Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni spoke about the team, Lionel Messi and Leandro Paredes.
Lionel Scaloni spoke at a press conference on Monday where he spoke about the team’s match against Egypt and also about Spain, France, Brazil and the World Cup. Speaking about the team, here is what he had to say:
“When things don’t go your way, there’s not just one way to go out and win. With grit, with intensity, with balls, with the spirit we carry with us. All of that, the team has it.
“I have the team, I haven’t told the players yet. More or less, they already know where things are headed.
“These guys always bring an extra dose of grit, of drive, of not wanting to lose.
“This match will be different than the last one. We cannot lose our essence.
“We will try to be more fresh with some of the guys who didn’t play as many minutes.
“In principle, we will not change the style.
“We are prepared for whatever comes. Many times we see that teams come doing one thing and then against us, they change completely.
“We always try to give the player tools so he knows where we can do damage and how we can defend ourselves.
“I think that Argentina’s level is acceptable. We have won the four matches and I am satisfied. Obviously, there are things to correct. But the favorites are not displaying what they seemed like before the World Cup.”
Scaloni also spoke about the schedule at the World Cup:
“When you’re getting to the end, you should logically need more breaks. And it’s being done the opposite way.”
About Lionel Messi:
“I think Leo is fine. If he has anything, he didn’t tell me, so he’ll play.”
He also spoke about Leandro Paredes:
“Leandro came injured and that is why Alexis Mac Allister played as a number five. After Qatar, Leandro has played almost all the time. He made a tremendous effort to get there and we believe the ideal substitute was Alexis, knowing that he can play a bit higher up and he does it very well.”
Seems like Paredes is back starting at #5, but he called Alexis his backup, which makes sense given the positions he’s been taking up on the pitch this tournament.
Does this mean Alexis is dropped as well? According to reports, they’ve only mentioned Almada being dropped, but outright calling Alexis a Paredes backup says Almada’s replacement could be someone else.
I’ve cooled on my interest for there to be runners in the starting lineup and think given how we’ve been playing and the ideas on the pitch that we’ve had, continuity could be more important at this point so someone between the lines other than Messi to receive the ball could be more beneficial. Though I’m still not against having Almada dropped for Simeone and Barco for Alexis to support the runners setup.
Paredes is our most progressive midfielder in the team by far, in particular when it comes to needle passing so he will find anyone between the lines. If we’re not going with runners, I’m thinking either Nico Paz or Lo Celso has to play tomorrow. Nico Paz I feel is more confident at fixing a man and taking someone on 1v1 than Lo Celso, but I still need to watch him more to see what his creative passing is like. Gio has historically had the best chemistry with Messi over the years so could also be useful and is probably the best and most creative passer in the final third in the team besides Messi.
The other theory is that, because he mentioned Alexis “can play a bit higher up and he does it very well”, he could have Alexis between the midfield and defensive lines and task the other midfielders in RDP and Paredes to find them with Enzo and Alexis being more advanced – not sure how good those two are on the half-turn though ngl.
I’m so happy Leo Paredes is starting, which means we’ll dominate the match and make some great through passes too.