Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni to make “seven or eight changes” vs. Indonesia

By
Roy Nemer
-
11

Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni has stated that he will make “seven or eight changes” vs. Indonesia.

Lionel Scaloni will be without the veteran trio of Lionel Messi, Ángel Di María and Nicolás Otamend for the match vs. Indonesia on Monday. The World Cup winning coach spoke at a press conference on Sunday about the possible eleven for Monday’s match. Here is what he had to say:

“Seven or eight changes”.

“The level of the national team will not change with these changes. Let’s hope we can live up to the match against Indonesia and what it represents to play with this shirt.”

Scaloni was also asked about Messi, Di María and Otamendi resting:

“Messi is resting. I have decided that he should rest. As much him as Di María and Otamendi, they need to rest. It was already thought about before.

“They played a match with the Argentina national team, which is the most important. Argentina is far above any player. In this case, Leo si not here but the others are there and I hope people enjoy it.”

He was also asked about who will replace Lionel Messi in the eleven:

“Who will replace him tomorrow? No one. No one can play like Messi but we will try to make the team play the same way, knowing that he is a player who is impossible to replace. But yes, the team is capable of playing just as well and with other skills. That is what we will try to do.”

Here are the players that are available for Scaloni:

Goalkeepers:
Emiliano Martínez (Aston Villa)
Gerónimo Rulli (Ajax)
Walter Benítez (PSV)

Defenders:
Nahuel Molina (Atletico Madrid)
Gonzalo Montiel (Sevilla)
Germán Pezzella (Real Betis)
Cristian Romero (Tottenham Hotspur)
Leonardo Balerdi (Olympique Marseille)
Facundo Medina (RC Lens)
Nicolás Tagliafico (Lyon)
Marcos Acuña (Sevilla)

Midfielders:
Leandro Paredes (Juventus)
Enzo Fernández (Chelsea)
Guido Rodríguez (Real Betis)
Rodrigo De Paul (Atletico Madrid)
Exequiel Palacios (Bayer Leverkusen)
Alexis Mac Allister (Brighton)
Thiago Almada (Atlanta United)
Giovani Lo Celso (Villarreal)
Facundo Buonanotte (Brighton)

Forwards:
Lucas Ocampos (Sevilla)
Julián Álvarez (Manchester City)
Giovanni Simeone (Napoli)
Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United)
Nicolás González (Fiorentina)

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

11 Comments

  1. Not expecting a big name to start, Scaloni will put on a new face and try a new formation against Indonesian, ranked 129. Realistic Indonesian is not the right choice team to play with Argentina, the world champion and ranked one. A long-distance and tiring flight.
    To be honest, this match only looks after the big money. 🙂 The ticket is not cheap. Anyhow let’s enjoy it. Maybe this is once in a lifetime experience to watch Life Albiceleste playing in our beloved country. Rulli, Palacios, Garnacho, Gio Simone and Thiago Almada will be in the starting XI.

  4. A match without Messi after a long time. Last few occasions the team did not do bad. But situations have changed since then. Many in the team have tasted ultimate success. How hungry still they are? Big test for Scaloni as he has to deal with his probable complacency and that of many of his World Cup winners. There was a period of 10-15 mins in the first half against Australia, when the team did not look like what they actually are capable of.

  6. I’m excited to see how the team performs without Messi and how the Forwards play among themselves.
    Lo Celso and Enzo should have a bigger role tomorrow to say the least and hopefully both Medina and Balerdi on D.

    • I think we should start this way and then make changes throughout the match to try different things:

      Molina- romero- pezzela – tagla
      De paul- enzo- Macalester
      Ocampos-alvarez- garnacho

      • I think if the opponent is not much of a threat means we can unleash that 3 mid field of lo celso Enzo and macallister which is more fluid in attack. But when de Paul comes instead of lo celso that fluidity would be less but he gives more stability especially against big teams. So for a forward 3 without Messi and di Maria means lo celso Enzo macallister is very important to help the forwards to attack more especially against these weaker teams and to give a nice start to garnacho.

Comments are closed.