Franco Mastantuono spoke about the criticism that was surrounding him.
Mastantuono scored for the Argentina national team in their 7-0 win against Burkina Faso. The 19 year old left Real Madrid and joined Fiorentina on loan, having received a lot of criticism. Speaking to the media after the match, here is what Mastantuono had to say:
“People are very demanding of me. And I understand it, I understand what is expected of me, many times they are hard on me but I try to enjoy it.
“And I’m not complaining about the criticism, I’m a football player and I understand it, but they’re talking about things that don’t depend on me, I just do my job and I always try to do it well.
“I know there’s a lot of expectation and I love it, but I play for my team and for myself, not for those expectations.”
Players like Dibu, Macca, Enzo, Lautaro, Álvarez, Cuti, Licha, etc. are all stars in their own right. If Scaloni calls them up in a 26-man squad, obviously he has to give them some minutes. You can’t simply ask these players to sit on the bench and only train.
Scaloni also can’t just ditch the likes of them because they are the core of the team moving forward.
The only thing Scaloni could have done was to start with the youngsters and then give around final 30 minutes to the established stars, just to keep them involved and in the loop.
All of these players have already cemented their spots in the national team. There’s no need to prove anything to anyone. These friendlies were the perfect opportunity to give the youngsters more responsibility while still keeping the senior players involved.
Well if we are playing a far tougher opponent then it’s an altogether different scenario. Then we need these experienced guys to start. But against lower quality opponents start with youngsters would be a better idea.
We all wanted to see the younger generation play and we did and that’s what it’s all about at the moment, the bigger games will come in time but the necessary sad reality is that the AFA needs to make money now especially since the cash cow is gone and it’s not like there are a lot of options available.
Now is the time for the new players to play , make mistakes and learn without having the pressure of high expectations hanging over their heads
Argentina’s 2014 and 2026 World Cup campaigns have an interesting similarity. In both cases, Argentina went into the tournament after playing a number of relatively low level friendlies, yet still managed to reach the World Cup final.
Before the 2014 World Cup, Argentina played Bosnia & Herzegovina, Ecuador, Italy, Guatemala, Sweden, Romania, Trinidad & Tobago and Slovenia. Italy and Sweden were arguably the two strongest opponents, the rest were mostly mid or lower tier opposition.
Yet Argentina went on to reach the final.
The same thing happened in 2026. The quality of the friendly opponents can certainly be questioned, and AFA/Tapia deserve criticism for the scheduling. But the results of 2014 and 2026 suggest that the opponent itself isn’t necessarily the decisive issue. What matters is what the manager does with those matches.
Scaloni has no control over who AFA schedules, but he does have control over his squad selection, rotations, formations and how many minutes he gives to different players. If you’re going to play a weaker opponent, that should arguably be the perfect opportunity to give younger or fringe players 60–90 minutes and test different combinations.
And there is another striking similarity between the two World Cup runs: Argentina ultimately lost the finals despite having enough quality to win, with individual moments/errors playing a significant role in both defeats.
So while AFA/Tapia can absolutely be criticized for the friendly schedule, Scaloni shouldn’t get a free pass. Friendly scheduling is AFA’s responsibility how Argentina uses those matches is the manager’s responsibility.
Scaloni has no control over who Argentina plays in friendlies. He does, however, have total control over team selection. Was Dibu, Romero, Licha, Medina, Enzo, Mac Allister, Lautaro and Julián Álvarez really needed against a U10 Burkina Faso side?
This was yet another missed opportunity. Scaloni could have given a full 90 minutes to Beltrán, Tomás Palacios, Román Vega, Barco, Equi Fernández, Soulé, Castro, etc. Or even called up and tested some more young local talent. Looks like Scaloni is just interested in keeping up his win/loss ratio.
These are exactly the games where you should be giving the younger players extended minutes and testing the next generation and not playing the same established core over and over again. While AFA/Tapia deserve criticism for the choice of friendlies, Scaloni also deserves a significant share of the blame for how he managed them, particularly his team selection and use of players.
So true.
100% agree LordDante. He should give youngsters like Tomas Palacios, Vega, Equi Fernandez, Soule, Castro, Beltran full match. Why played enzo Fernandez, Alexis Maclester, Emiliano Martinez, lisandro Martinez in useless match against U23 Bukarino Faso I don’t understand.
The olders just should start only in Messi’s last game. That’s all. There was absolutely no risk in playing new eleven from scratch against Bolivia or BS.