La Selección Argentina V.2

BarcaLearning wrote:

BarrileteCosmico wrote:

shinigami99 wrote:There is no potential lineup, since we already know what our lineup is going to be:
-------------------------Romero--------------------
Great lord Zabaleta-----Garay-------Ferandez-----Rojo
------Gagiesta------Mascherano------Di Magia------
---------------- ----Messi------------------------
--------Aguero----------------Higuain---------------

Aguero and Garay might not start the first match as they're currently dealing with minor injuries. Gago might not make it to the first match because his performance has dropped after being injured so often this year (the match against T&T was his first since recovering from injury). But if everyone is fit that is definitely our starting eleven.

So just how good is Gago is fit anyway? I never rated him. We are talknig about winning the WC and competing with the best midfields in the world like Spain, Italy, Germany, etc., Gago does not give me confidence. Who is his backup or second choice? And also if Garay is out who is the backup? I just hope Argentina have good enough ones, hard to imagine such a strong nation not to have sufficient backup though.

Gago at club level had a problem of being really poor in big matches. Also he was lightweight and bypassed easily by better players. For the national team though he has been playing well for a long time. Then again he's not really been tested in something as big as a world cup. We have to keep our fingers crossed. Personally I would have preferred Banega who has impressed us in several matches for Valencia but there is something strange that is wrong with him which I would like to understand better. In spite of being their best player in big matches Valencia happily discarded him. With so little competition still he never managed to establish himself in the national team. Injuries have been a big enemy. Possibly lifestyle and attitude as well. Anyway coming back to Gago I don't see him as a key player in the scheme of things. We can't hope to dominate in midfield the way Spain does. We rely heavily on our attackers and the others will have to play in the way that can best facilitate them. I think Di Maria may be the key, almost as much as Messi even. Linking midfield to the attack will be crucial and he is our man for it. Lastly about the third player in this piece. Can anyone tell me how good Enzo Perez is visavis Gago and Banega?

One question. Does anyone have details about how many times who has started as our third midfielder since Sabella took over? Mascherano and Di Maria are opnipresent no question but the third is in a constant state of flux.

messixaviesta wrote:One question. Does anyone have details about how many times who has started as our third midfielder since Sabella took over? Mascherano and Di Maria are opnipresent no question but the third is in a constant state of flux.

good question. hope someone can answer this....
But i thought that third person is the missing piece in our mid. someone very good with the ball and have vision. For me no question about Mashcherano and Di Maria's presence. If we could have that missing piece i would be very confident.

JD, some interesting comment there about Banega. i never cared much about following Banega but me too was surprised at his move out from Valencia because i heard a lot of praise of his performance for valencia in the general section. why did you think lifestyle could be a reason. did you hear something particular... Anyway i would still be happy if he was just taken with the team as there were not lot of talents around.

What you guys think about Palacio. I know Messi,Aguero and Higuain is the most preferable front 3 and Sabella will hardly change it. But in general i would like to hear some comparison between these two. specifically in terms of their recent performances since both of them played in the same league last season.
Is Palacio aerially better than Higuain??
what about finishing...??
Off the ball movement....??
In the short highlights vs Trinidad, i found Palacio, even at 32 is faster than Higuain. for one of the goals, he broke the offside trap with a superb run and stopped it near the line before laying it to maxi for scoring....I cant think of Higuain doing similar...So do you think he could be a perfect super sub atleast....???

Good question from u 2 fellow Barca fans

I wish I could them, but I have have the same exact questions!

Palacio I have been impressed with for a long time, hes really a force for Inter. I think hes a bit of an all rounder and Im sure he will get chance or 2 in the WC, rotate with Augero and Lavezzi.

Gago sounds such a unconvincing player, Im not holding much hope. Im guessing the Mascherano+Di Maria+3rd midfielder will just have to do their best without domianting and let their attackers and nature game 'dominate' the game, which probably means fast attacks rather than bossing midfield. Although its strange such the defense isnt very good.... just so eager to watch them.... they dont even arrange friendlies for some reason, which we can tell more... maybe they purposely do that to do stay unknown and surprise opponents come the tournament?

I know it was only T&T we were playing but this was actually a well worked goal with a great build-up

neuro11 wrote:JD, some interesting comment there about Banega. i never cared much about following Banega but me too was surprised at his move out from Valencia because i heard a lot of praise of his performance for valencia in the general section. why did you think lifestyle could be a reason. did you hear something particular... Anyway i would still be happy if he was just taken with the team as there were not lot of talents around.

neuro, I am not sure. Just some rumours here and there that he's into late nights and not that disciplined. Still I would like to know what exactly happened to take such a talented player first out of Europe and then out of his national team.

I am very worried about Sabella still experimenting with the 5 man backline. I can totally see us getting to Semis only for Sabella to pull a classic Joachim Low and try to PTB with this team and send us back home early.

Also Sabella called up 7 CBs. Which still still stop him fromm starting Masche as a CB and playing Emanuel Mammana later in the match. This 18 year old has yet to debut for River Plate but (now) has already featured for the NT. Future River Plate legend

Mammana can't feature in the WC right? he wasn't on the list provided to FIFA....Hopefully he is a great talent and would be a regular in the NT.

I kind of expected Pezzella to be playing for a bigger club by now but he doesn't seem to be getting much minutes.

Mammana is part of the 'sparrings', a group of youth players that will train with the team and play matches against them in the WC practices.

Yeah Pezzella's development has not been what I expected either, although he's had some serious injuries problems.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:I am very worried about Sabella still experimenting with the 5 man backline. I can totally see us getting to Semis only for Sabella to pull a classic Joachim Low and try to PTB with this team and send us back home early.

I don't think excess experimentation with Argentina is a good idea at all. We must stick to a four man backline and as has been our tradition our full backs must first defend and only then think about attack.

Sounds bad...Im still trying to stay optimistic.

So Argentina did play friendly.... So Ricky Alvarez of Inter lookings a good choice for that 3rd midfielder? Maxi Rodriguez is experience but hes not top and older now....

BarcaLearning wrote:So Ricky Alvarez of Inter lookings a good choice for that 3rd midfielder?

No we can't have that many attackers. Then we will be back to Maradona's 4-1-5 formation. It has to be a player who can play deeper, pass long and share the defensive work load.

messixaviesta wrote:

BarcaLearning wrote:So Ricky Alvarez of Inter lookings a good choice for that 3rd midfielder?

No we can't have that many attackers. Then we will be back to Maradona's 4-1-5 formation. It has to be a player who can play deeper, pass long and share the defensive work load.

Thats true....I cant wait to find who is it and see how good they end up being....

messixaviesta wrote:

BarcaLearning wrote:So Ricky Alvarez of Inter lookings a good choice for that 3rd midfielder?

No we can't have that many attackers. Then we will be back to Maradona's 4-1-5 formation. It has to be a player who can play deeper, pass long and share the defensive work load.

i don see someone like that and i got the feeling after last match that we will end up in either 4-1-5 or 5-1-4....

we started the game with 5 men defense (3-2 version) and don know whether we played with that till end... also am i wrong to point that we are playing to many passes in our own half, similar to Barca /Spain which is not quite our type. the worst thing with this is, under pressure you can loose ball causing danger if you don have good enough players which happened couple of times in last game though most of the starters in this game will be in the bench in WC

one more point , Mash's hoof ball may help us with our fast running wing and forwards. in both the friendly games we broke the offside trap comfortably in number of occasions . thats a big plus . i can see us scoring and conceding lot of goals....

Palacio ____
Alvarez ___

Inter players are going to lead Argentina to Maracanazo

messixaviesta wrote:

BarcaLearning wrote:So Ricky Alvarez of Inter lookings a good choice for that 3rd midfielder?

No we can't have that many attackers. Then we will be back to Maradona's 4-1-5 formation. It has to be a player who can play deeper, pass long and share the defensive work load.

Yes,  I agree .
he will be a bencher for balance probably

Am I the only person that still has no idea what your primary formation is? Seems like it changes every game.

Gil wrote:Am I the only person that still has no idea what your primary formation is? Seems like it changes every game.

Its a 4-3-1-2.

Why has Messi been vomiting so much lately :\

neuro11 wrote:one more point , Mash's hoof ball may help us with our fast running wing and forwards. in both the friendly games we broke the offside trap comfortably in number of occasions . thats a big plus . i can see us scoring and conceding lot of goals....

Nice thought.

Robespierre wrote:Palacio ____
Alvarez ___

Inter players are going to lead Argentina to Maracanazo

As of now I think both of them start on bench but who knows what can happen as the tournament goes on.

BTW even at this age Zanetti could have played left back for us no kidding.

Argentina played with a back 3 yesterday.Sabella already played like that vs us, I think it indicates that when Argentina face a top team in the WC he will switch to a 3 CB formation leading to Higuain or Aguero being dropped

Ganso wrote:Argentina played with a back 3 yesterday.Sabella already played like that vs us, I think it indicates that when Argentina face a top team in the WC he will switch to a 3 CB formation leading to Higuain or Aguero being dropped

I think that can only harm us. We have been playing in a certain style for some time and getting good results steadily. Trying to do something different so late will confuse the players more than trouble the opposition.