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Match Day 8: Denmark v Australia; France v Peru; Argentina v Croatia


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Sampaoli picked a very pedestrian midfield. Argentina aren't currently blessed with great midfield talent but Sampaoli could have gone with a midfield trio of Lo Celso-Mascherano-Banega with Pavon/Dybala-Aguero-Messi up front. Both Lo Celso and Banega offer more creativity than Perez and good defensive cover as well which would have helped Mascherano as he doesn't have the legs anymore to cover the ground he used to. The back line and GK situation is a bigger problem as Argentina are quite weak in that area. Another issue is that Sampaoli has chopped and changed the team and formation a lot. He has no idea what his strongest XI is nor can he settle on a formation which is a major reason why tactically Argentina look so disjointed. 

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1 hour ago, Notone said:

Read again, I said, the lack of quality is already quite noticeable in midfield. Where do you think chances are created, or rather get the ball into dangerous area comes from?

I get that. But it's difficult to say that a squad with Messi, Di Maria, Banega etc. should be lacking in chance creation. The weaknesses in midfield are more to do with team structure and tactics than quality IMO.  Which is odd, because the hallmark of a Sampaoli team is normally co-ordinated pressing and passing that maximises the impact of average quality players through effort and teamwork. 

ETA - when it comes to this, btw:

A team that can't win or hold onto the ball wil probably not create that many chances

Argentina had 58% of possession last night, 78% against Iceland. The lack of chance creation, I would suggest, is not down to not having enough of the ball. 

Re: Messi, I can't put it any better than this: the Portugal team play for CRonaldo. The Argentina team seem to expect Messi to play for the rest of them. 

 

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Sampaoli has been much worse than I anticipated, but it was always very poor timing to bring in a project manager who likes a specific brand of football in the immediate run up to the World Cup. Especially when South American international football operates on a four year cycle, unlike the European two.

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