Oscar barnade
06/16/2021 8:00 AM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 06/16/2021 8:00 AM
When he took over as coach of the national team, after the World Cup in Russia,
Lionel Scaloni
had two main objectives: to accelerate the renewal for the future and to build a balanced team to surround Messi well.
After 28 games, he still hasn't made it.
And the defensive zone remains the biggest concern after almost three years, in the middle of an
America's Cup
and one year of the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
In the 12 calls, Scaloni called 10 goalkeepers of which he used 6 as starters, and 26 defenders, of whom only played from the initial minute 16. In most of the matches he used the line of 4 (4-4- 2 or 4-2-3-1),
but he keeps changing names and does not find the four untouchables.
The disagreement led him to discard one of the players he trusted from the beginning: Juan Foyth. He used the former Estudiantes player as a right winger and also took advantage of his presence to use a line of three against Mexico (2-0) and Venezuela (1-3), the only two games of the 28 in which he played 3-4- 3 from the start. Foyth went from starter to substitute for Gonzalo Montiel and from substitute to outside the Copa América. In that position, River's man seems to be the strongest of the four, with
Nahuel Molina
now as an alternative.
The same thing happens with the first central marker.
Germán Pezzella was
affirmed
first and in the last Copa América he was the starting couple along with Nicolás Otamendi. His performance was not entirely convincing. Due to an injury (ankle sprain in September 2020) and little continuity in Fiorentina, he was relegated after 13 games as a starter (8 of them as a central duo with the Benfica man). Scaloni opted for
Lucas Martinez Quarta
, who has already added eight games from the start, also in a pair with former Vélez, six games with Chile on Monday. During the game, the technician's annoyance with the player was notorious.
Despite the error in Otamendi's setback in the play that caused the penalty and the Chilean draw, Nico is still the number placed for the coach: he played in 18 of the 28 games.
And today he has no replacement.
Cuti Romero's
injury
raises a mystery that cannot be revealed this Friday against Uruguay.
Would Scaloni start testing with Romero-Otamendi?
We will have to wait for the evolution of the injury of the former Belgrano.
Cristian "el Cuti" Romero made his debut in the Argentine National Team and in his second game he converted against Colombia.
His appearance is auspicious news.
Photo: Raul ARBOLEDA / AFP.
Nicolas Tagliafico is the defender who started the most times in the Scaloni cycle: 21 games. His position is not in doubt but he has even competition in Marcos Acuña. The feeling is that with a low performance he can be replaced. It was Jorge Sampaoli who placed the former Racing on 3. Scaloni, who was his assistant, also uses it there. But they have different characteristics. Tagliafico is more of a brand, the Egg is more of projecting itself. In that conflict, Argentina suffered the hierarchy of Juan Cuadrado before Colombia when he found spaces in that sector.
The contrast is clearer when analyzing from the middle up
.
Rodrigo De Paul and Leandro Paredes started 21 of the 28 games.
And little by little Giovanni Lo Celso joined in: there are already 9 meetings in which the three start together as starters.
Messi, undisputed, and Lautaro Martínez the center forward of the cycle.
Then he looked for more variants on the left.
Between these two blocks, the empty spaces that the coach has to solve appear.
He likes that the team press well up front, but when De Paul and Paredes get ahead, those at the back do not cover well.
And it is an invitation for hierarchical rivals who know how to take advantage of those gaps.
Oil this question may be the key to improving collective functioning.
And sustain the difference that is achieved when those above are turned on, especially Messi.
Look also
The great challenge of the National Team is not to lower performance from one time to the next
Argentina's 1x1 against Chile: Messi, with a gem of a free kick, once again the highest point of an intermittent national team that still does not defend well