Gerardo “Tata” MARTINO has reportedly met with the AFA twice in regards to becoming the Argentina coach.
Per a report by Fox Sports, the Atlanta United manager has held two talks with the AFAÂ for him to come back and coach the Argentina National Team. As we reported earlier, MARTINO’s contract with the MLS club terminates in December and he could take over as Argentina manager in January.
Exequiel PALACIOS has reportedly won a starting position in the Argentina team ahead of Paulo DYBALA.
The first training session following the team’s 3-0 win against Guatemala saw Paulo DYBALA in the training session. However, since that session, there’s been rumors that River Plate’s PALACIO would start instead of DYBALA. Per a report by TyC Sports, PALACIO has won his starting spot ahead of the Juventus forward. Here’s the rumored eleven for Argentina’s match against Colombia.
ARMANI; BUSTOS, PEZZELLA, FUNES MORI, TAGLIAFICO; BATTAGLIA, LO CELSO, PALACIOS; MEZA, ICARDI, MARTINEZ
Six of the eleven players who started against Guatemala would start this match. Those six being German PEZZELLA, Ramiro FUNES MORI, Nicolas TAGLIAFICO, Giovani LO CELSO, Exequiel PALACIOS and Gonzalo MARTINEZ.
Argentina FA president Claudio TAPIA talks Atlanta United coach Tata MARTINO
AFA president Claudio TAPIA appears to be a big fan of current Atlanta United coach Gerardo “Tata” MARTINO.
While many names have been floating around as to who will become the new coach of the Argentina National Team, one surprise name has come up recently. It’s not Diego SIMEONE, nor Mauricio POCHETTINO or even the name of Marcelo GALLARDO.
Former Argentina coach Gerardo “Tata” MARTINO received a lot of praise from president Claudio TAPIA. Speaking with Fox Sports in Argentina, here’s what TAPIA had to say:
“I have an excellent relationship with MARTINO. He had to leave (his position as Argentina coach) due to a very unique situation. We, the executives of Argentine football were responsable.
“I really like the work he did with the Argentina National Team.
“He played key matches and difficult matches without MESSI and he got results. He started a change within the National Team.”
Gerardo “Tata” MARTINO currently has a contract with MLS club Atlanta United until December and the idea appears to be that TAPIA would bring him in as new coach in January.
Ahead of his team’s friendly match against Colombia, Argentina coach Lionel SCALONI spoke at a press conference about a number of topics.
One of the subjects discussed by SCALONI was that of Angel CORREA. The Atletico Madrid forward missed Argentina’s last two training sessions due to injury and is a doubt for the match. The question mark in regards to the starting eleven is that of Paulo DYBALA. He could be replaced by Exequiel PALACIOS in the eleven that would start the match. Here’s what SCALONI had to say about it all:
“There are a few doubts still in the team. We will see how Angel CORREA is doing.
“Beyond the opponent, we have our own idea. I’d like to stress that the changes we make are not due to a bad performance. We are very happy with SIMEONE. In ICARDI’s case, we all need his goals.
“Hopefully tomorrow we will have a great match but more than that we want to keep seeing and adding more players.”
In regards to the starting goalkeeper, Franco ARMANI is expected to play the full 90 minutes.
“The idea is that ARMANI plays the whole match. Chiquito (Sergio ROMERO) came here to be with us, for us to see how he’s doing which is very good. He’s an excellent goalkeeper.”
About having a squad which hasn’t played many matches with the Argentina National Team.
“Anxiety is controlled by playing more matches. There are players that are 18 or 19 years old and are capable of handling anxiety, for that reason they are great players.
“We have to be able to maintain our concentration against an opponent that is among the best in the world. It’s great that these kids can play against them.”
SCALONI also spoke about Lionel MESSI’s absence:
“It’s obvious that when the best player in the world isn’t there on the pitch, most of all if he is Argentine, the team loses (something).
“Out of the players which came, some kept the numbers they had at the World Cup. It (the number 10 shirt) is MESSI’s until he says if he will come back or not. We don’t have anything negative and for that we took the decision that no one uses it, but we will see in the future.
“The idea is to put together a team that if one day he is there, he feels comfortable. Most of all, we want to build a team of kids that understands what it is to play with this shirt.”
Argentina coach Lionel SCALONI has put out an eleven in training on Monday which had captain Nicolas TAGLIAFICO, Gio LO CELSO and Gonzalo MARTINEZ.
In the last training session ahead of the match against Colombia on Tuesday night, coach Lionel SCALONI tried out a different eleven from the one that was tried over the weekend. Here was the eleven in training from Monday:
ARMANI; BUSTOS, PEZZELLA, FUNES MORI, TAGLIAFICO; BATTAGLIA, LO CELSO; MEZA, DYBALA, MARTINEZ; ICARDI
This means that Nicolas TAGLIAFICO comes in for Marcos ACUNA (who played as left back over the weekend), Giovani LO CELSO for Leandro PAREDES and Gonzalo MARTINEZ over Franco CERVI.
