy, you could see GLC always stayed close to Messi so defenders couldnt just swarm Messi at once.

    RDP and Paredes played badly as a result cause they’re fighting 6 hard pressing Iranians in midfield. You cant expect them to win or hold the ball for more than 2 seconds. Hence only our defenders could hold the ball which is like 2018 team all over again. In fact during the game it looks more like 6-0-4 or 5-0-5 formation.

    The team also needs to calm down, and I’m glad the long winning streak is over cause its certainly only add preasure even though its technically meaningless. You dont get a trophy for that.

    After getting cancelled by VAR for the third time, the team started to panic and stopped their actual strategy which is to play our typical throughball. In second half we keep giving the ball to ADM to whip a cross for our midgets (Messi, Lautaro, Alvarez). These guys aint 6’1 Batigol, Crespo or Valdano. They should have kept playing the same way and eventually we’ll beat the VAR offside trap.

    Luckily , Mexico vs Poland result is favoring us. Now we need to win the next 2 games and that’s it. If we cant, then we simply dont deserve anything. Acuna should start cause an 80% fit Acuna > Tagliafico (mr.passanger). Enzo and Mac should starts aswell and ADM should be thrown in after HT to beat tired legs. Di Maria fast counter attacking style dont fit against lesser opponents who loves to bunker. He’d always run into brickwall.

  24. Look how fit those japanese are. The minute one mundo member underestimated asian teams the results are getting reversed. They are pressing like dogs. Germany has no answer to it.

    • Anybody who finish second in the group, will be on the other bracket (if we top the group) meaning that if Germany finish second, we will only meet them in the final. So I want Spain to top the group for sure. The winner of this group (hopefully Spain) will meet Brazil in the QF.

  26. That Lautaro’s disallowed would have changed the outcome of the match. We would have forced Saudi to attack more instead of waiting for us to make errors. However, the two goals we conceded were unacceptable. Those kind of goals demoralizes you. Regardless of fcuking VAR fcking us over, we can’t afford to give those kind of goals. A fit Cuti and Paredes would have never let those two goals go in. Anyhow, what’s done is done and we should focus on beating the our next to opponents.

    • Just watched the image the guys below are talking about and it says that VAR used the Wrong KSA player to in relation to Lautaro…….i don’t know if true or not but somebody obviously from the AFA Needs to investigate

    • True but we should have avoided that second goal. The first goal caught us by surprise, but to conceided again in same exact fashion was ridiculous and there’s no excuse for that.

      Cuti was clearly unfit and Saudi was clearly aware of that.

  27. “Maradona fanboys are the worst, they are so dumb as their idol was. The worst coach ever. His dead was a gift for argentine NT. He made us cursed”.
    there is other posts too speaking this way against Diego.

    Csabalala exept that you are racist lately you don t show respect not even to dead people.it is not first time. Stop it. unless you doing that because you want to be banned intentionaly.
    i will hold myself to don t speak by use bad words. i will say only that to you.
    ONE DAY in the life of Diego it is the ENTIRE YOURS.

    • I agree with csabalala on South Asian mentality(I am indian, though I am living in Japan these days) I agree with the way he sees football.
      But csabalala is messi fanboy, I just want to say one thing messi can never be better than maradona even if he wins this world Cup. The guy was not even running after 60mins…he has loser mentality… No matter how many meetings he does after match it doesn’t matter if he can’t motivate his players during the match.

  28. In an interview after the match, Herve Renard, the Saudi Arabia coach, revealed that they prepared this match since 1 month. That’s why he had time to define a real plan against Argentina, not to park bus but challenged them physically by pressing intensity and put the strikers offside if Argentina attacks. He said that this is risky but probably the only way to beat Argentina. On the other side, Scaloni experimented his 442 without Lo Celso. I revisited part of the game against Saudi Arabia, I saw in some images that De Paul and Paredes were surrounded by 4-5 Saudi players because they were completely isolated in the middle, Di Maria and Papu stayed on their line, far from them. In the modern football, that’ simply impossible to play like that. Being humble and respectful to the opponents means being serious on tactics and at training. If you don’t respect the opponent, it is the direct sanction like yesterday

    • I am Kenyan.
      This guy , Herve Renard , has coached three African teams:
      1. Morocco
      2. Cote d’Ivoire
      3. Zambia.

      He’s won two Africa Cup of Nations titles with both Zambia and Cote d’Ivoire.
      He is a very good coach regardless.

  29. So now they are saying that after looking at the VAR image Lautaro was indeed onside, the automated VAR called him offside because it looked at the wrong defenseman. I saw the image on Twitter, not sure I can load it here. Doesn’t the automatic VAR have to get confirmed by human eyes too? This VAR is going to be a mess! Can Argentina protest this and try to get a point? After all this is the World Cup, not a small tournament!

      • I agree, but AFA needs to complain, but will FIFA react? That would be FIFA admitting its VAR system is flawed. Have you seen the picture is pretty obvious he was onside. Now I know that you are supposed to win games on the pitch, but there is too much at stake not to complain here.

        • I saw that it was onside or rather, I never saw the offside. I am talking about the VAR image. I assumed I was wrong. May be I am doing things in hindsight.

    • Who is “they”? This isn’t on any news outlet I am aware of. And please don’t say social media. Unless they is FIFA or AFA it’s all speculation. Please let us know.

    • And who gave that assist? The man people think he is done, he is old. He doesn’t deserve it. Bla bla bla should have played instead of him. Plus another bla bla bla. Yes Papu had a bad game yeah right. Go side with those VAR cheaters then. They agree with you.

      • Well I’m sorry but Papu, is no midfielder, and he was with Di Maria the worst on the pitch. So he doesn’t deserve to play against Mexico… We need changes.
        For example GLC had a Million of those passes that should’ve been goals at Argentina and Clublevel. But still a lot of guys here think GLC was overrated.
        After Saudi Game we could clearly see that GLC and Nico are badly missed.

        But no more Papu as starter in Midfield, he can be sub as leftwinger.. or even start as winger but not in midfield we need 3 proper cm to start Papu

        • Papu is a player with end product. He is different from Lo Celso. Maybe in Sevilla, Papu’s numbers so so, but he has always been a player who can score, give a lot of assists, and make killer pass. He is originally a number 10, it is just he is versatile enough to play anywhere.

          That alone is already a good resume. No I disagree Papu played bad yesterday. He was just Ok. Only those corrupted FIFA made Papu looking bad by disallowing his wonderful assist to Lautaro. De Paul played much worse yesterday.

  30. Lets see how we react, The true character of the team will come out in adversity, i guess. Who plays, what formation etc doesn’t matter now. Whoever it is they have to give their all, Only thing don’t start non 100% players. If instilling young blood or warrior players can bring grit to us, Be it, Angel Correa, Enzo Fernandez, Alvarez etc may can bring much needed energy to us probably.

    Off the topic: Croatia drawn with Morocco? Really. Denmark drawn Tunisia, Saudi beat us. Is it me, the Middle eastern teams are doing better this time considering they are familiar with the Climate. Iran lost by the way. But still these teams were suppose to lose right, or are they getting better?, What all Shocks awaits now?. Lets see, whether any of the Middle East teams make it to second round.

    Are this new Offside rule making it difficult. Its taking out the natural fair of the game to be fair. Already VAR is ruining it. no one knows whats happening inside that box, It depends on referees Mood. yesterday penalty for Poland was not suppose to be a penalty on normal circumstances. The rules are now confusing and contradicting in some cases.

  31. Don’t go for too many changes, otherwise we are going Sampaoli mode again. Stick to our copa winning formula.

    Mentally part I think they are fine, because they also know yesterday’s game was just a beautifully rigged upset. FIFA will 100% pay us back in crucial moments and give us a smooth ride to the final.

  32. When we hadn’t lost in three years, nobody was ripping on our players or Scaloni selection. This comes down to one reason we lost. The players did not take the opponent seriously and they got their ass kicked simple as that. Remember, only Messi DiMaria and Otamendi have played in a wc; the rest have not. People ask for Garnacho but he can’t start on Man U but everybody thinks he will save us which he won’t. Neither will Almada. This comes down to 8 or 9 players to dominate and we go through. It’s Messi, ADM, Lautaro, Cuti, Molina Dibu DePaul, and a couple others. They all played like shit, starting with Messi who doesn’t even try to run anymore. I do agree with some of the commentary that ADM should be a super sub, Papu is a spot player and no starter, Paredes has done nothing in over a year to show he deserves to start, and Licha should start over Ota hands down. Scaloni is way too slow to make these calls as he did the same stupid shit with Armani before starting Dibu finally. I hope they can make a non biased performance based decision to bench some of these players. And it was great that Messi talked but honestly the attitude is set by him and his lack of urgency showed in yesterdays humiliating loss.
    Si Leo, talk is cheap, get your ass out there and hustle for 90 minutes and others will do the same.
    The last thing I will say is Tagliafico is a backup on his best day. I will never forget how Mbappe ran by him in 2018 like he was a houseplant to score on us. I can never see him in a positive light after that. This player is small short and has minimal techinical ability and honestly I’d play Marcos Rojo there again before Tagliafico. I have no idea how Medina does not get the call up over him. Another guy who has been here too long and done too little

  33. Germany goal, why no offside checking?? It looked offside when the German player got the ball before the foul. At least the audience deserves to see whether it is offside or no. That is so unfair.

  34. The problem is argentina have lots of short players viewed as next messi .Almada is an example. It is outdated .Nowadays football needs players with good physical ability,together with skill.

    We need players with garnacho’s speed ,players with foden’ skill , players with progba ‘s body.

    as simple as saudi arabia ,look at their players compared with us .

  35. is it me or does it feel as if the WC is 2 and a half weeks in and it only started few days ago!
    Anyway, I just find it hard to believe that the team just collapsed where they couldn’t do anything right, its 2022 not 2018, undefeated in 36 games…etc etc etc POINT is, its either the team just didn’t feel the need to risk injuries and perform as needed because of their competition OR real injuries are present but THEY said NO injuries to declare!!!
    Whatever happened to 2-3 players RUSHING to defend on every single play??

    • I think they just didn’t turn up with the right mentality and as they scored the 4 goals even though 3 got cancelled they got even more complacent .. however I know the ability is there and it’s the perfect wake up call and at the best time

  36. I agree one or two changes is needed and it’s reasonably but It’s ridiculous to make five or four changes from the shocking defeat yesterday every team, every player are entitled to have one bad game and happened tonus yesterday I’m expecting from our team massive improvement,big fight vs Mexico on Saturday and beyond

    • 1o 2 ? Tell me the 1 or 2 changes you would like to see ? What I see is minimum three changes Papu (he is done), Tagliafico, (he has zero offensive skills and was manhandled by Saudis when attacking) and Cuti ( he is not fit and hence lost balls, misplaced passes and failed to defend the first goal) these three can’t feature in the starting line up again. I am okay with Paredes starting as long as he is fully fit! Tata plays possession futbal and we have to have min-3 midfielders to dominate their style of play and that is why a ball playing defender with aggression is also needed in the back which is Licha!!

    • First of all. For me 2 are enough. At most 3. (Enzo and Acuna only, that’s all). Cuti is fine. You don’t replace the world finest defender when wearing Argentina jersey just because of a bad game. Before the game yesterday, there was no single defender in the entire world played better than Cuti when playing for Argentina. Not even close. It is the same as you think of replacing Van Dijk for Netherlands because he had a bad game. The only reason I agree Cuti won’t start next game if he injures himself again.

      Secondly I disagree with all of you who bashed Papu for the poor game. He was OK. No one played good but he was OK. 2 times he delivered killer balls and 2 times it would have been an assist. The 3-0 in the first half lead could have been because of 2 Papu’s assist. That alone already showed that he did something. Plus he did not do any mistakes. Rare bad passes, rarely got the ball stolen, getting fouled quite some times, winning free kicks. Helped quite a lot defensively. If people say he has a bad game then he is the new Di Maria!

      I mean I know here people are fans of MacAllister, Enzo, etc. They see Papu as the one they want to remove in order for their heroes to play. It had been the same case with Di Maria. Back then they wanted everyone to start as long as long Di Maria. The lists include: Gaitan, younger Acuna, Gonzalo Pity, Sosa, Nico Gonzales, Ocampos, and the famous Meza, and many more. They would blame every losses/draws on Di Maria no matter what. Now what? Papu is that guy?

      I mean look everyone had a bad game, but Papu was not the worst one at all. If there had been no that stupid new technology of offside, then Papu would have assisted Lautaro’s goal and made it 2-0. I mean give the guy a break. Just because he is not popular among us here but give the guy a credit. It is so unfair to bash your frustration on him just because he is 34 and he has no fan base here AND because your favorite players can’t start because of him!

      • Papu can’t be a starter anymore. Yes, had the goal not being wrongly disallowed he would have an assist but he was too slow to react for the most part and which was affecting his positioning and it goes wihtout saying he was also slow to track back , press and defend. Remember the long diagonal pass from Messi which he couldn’t reach due to his lack of pace? No hate towards him but he is a luxury we can’t afford anymore , especially after yesterday’s loss, the circumstances has completely changes now. Our opponents will target our left flank which was so blunt and toothless with Tagliafico and Papu who is only a shadow of his Atlanta days. He was at his peak in 2018 along with Pezzella and Sampaoli did select both. Anyhow, at best Papu can come in against tired legs but he can’t be started against a fresh young Mexican team which plays possession futbal whose coach happens to be our former-coach. Tata will surround Messi the entire time. The only all-round mid to fill-in for a proper CM Lo-ceslo is Enzo. But if Scaloni decides to play safe to not concede a goal then he might go with MacAllister to cover the defense. Conceding early will be more detrimental for us and with Papu on the starting lineup it is highly likely. My favorite player is A.Correa but only player he can replace is Dimaria and we have Dybala who plays in the same position and is more creative and clinical.

        • If you want to blame someone in midfield, blame De Paul. He played horrible. Not Papu. De Paul uncharacteristically had no killer pass, lazy defensively and bad positioning wise. Where was De Paul in Saudi’s first goal? Why from Messi being dispossessed the ball went to the attacker that Cuti marked right away? De Paul was supposed to be in front of Cuti at all times, especially it was not even a counter attack by Saudi.

          Papu should have had 2 assists. And those assists came from split defense passes, not just a mere simple pass. I am not saying I want Papu to start against Mexico. I am saying I would defend any player of ours who are quality players but get hated just because he has no fan base (more like Di Maria here back then). Papu is one of them.

      • Maybe he will be finest in the future but let’s be honest, he was a disaster yesterday. I believe that he is not fully recovered yet and Scaloni thought that a 50% Romero will be enough against Saudi Arabia.

  37. I would say most of the argentina players are fit .It is not the matter of fitness when losing to saudi arabia .
    it is because of tactics, formations and physical ability .

    1, Formation
    suddenly change formation to 4231 together with saudi’s highline defense .completely loss the midfield control which make our defender at risk . suppose midfield should cover our central back .

    we need 3 CM at least to cover ,protect and make sure of controlling the midfield .Papu didn’t contribute in defense nor attack ,tagliafico is just average

    2, Tactics
    you need tall speedy wingers and striker against highline defense. unfortunately we don’t have .

    3,Physically weak
    nowadays we need strong ,fast players not small clumsy one . even foden ,Salah they are short but fast and skilful. our players neither tall ,fast nor skilful enough .

    Bear in mind vs Mexico is a different game ,they won’t play highline defense .they play possession football 。They want to control the midfield, So we must control the midfield with skilful players not no.5 Enzo ,Mcallister, Palacios are no.5 we only need one pure no.5. That is Guido. and a 50% no.5 that is de Paul. with attacking midfields A correa and messi as double engines .

    Our weakest link are on left side . Acuna is must . if needed ,di Maria should go to left ,Messi on the right connect by A correa .

    I would say if you choose Enzo partner mcallister ,we will losing our midfield control too。Mexico is good at ball possession. There is no point to use so many no.5 when your team lack of skill or ball possession.

    what we need to change ,totally is on the left side . Acuna for tagliafico ,Acorrea for Gomez ,Guido for Paredes 。That s enough

  38. Many of you will watch the Champions League. Successful teams like Real Madrid, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Man City and recently Napoli have a few things in common, fast wingers, continuous pressing and constant movement. Several national teams have adopted that (r)evolution and play Voll Gass (full gas, pedal to the metal) to use Jurgen Klopp words. Argentina does not play full gas football because many players do not have the stamina nor fitness to keep up. It is not our style. We will learn soon if our style is outdated. We need at least 4 changes against Mexico and Poland AND we need to play three gears higher.

    • None of them play pressing football even at the club level with some exceptions like Enzo and Julian. Even Lautaro seldom plays a pressing game for Inter. The way Messi played against Italy snatching balls away from Jorginho in our half – did we see that intensity even after we were 1-2 down. No. So Messi can. But didn’t. Was De Paul accurate in his passing and taking shots from outside the box? No. Was Cuti Romero as fast as he is with his club? No. Was Di Maria accurate? Was he even half clever as he always is? No. Because he is out of game for long. Was Messi calm? No. He messed up in a situation when even the Saudi goalkeeper was struggling to get back to the line. He also messed up against Brazil in Copa final. It could easily have been 2-0. The complexion of the game changed when Acuna, Alvarez and Enzo started their pressing game. We got some excellent chances but we missed. Instead of Messi doing a pep talk in the dressing room, Scaloni should do some solid strategy work. I believe (I might be totally wrong) Mexico would press hard from the very beginning. Their wings are smooth. But they would not go full throttle because even a draw would be good for them. Then once they discover that the aged, injured and sick Argentina is struggling on pitch, then they would speed up things. Scaloni would have to keep wings at bay, press hard from the very beginning using young guns and then get old guns after 65th minute and whisper into their ear ‘If you cannot play pressing football for even 25 mins, it is time to say goodbye to the greens.’

      • Agreed.
        After the WC, Di Maria won’t be the only one saying adios to the NT. Otamendi, Pezzela, Papu, Armani and Messi will quit too.

  39. I heard about respecting the opponent but rather respect depending on the opponent. The team did not defend well against Saudi Arabia in the same way it defended against Brazil. This is football so anything can happen. The mentality of the players in the match against Saudi Arabia is definitely different from when you play against Brazil. I’m only talking about the psychological aspect, the Argentina team is a bit subjective and arrogant. It’s an expensive lesson that you never take by heart. From the second game on, you have to be very careful against all opponents. In addition, you have to prepare physically well because if the team goes deeper, you will have a long way to go.

  40. Why should we expect change!!!Now Change is mandatory and indispensable !
    Minimum changes required
    Tagliafico out- Acuna in
    Paredes out- Enzo in
    Papu out – Mc Allister / Almada in
    Romero out- Licha in

    Also Dybala or Correa must get minutes as subs

  41. We crashed out of 2018 world cup due to three primary reasons. Aging players, Unfit players and ludicrous strategy from coach.

    Scaloni fielded four 35 plus players yesterday. Messi, Dimaria, Papu and Otamendi. He also had few not fully fit players like Cuti , Messi, Paredes and Dimaria. Messi looked like PSG’s Messi from first season losing possession and avoiding tackles. He does that when he is unfit which is another big blow.

    Our weakness is left side and which is why we will need Licha in the back to offset Acuña age . Lisandro’s pace and aggression will offset Acuña slow pace when he ventures forward and is caught out of position. Papu has to be replaced by young conventional midfielder in either Enzo or MacAllister. Both these mids play as LCM for their respective clubs. Enzo is more dynamic and brings better balance and I pick him over MacAllister. Cuti, Papu and Tagliafico have to be dropped. Especially Cuti, as he won’t be fit until the quaters.

    If Paredes is not fit then we cant risk by playing him in a crunch match. Guido will be a proper replacement as he brings his height too. I hope he has recovered from flu otherwise playing with flu is as bad as playing with injury. All these replacements have been with the team for long time so playing them for unfit , less skilled and aging players is the proper way to go. I have been long admirer of Dimaria starting but we need to rotate him with Dybala who also plays in the same position for Roma. Both Alvarez and Dybala needs to sub Dimaria and Lautaro in the second half. We have two matches remaining and can’t afford to concede any early goals and hopefully Scaloni will have it as the team’s higest priority. If we don’t concede goals we will win as long as we take the chances we create. Lastly, mental strength is KEY!! We need our players to come out with Viking kind of mentality and approach. I pray this loss is a blessing and disguise and brings the monster out of our players.

      • Let’s blame Caballero or whatever his name is.

        In high stakes game, one stupid mess and the game turns.
        If the VAR story going around is correct, and it so turns out that Lautaro was NOT offside, that is essentially what cost the game.

        Rather than be 1-0 , we should have suddenly been 2-0 up and with that, breathing room and that way, we could have drawn our opponent (Saudi Arabia) to come out and then strike!

        That is how football unfolds.
        Instead of 2-0 up, they equalised adn we were now chasing for a second goal and with bad fortune, they scored and we were down.

        That VAR decision, if correctly reported, changed the dynamics of the game and when you are down and trying to reverse the situation, you’ll make mistakes and get punished hence the second goal.
        It’s not as bad as we make it.
        People are now castigating Lionel Scaloni yet, he is the guy who beat Brazil to win COPA.
        We are thankless and selfish.

        No matter what happens in this tournament, Scaloni is the only guy who brought pork home and went on an unbeaten run before we were beaten by the VAR.

        Oh, what will FIFa do now if it is proven that their much hyped VAR was wrong?

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