What will Diego Maradona’s appointment as manager of Argentina mean for the fans and players of the national team? You can find out on Soccernet, where I’ve written a terrible first paragraph and an otherwise pretty good (I hope) article on the new technical team for the selección. You can read it here.
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Nice piece, Sam.
But I’ve read in a couple of places that Maradona seems set to drop Riquelme and perhaps recall Veron. This have any basis in anything he has actually said? That starting eleven he named a while back had no Riquelme. But it did have Messi-Tevez-Aguero with Gago behind with Masch. It’ll be interesting to see who he actually does pick and how he plays them…
Good one Sam! I really enjoyed it.
David, it doesn’t make sense to recall Veron or depending on Roman. But the combination which you’ve mentioned sounds interesting.
Thanks, gents. El Gráfico mentioned a possible lineup on their website yesterday, which included Marcos Angeleri and Emiliano Papa in the full back positions, Gago and Angel Di María as carrileros alongside Masche, and JRR behind Messi and Agüero at the business end.
Allowing for some rotation, of course, that’s not a system I dislike too much (although it shouldn’t come as a surprise to readers of HEGS that I hope Lucho, Maxi Rodríguez and at least one of Higuaín, Cavenaghi and Zárate get their chances as well).
Verón, to me, operates better in a deeper role than Riquelme, I’d be surprised if he was used as a straight swap – perhaps a replacement for Gago. But that’s just me. If I were going for any recent Estudiantes players, I’d be tempted to give Pablo Piatti a shot…
John:
“it doesn’t make sense to recall Veron”
If you ask me he´s the best player in the league at the moment. I´m a big fan of Riquelme but Veron is doing absolutely amazing this season.
Riquelme should be the obvious choice for Diego but Veron to back him up would be great.