Javier Mascherano on his Argentina U20 future: “I don’t think I’ll continue”

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Javier Mascherano has stated that he doesn’t think he will continue as coach of the Argentina U20 team.

Mascherano spoke to the media following his team’s 1-0 elimination vs. Colombia at the Sudamericano and has stated that he won’t be continuing. Here is what he had to say:

“There isn’t much to say. The one who failed is me. It’s an incredible generation of players. Unfortunately, I couldn’t give them the confidence and peace of mind.

“I don’t think I’ll continue. The best thing is to go back to Argentina and be calm. I failed and I admit it.”

He took over as coach of the Argentina U20 team in January 2022 and has coached the team in four tournaments. His first was the Toulon tournament in May and June 2022 where the team finished in fifth place.

The next tournament was the COTIF tournament in Spain, a tournament in which Argentina won. After that was a friendly tournament in Uruguay and once more, Mascherano’s team would win the tournament.

This year’s Sudamericano in Colombia served as the qualifiers for the 2023 U20 World Cup and the Pan American games. Argentina did not make it out of the group, winning only one of four matches.

24 Comments

  1. though U20 failed today ,normally only a few players ultimately can be promoted to national team according its history.

    Just keep an eye on our local superliga .I think we still have lots of talento .

    I have summarize a litte bit

    Striker :
    Retegui(Tigre) ,Colidio (Tigre second striker),Jose Lopez (palmerase brazil), Beltran(riverplate),Gimenez Rojas (indepiendente ), Osorio (Velez) ,Gaston Veron( argentinos)

    Winger:
    Zeballos(Boca), Prestianni(Velez),P solari(riverplate),Orellano (Brazil),Tomas cuello(Brazil), Juan cruz ( real bertis ,spain), Personally I will follow Benjamin garre .

    Playmaker:
    Bruno zapelli(Belgrano)

    Central midfield:
    E fernandez (Boca) ,Jose paradela (Riverplate )

    Defensive midfield:
    Federico Redondo(Argentinos)

    Together with some European players
    S Castro ( Genk ,Belgium )
    Buonanotte(EPL)
    E bullaude(Feyenoord)
    Tanlongo(Sporting)

    • you forgot Fausto Vera, who has been very good in Brazil.
      Jose Lopez has lost his tracks since moving to Brazil. But still, a good player to keep an eye on.
      How about Racing new signing Nardoni?
      Boca’s Varela.

  2. Gaich returns to Seria A Verona. That is good for him. I still believe he has the potential especially when messi retires and it is important to have a strong tall striker to perform as Halland . Gaich together with Alvarez ,L martinez or Castellanos, Simeone are pretty enough .

    Barco (boca) still hasn’t reach agreement with European team ,Boca won’t let him go easily .That is the problem of riquelme. If you don’t give him playing time just let him go .

    Zeballos is followed by real marid and manchester city .

  3. Ill add one more thing. There is a picture of Nico Paz in tears after elimination. Whats done is done, but we are not going to attract dual citizen players with this type of absolute shit coaching by Mascherano. I have to say it but this guy has been one of the worst under 20 managers we have ever had. Can we please, going forward agree that great players shouldn’t just be given these positions of incredible influence on our youth just because they played a distinguished career? I mean can Mascherano really have shit the bed any worse? And yeah, you could have played Luka Garnacho Soule and a bunch of others and with Masche coaching I highly doubt we would have won anything. The guy was never a coach, and too much was given at too early of a time with zero evidence of ability.

    • Agree. It’s a shame to bow out of a tournament of such stature after the fantastic 2021-22 season by the seniors. If that fails to inspire the youngsters, Mascherano was not doing an inspiring job. We need someone like Pekerman to fix things at the youth level.

  4. Hopefully AFA won’t split scaloni,aimar,Ayala,Samuel combination.Winning the world cup is due to a team work by them. Logically you should keep it til next world cup .

    I would suggest an experienced coach who is good at finding out talento to take up the job. Of course he may not be as famous as Gallardo or pochettino. But being a explayer in europe is a must .he should familiarize with the most updated training method and tactics .

    E Coudet or Solari (former real Madrid player) are suitable candidates

  5. Everybody fails in life. He failed in public; we fail in private. He doesn’t need to be so hard on himself. Most important thing is to grow from this failure. Argentina football team of all age spectrums have a bright future. One failure will not define theirs future outcome.

  6. The most disappointing thing about this campaign is knowing we would have won the U20 Wc if we had qualified. We would have got the services of Garnacho, Luka Romero, and the other European-based players.
    But I think FIFA should make it mandatory for clubs to release under 20 players the same way they do for senior players for national duty as well.
    I can recall Brazil not qualifying for the last U20 World Cup for the same reason. They got to host it because the original hosts (Peru) could not have hosted it. Brazil went on to win the WC because they had the services of the Euro-based players.
    If Argentina had the use of the Garnacho and company, we would have easily made the World Cup.
    I hope this gives Garnacho and Luka (who will be 21 and 22 in the Next World Cup) the motivation to defend the senior title.

  7. This is nothing personal as I think he is an honorable person but this job is way too big for him. He only got it because of a lot of unwarranted leadership accolades. I love Mascherano as a person, as a player, but I can’t remember a lot of trophies or hardware with him as captain. Bottom line, he was in way over his skies. All of these players take the small club route. Gago, Insua, Tevez, on and on. Some end up ok, some end up like Mascherano. You cannot put the faith of your youth in the hands of somebody who has limited ideas and clearly does not resonate with the players. Telling them to clean their rooms and learn a different language is stuff of 20 years ago. Todays youth can’t keep focus for 15 minutes at a time. You need a manager that has very clear ideas, that understands what the NT needs and that currently is on the NT staff. Someone who is a conduit to the senior team. That person is Pablo Aimar or Walter Samuel, or Roberto Ayala, or all three. There cannot be a disconnect any longer. We have the money to do it right if corruption and greed don’t take over.

    • I agree. There must be coherence between the senior NT and U20 group in terms of playing philosophy and vision. Scaloni and team should take charge of the U20 players to prepare them to take the next step to the NT either immediately or within a couple of years. The main task of U20 is to feed talents to NT, not to win junior tourneys although it would be a confidence booster. I think AFA gave Mascherano too much freedom (perhaps due to respect) to implement his own vision rather than him adapting to the senior NT. The experiment ended not too good. Time to work more structurally.

    • I believe he will be a good manager one day. it is just a tough start for him. He is a real captain. He got the leadership. He has been coached by a lot of great managers before. It is unfortunate that Pep and Luis Enrique who when coaching Mascherano were the best managers in the world by that time were his managers. So he thinks that if he wanna be a successful manager, he needs to copy those 2.

      But then both Pep and Luis don’t win any major trophies anymore for a long time but EPL champion. No Champions league, not Euro win, no World Cup. The tactic is outdated for modern futbol. It is a painful lesson for Masche. Hope a small European club will hire him and he will improve his coaching skill there.

      Now we need a good manager to qualify for the Olympic. Hope AFA will appoint a proven one.

      • Sadly nobody with half a brain will hire this guy in Europe. Would you want him to manage your team? Why would you give an unproven guy with zero skills a leadership job? If he can’t manage kids older players will tune him out too. At least with the kids he is viewed as a hero. With veteran players he is a nobody. His best option is to be an assistant coach for several years with a good manager. It’s nothing personal, he doesn’t know how to convey a successful vision to players. It takes time. He needs to sit his ass next to someone who knows the basics of managing a football side. Baby steps. Not everybody is cut out to manage a team. Simple as that.

  8. Yea..u should go. Just get out pls! Out of this tournament & out of U20 WC also, what a blunder!!! 😭😭 Especially when we are the world champions! OMG! & How bad our future GKs are…
    Argentina remained trophyless 36 yrs just for this kind of shit coach selection. We must not do the same error again anymore..

    • Another drunk clown. Trophyless for 36 years? this is youth tournament we’re talking about and Argentina won 5 titles at u20 and 2 titles at u23. I dont think your browser even supports google and wikipedia?

      • Hello Rattlehead, you haven’t enough maturity & sense to understand my words dear! So sorry for you..
        & Try to understand first & then comment pls & learn to show some respect to others, ok??
        Argentina remained trophyless 36 years in senior level, right? Coaches’ wrong decision, changing coaches again & again & selection of wrong coaches…etc were one of the core reasons?? & Here selection of Mascherano with zero experience was also not right?? I just wanted to mean those, ok? But unfortunately u didn’t have enough sense to understand! Argentina won 6 times U20 WC, I know very well than u. & U r just an ultra foul, ok??

  9. All the best.. also Gallardo should take Job where he can buy players. He definitely try to bring talents from Argentina to europe

  10. One major reason for argentinas failure over the years is the coaches. We should totaly change the method of coach selection.. there should be qualifying criterion.
    You cant become a coach one day morning, regardless of how great player you were, one should have a successfull past coaching career.
    How on earth a few of our previous coaches got selected for that role…i have no idea…
    Will a qualified coach bring trophies in every tournamenf? No for sure, but atleast its a justice to the players and the nation..

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