Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni has announced his list of players for the September World Cup qualifiers.
Lionel Scaloni’s team will play Venezuela on Thursday, September 4 and on Tuesday, September 9 against Ecuador. Scaloni has called up 29 players.
Facundo Medina is cut from the preliminary list as he is still not fully fit while Ángel Correa also gets cut. Here are the call-ups:
Goalkeepers:
Emiliano Martínez (Aston Villa)
Walter Benítez (Crystal Palace)
Gerónimo Rulli (Marseille)
Defenders:
Cristian Romero (Tottenham Hotspur)
Nicolás Otamendi (Benfica)
Nahuel Molina (Atletico Madrid)
Gonzalo Montiel (River Plate)
Leonardo Balerdi (Marseille)
Juan Foyth (Villarreal)
Nicolás Tagliafico (Lyon)
Marcos Acuña (River Plate)
Julio Soler (Bournemouth)
Midfielders:
Alexis Mac Allister (Liverpool)
Exequiel Palacios (Bayer Leverkusen)
Alan Varela (FC Porto)
Leandro Paredes (Boca Juniors)
Thiago Almada (Atletico Madrid)
Nico Paz (Como)
Rodrigo De Paul (Inter Miami)
Giovani Lo Celso (Real Betis)
Forwards:
Claudio Echeverri (Bayer Leverkusen)
Franco Mastantuono (Real Madrid)
Valentín Carboni (Genoa)
Giuliano Simeone (Atletico Madrid)
Julián Álvarez (Atletico Madrid)
Nicolás González (Juventus)
Lionel Messi (Inter Miami)
Lautaro Martínez (Inter)
José Manuel López (Palmeiras)
Young potential players are included together with main core. Adding Enzo this 30 players are the core for next WC.
Lisandro always there but injured.
Garnacho and Medina will be there depends upon their form.
For Soule, Bounanotte, Perrone, Barrenechea, Castro and Barco it will be difficult unless a great season.
Hopefully Pazella and Guido is done with NT.
Equi Fernandes can be a surprise..I rate him very high.
Overall, a strong list. Mastantuono, Echeverri and Paz bring the average age way down. We also now have a number of players who can play inverted winger role if needed: Almada and Echeverri on the left, Mastantuono, Carboni and Paz on the right. Nico Gonzalez and Giuliano Simeone more traditional wingers if Scaloni needs that. Fullbacks still a concern but at least Soler is called up.
Also, Nico G and Simeone give us an option to play wingbacks in a back 3, not a huge fan of 3-5-2 but one way to play.