Two games, six points, 3 goals scored and one conceded. In the role, Argentina’s start in the South American marathon qualifier turns out it couldn’t have gone much better, and if you consider that one of those matches took place. La Paz’s position in front of Bolivia, where Argentina beat 6-1 in 2009 and has not won since 2005, an additional shine is added.
The effects are definitely an advantage and confidence. However, the story was not as positive as the statistics might suggest.
Against Ecuador in Buenos Aires on Friday night, the national team was tough and devoid of artistic spark, and in both matches, he was sensitive to the counterattack, there are also questions about the education and body of workers that coach Lionel Scaloni wants before the team meets in November.
Here we take a look at five of the biggest hits of Argentina’s first matches since November 2019.
There is a narrative in some circles that Lionel Messi subconsent with the shapes on the Albiceleste jersey. Nothing can simply be more of the truth. Messi has led to the selection of his country for the most of the last decade. In qualifying for the 2018 World Cup, Argentina won 2. 1 match-consistent issues with Messi in the squad and only 0. 875 problems consistent with the game when it was missing.
According to the averages, Argentina would have finished eighth in the Conmebol standings, only between Ecuador and Bolivia, and Russia 2018 would have been lost if Messi had not played a minute.
Unfortunately, this scenario doesn’t seem to have changed. Especially in the adjustment against Ecuador, Argentina did not seem to create anything if it did not come from the magical left-hander of its number 10, because the penalty that earned him the adjustment – which Messi converted, of course – did the captain. who gave life to the movement, passing 3 players in the midfield before betting on Lucas Ocampos.
In the Bolivian game, the dependence of the Barcelona player is less pronounced, Exequiel Palacios and the replacement Joaquín Correa offer a little more incision, but it was Messi who created the most productive opportunity in Argentina in the first part and Messi who had to create the game for that purpose. who remodeled the game.
If you have Messi, employing him as much as you can imagine is a sensible decision, but the lack of other opportunities and routes to purpose will fear Scaloni.
With an air rareden at 3600 m above sea level, re-protecting after an attack is a physical impossibility, so we can forget about Argentina’s release to La Paz. But the susceptibility to the Bombonera counter – which is a few hundred meters from the Atlantic. Ocean: this is a point that will worry Albiceleste fans.
Against Ecuador on Friday, there were adjustment moments when, with a little more precision in its passes, Ecuador may have placed it behind Argentina’s baseline. At the time of the particular party, there were two opportunities for Pervis Estupion to run against it. to the right side of River Plate Gonzalo Montiel. In both cases, the center of Stuupion was mediocre and went straight into Franco Armani’s arms.
In the face of further opposition, these deficiencies in the defensive transition would cause Argentina to give way.
At last year’s Copa América in Brazil, Scaloni opted for a 4-4-2 diamond formation, with Lautaro Martínez and Sergio Aguero at the helm and Lionel Messi in a central role offering ammunition for the duo.
This seemed like a smart solution, but for those matches, Scaloni defected from this strategy in favor of a 4-4-1-1 – with Messi Martínez – opposed to Ecuador, and a 4-3-3 – with Messi on the left – opposed to Bolivia. The latter team looked bigger: the addition of Exequiel Palacios gave Argentina another option to pass in the middle of the middle camp, but Scaloni still has doubts about how productive it is to deploy the players he has at his disposal.
One of the big positives to draw from those two matches is the appearance of Lucas Martínez Quarta, the central defender who went from River Plate to Fiorentina on the deadline and who made his debut against Chile in October last year, just before the suspension of foreign matches. for 11 months It now turns out that the position on the correct aspect of the central part association is yours.
The position has long worried the national team, and Nicolas Otamendi in the other aspect is prone to implausible mistakes, however, Martínez Quarta seems a smart choice with a long-term future.
He is a positive defender who will go out to intercept and tackle, and in possession, has the quality to build the game from behind, one imagines that he will return after his time in Serie A and, at 24 years old, can simply endorse the task for the next few years.
Finally, there were some other positives in the way that Argentina – and in particular Lautaro Martínez – recovered the ball in the most sensitive part of the area both matches. Former coach Jorge Sampaoli unsuccessfully tried to make Argentina a very urgent team with a high defensive line, however, it turns out that Scaloni has reached a smart commitment; press temporarily after wasting the ball before re-taking shape and protecting it more deeply.
This immediate strain has also been successful. In the attack on Ecuador, Martínez recovered Moses Caicedo’s ball in the middle of the field to provoke the motion that led Argentina to win the penalty in which Messi scored; and in front of Bolivia, it was Martinez’s determination that led to equalization. Milan’s striker lost the ball in the opposing penalty dominance but did not surrender and José Carrasco’s attempt at clearing bounced from his boot in the net.
I write about a variety of topics, but I specialize in English, European and South American football. For Forbes, I write basically about two groups in my hometown, Tottenham.
I write about a variety of topics, but I specialize in English, European and South American football. For Forbes, I write basically about two groups from my hometown, Tottenham and Arsenal. Elsewhere, I have had reports, interviews and articles published in English and Portuguese through The Guardian, UOL Esporte, The Blizzard, GiveMeSport, Planet Football and Trivela. I am the founding editor of Yellow and Green Football, an online page committed to Brazilian football.