World Cup (2018) - Group D (Argentina, Croatia, Iceland, Nigeria)

If Iceland win tomorrow then Croatia will take it easy. Brozo suspended, Mandzukic surely rested, Rebic rested (injured?), Vrsaljko on a yellow, etc.

time for kovacic to shine

Messi FC have had a traumatizing past 3 years lol.

Mandzukic and Perisic aka JJ and Inter scrubs out there missing gazzilion chances and they still lose 3-0 my fkin sides

Needs to be said again as it seems forgotten before every NT tournament starts. Aguero still poor for Argentina. Higuain in 20 minutes did more than him in 70.

You GOAT had ONE shot vs Croatia? ONE SHOT? HAHAHAHAHA

rincon wrote:Needs to be said again as it seems forgotten before every NT tournament starts. Messi still poor for Argentina. Higuain in 20 minutes did more than him in 70.

Agreed.

Please give credit to Zidane for the modric goal

All he coached Madrid were these shots from outside the box

Better Argentina go out of the groups tbh

Its not like this coach will suddenly get his shit right

Too many jabroni's in this starting XI. An in-form France would embarrass them.

I expected nothing from this world cup and they still disappoint me

M99 wrote:

rincon wrote:Needs to be said again as it seems forgotten before every NT tournament starts. Messi still poor for Argentina. Higuain in 20 minutes did more than him in 70.

Agreed.

Higuain's problem is in tournament games... he's been awful for Argentina. Is a beast in qualifiers though; no doubt.

The team is set up so badly that it's really hard to blame the players this time around. I wasn't quite sure what they were playing and tried to figure it out lol.

sportsczy wrote:

M99 wrote:

rincon wrote:Needs to be said again as it seems forgotten before every NT tournament starts. Messi still poor for Argentina. Higuain in 20 minutes did more than him in 70.

Agreed.

Higuain's problem is in tournament games... he's been awful for Argentina.  Is a beast in qualifiers though; no doubt.

The team is set up so badly that it's really hard to blame the players this time around.  I wasn't quite sure what they were playing and tried to figure it out lol.

This week was 30 yo Aguero's first goal in a world cup. Higuain already had 5 coming in.

Somebody tell Adidas to DELETE this trash https://twitter.com/brfootball/status/1003577163487105024

Lost a 3-1 UCL lead to my GOAT. Lost a 4-1 Ballon d'Or lead to my GOAT. Only knows how to score against countries in civil war. GTFOH.

Lovren

The problem isn’t the strikers. They aren’t making chances. They aren’t controlling anything in the middle. They defend like shit. They have another keeper that’s extending Buffon’s playing career by another decade.

If you get ruined in the middle like this then forget about scoring goals, you won’t see the opponent’s net. Why a player like Paredes was not included is beyond me, seems exactly what Argentina lacks right now.

They can still go through but I don’t think it matters and I don’t think they will

Paredes, Perotti, Pastore, Gomez

He left of the creative players out

Argentina are an imbalanced, poorly coached team whose superstar just walks about the pitch. No surprise they perform like this.

rincon wrote:Paredes, Perotti, Pastore, Gomez

He left of the creative players out

And the few that he did take he left in the bench. Banega. Lo Celso. The balls are not getting to the forwards and he brings on... Higuain for Aguero? That will solve our service problems.

We don't start Dybala because Dybala and Messi can't play together... but let's throw Dybala in anyways because they will magically work now?

Pavon can't start because we don't want him to get too much pressure.... but let's put him on when we are 1-0 down at the 60th minute (and he quickly showed he deserved to start)?

Oh and lets play a 3 man defense that we've never practiced except for the last 2 days, that will work like a charm.

Luca wrote:The problem isn’t the strikers. They aren’t making chances. They aren’t controlling anything in the middle. They defend like shit. They have another keeper that’s extending Buffon’s playing career by another decade.

If you get ruined in the middle like this then forget about scoring goals, you won’t see the opponent’s net. Why a player like Paredes was not included is beyond me, seems exactly what Argentina lacks right now.

They can still go through but I don’t think it matters and I don’t think they will

Agreed. I use to blame their attackers a lot, but when you don't have good fullbacks, competent midfield or wingers they will look like shite most the time. At HT the guy said Aguero didn't touch the ball for the last 21 minutes

BarrileteCosmico wrote:

rincon wrote:Paredes, Perotti, Pastore, Gomez

He left of the creative players out

And the few that he did take he left in the bench. Banega. Lo Celso. The balls are not getting to the forwards and he brings on... Higuain for Aguero? That will solve our service problems.

We don't start Dybala because Dybala and Messi can't play together... but let's throw Dybala in anyways because they will magically work now?

Pavon can't start because we don't want him to get too much pressure.... but let's put him on when we are 1-0 down at the 60th minute (and he quickly showed he deserved to start)?

Oh and lets play a 3 man defense that we've never practiced except for the last 2 days, that will work like a charm.

Yep it was a mess

_____________________Higuain

Pavon/Di Maria______Messi_______Dybala

This could (have) work better.

Just waiting for Sampaoli to take off his mask and reveal himself as Gian Piero Ventura @rincon @robespierre

BarrileteCosmico wrote:

rincon wrote:Paredes, Perotti, Pastore, Gomez

He left of the creative players out

And the few that he did take he left in the bench. Banega. Lo Celso. The balls are not getting to the forwards and he brings on... Higuain for Aguero? That will solve our service problems.

We don't start Dybala because Dybala and Messi can't play together... but let's throw Dybala in anyways because they will magically work now?

Pavon can't start because we don't want him to get too much pressure.... but let's put him on when we are 1-0 down at the 60th minute (and he quickly showed he deserved to start)?

Oh and lets play a 3 man defense that we've never practiced except for the last 2 days, that will work like a charm.

It's amazing.

If you watch that 2nd goal by Modric, you have the 3 man defense, the wing backs trying to got back too somehow, but no midfield cover at all. All the time Croatia have the ball ahead of the 3 man backline, no midfielder comes back.

So you field no creative midfielder or playmaker, when a guy like Banega is on the bench who can playmake and control magnificently from anywhere, deep lying or not so deep lying, and you still have no cover for the defense?

Shocking stuff. To play that badly with such players at your disposal, shocking. Selection, set up, tactics, all over the place. Literally all over the place.

But hey, let's just blame Messi.

Hapless_Hans wrote:But hey, let's just blame Messi.

All the managers in this WC are bad imo from Deschamps to Tite (don't rate them at all) but the players are still performing as they should (well most of them are)

In the WC you are on your own. Managers don't matter that much but of course they do make a difference!

Hapless_Hans wrote:But hey, let's just blame Messi.

You could argue had he not missed that penalty, Argentina would've been in a more comfortable state of mind going into this game

Psychology plays an important part in sport