Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni speaks about his future

LENGTHY COMMENT WARNING
I am not the type to sharing too much of my opinion, but now that the WC is over, I think this is the best chance for me to write a long comment.
1) We come to the 2026 WC with a very limited squad
a) Our wings are dead
We had “world-class” players sure, but this team when compare to the 2022 WC is definitely a downgrade in terms of the balance in player profiles. What we lacked in this campaign is 1-2 good wingers who can beat the defenders 1vs1 (no, Simeone and Nico Gonzalez CAN’T do this, they passed the ball back then they run forward waiting to be passed back to).
This makes our two wings essentially dead. Whenever Nico Gonzalez and Simeone played, their main job is basically help the FB in defence and *sometime* act as a runner, a passing option in attack.
Looking at both the games against England and Spain, we can clearly see that, especially the final. Nico constantly losed the ball to Pedro Porro or when Rodri tracked the left side. He cannot dribble past one of them.
b) Even attacking in the central lanes is hard
If Spain, or France, or England are in a situation like we’re today where it’s too difficult to play out from the back, you know what they’re gonna do? The GK will hit it long to a *target man*, another profile we don’t have. Both Lautaro and Alvarez are too short and too weak (compared to England, France CBs..) to play that role. Not to say they’re not 2 world-class strikers, it’s just another player profile that we lacked.
c) The only way to move the ball forwads
Scaloni basically bet everything on the midfield. He’s determined to set the team up to progress through the central lane. By overcrowding the midfield with 4 players + Messi/Alvarez dropping deep, we pretty much always outnumbered the opposition. The players can also rotate their position, most notably Enzo and Macca, making more difficult for the opponent to track us. It’s hard to pass in such a crowded space (because our opposition can also put more numbers in the midfield to stop us), hence why we saw so many error passes. But the individual quality of this squad still comes through from time to time.
Messi down the right wing is also a *part-time* solution. Messi move out the right wing to try and lose his tracker, combining with De Paul, Molina + 1 (mostly Alvarez, this is when both Alvarez and Lautaro play) and try to use his insane passing ability to generate chances. But this can only be done late in the game, as you cannot put Messi down the right wing the whole game. Messi need the opponent to be somewhat tired, and try to hit them with surprised burst of speedy dribbles. Messi at 39 years old is still the best (and the only one) “winger” who can take on a defender.
2) The problem the tactic
Obviously, we’re too reliant on Messi. Moreoever, we’re really easy to counter. Just match our 5 players in the midfields, pressing with high intensity and we can’t attack anymore. When we can’t progress the ball forward and lose the ball in the midfield, our defence is always put in danger (just imagine losing the ball 25m directly in the area directly in front of your goal). And that’s not even mentioning how poor our FB is against good wingers who can play 1vs1 (Tagliafico I give a 6/10 in terms of defense, Molina… I won’t even bother to grade him defensively)
Here’s the part where people start criticizing Scaloni, but I differ. Even though I am the one writing, I think this is THE BEST approach to MAXIMIZE THE ABILITY OF OUR STAR PLAYERS. And they provided the results: we have the best attack (before the most unserious 3rd place match ever), and progress to the final, beating a good England side.
The key word here is “The ability of our star players”, not the ability of “of the best Argenine players pool”. To try and play a different tactic and get a better result than this, we NEED TO REBUILD THE SQUAD
3) The most valid criticism I have seen on Scaloni
As written above, I don’t really agree with other members on this forum when they said things like: Scaloni need to play *insert winger’s name* (Scaloni still did this in 2 games but it didn’t really change our attacking approach and effectiveness, they were mostly to counter our opponent’s winger). Heck, even changing up a midfielders (like Barco or Paz), I don’t believe it will have much of an effect (the rationale for this comment is usually someone playing lost the ball too much – because our opponent is countering us by crowding the midfield, or everything is going through Messi and we need another creativity outlet – Messi is dropping deep to create numerical advantage, whoever we swap in the midfield will not change how Messi play)
The most valid criticism in my opinion (and the only one I have seen) is Scaloni squad building.
4) Why not rebuild sooner
I don’t think Scaloni didn’t try anything to change things up. He has given Garnacho and Mastantuono some chances (albeit not a lot). Another winger is Prestianni has also been called up, but I don’t think anyone of them deserve a spot at this WC. The only one true regret for me is Buendia, but he hasn’t been called up for too long.
Complacency is also a factor, but I think it’s much easier to criticize Scaloni in hindsight. If you were Scaloni 4 years ago, seeing how well Enzo, Macca, Romero, Licha, Molina, Alvarez played, with players like Paredes, Tagliafico, De Paul in their early 30s, and you still have players like Lautaro, Locelso who can always shine… All of the sudden, this current tactic didn’t seem that bad of an approach. You will most certainly build something around these players.
Of course, reality is different. Enzo didn’t really develope in the way we want (which’s a DM. Maresca turned him into a box-to-box work horse), Macca coming in from a very bad year at Liverpool, Molina somehow regressed even though he’s in his prime year. Even Alvarez in the last 2 years at Atletico, I would say he has stagnated.
But still, their star quality still comes through, at least enough for us to be in the final, so if you put yourself in the shoes of Scaloni, you have even more reasons to believe in this tactics (at least during this WC tournament)
5) Moving forward
I have no doubt that Scaloni see the massive problems with this current tactics, it’s just that in his opinion (and I think the same too) that this is the best way to get the most out of our current players. (might explain why he talked so much about appreciating each wins, and how this group makes him emotional…)
Now that we have somewhat of a clean slate, if Scaloni and co still have the heart and desire to continue winning, I believe he’s the one to take us forwards. People forget that Scaloni is a brave manager. He’s willing to change 2/3 midfielders to a squad that was unbeaten in 36 games, he’s willing to put Lautaro, his Copa America hero on the bench for Julian Alvarez. I have no doubt that Scaloni has the ability to get the most out of his players (which in international football, is even more important than tactical knowledge). Now that Scaloni has the time, he can rebuild Argentina just like he did in 2018. This time, our base is much better than the mess that was 2018.
Let’s tone down the pressure a little bit on this squad and coaching staffs. Remember before Scaloni and this group, our last titles was 1993. We lost 4 finals between since 2007 – 2016. Losing the 2026 WC finals against a good Spain is nothing to be shameful about, and we just won 2 Copas, a WC and Finalissima in the last 5 years. The “me” from 2010-2018 would faint out of joy if you told me what we have won in the last 5 years.
END OF COMMENT

I think you have to look back a few years to explain this loss. Scaloni thought the team was young and experienced enough to repeat. We never replaced DiMaria. Garnacho who was the heir apparent ended up being an immature shithead. Mastantuono wasn’t ready. Tagliafico and Molina/Montiel just weren’t good enough. DePaul/McCallister/Enzo where too slow footed and minimal pace. All in all with what he had Scaloni did wonders. My only complaint is Barco was built for a game like this as well as Nico Paz. They deserved minutes. If Spain can play 19 year olds so can we. At some point you have to see if they are up to the task or not. Maybe not in the final, but years ago. When guys like Carboni, Garnacho don’t pan out, it’s a problem. Scaloni will stay on. But a new cycle begins. Maybe some young blood will do this team good. There’s about a handful of guys that should stay as starters. Dibu, Licha, Cuti, Enzo, and Julian/Lautaro. The rest needs to be young blood. Time to turn the page.

molina depaul ota montiel almada paredes should big hearted enough to let youngbloods take their spots like DiMaria did and stop leeching for thropies.
And our midfielders strangely unable to share loads with messi apart from some magic moment.
Hope to see new faces on finalissima or next copa.

Whether they rebuild team with Messi or not we are the witness of the Goat are so proud of him and those warriors mentality.
Thanks coach for all those thropies !

Not using are fire power ????

Not facing Spain ok maybe a late attack plan got ruined with the injured defence

Ok allow that

But Spain pass hardly score and go out far more often than win or runner up

It’s Argentina who play almost every final

The old guards just have to go. Thanks for the memories and titles De Paul, Paredes, Montiel, Molina, Nico Gonzalez, Tagliafico but it’s time to GO.

Nothing lasts forever, players come and go and the Albiceleste is no different.
You never going to find out what players you have unless you look!
If Scaloni chooses to step down after his contract runs out, so be it, we never have dreamt of 4 trophies in 4 years and he made that possible and as the saying goes “Victory has many sons but defeat is an orphan”
Some might criticize Scaloni in bad times when they praised him the good times!

This lost is 100% on Scaloni. La Fuente showed him his hands. He saw what they did to France. Instead of beefing up the midfield, he played De Paul and Nico Gonzalez? This is the game Lo Celso should have played and keep Paredes in the lineup. De Paul has been ass the entire tournament and you think he would be great in a World Cup Finals? That was just embarrassing.

Play Spain head to head. Argentina has more firepower than Spain. You’re the defending champions. If you’re losing, lose with dignity.

I feel bad for Lautaro. This guy deserves to play in final. This disgrace coach cost us this World Cup with his nepotism towards some the finished players.