Chapter 114: The Grass Platform Team of a Third-Rate Coach

For the Argentine team, Degan really doesn't pay much attention to it, for example, the starting lineup of this game, in fact, is made up by Degan and Antienes, according to Degan, it is already very face-saving to use this lineup to deal with Argentina.

As for Maradona's nonsense at the pre-match press conference, such as contempt and ignorance, it is not good.

Today's Argentine team, to put it bluntly, has the biggest loophole in Maradona.

Maradona is a great player, there is no doubt about that, but in the dugout, he is obviously much more tender, not only from outsiders, in fact, from the day Maradona became the coach of the Argentine national team, Argentine fans have been mixed.

The good news is that Argentina's idol of the century can finally take charge of the national team, and coaching the national team is the only dream that Maradona has not been able to fulfill before.

The worry is that Maradona's personality is quirky and self-indulgent, which does not meet the requirements of the national team coach as a football power, and in addition, Maradona's previous coaching results are also quite poor.

On the pitch, Maradona is the undisputed king, but in the coach's box, Maradona's previous performance has been quite poor.

Maradona began his first coaching experience on 3 October 1994 when he coached Argentina's Mandyu, who coached alongside his former teammate Foran because he did not have a coaching certificate.

However, in two months and twelve games, Maradona's team only picked up a pitiful nine points, Maradona and Foran left the team in disgrace, and the team was relegated to the second division, and then disappeared altogether.

After that, Maradona took over Atlético Argentina with Foren, and this time, the situation was still not good, Maradona stepped down after leading the team to eleven games, and the only thing to be commended was the team's victory over Boca Juniors in the candy box. Eleven games, only two wins.

But such a third-rate coach got the opportunity to coach the Argentine national team, of course, the level of the national team players is much higher, and perhaps Maradona has more room to display his talents.

But obviously, even the Argentine Football Association was not very comfortable with Maradona, so he arranged for the 86 World Cup champion coach Vilardo to assist Maradona.

However, the co-leadership system is actually a double-edged sword, for example, the responsibilities of Maradona and Villado are not completely separated, if the coaching staff can work together, the collective wisdom will be infinite, but if the opinions and interests of all parties can not be coordinated, then the national team will produce internal strife, and collective leadership will also lead to collective chaos.

Although Vilardo said that Maradona decided the selection of players and the formulation of tactics, the existence of the "supervising army" of Bilardo itself is a manifestation of not 100% trust in Maradona.

Of course, Maradona deserves the reward of the national team manager for his contribution to Argentine football, but Maradona's coaching career was very unsuccessful and he did not coach the team for thirteen years.

Even some Maradona fans believe that Lao Ma should not be the coach at all, because being a coach means facing the cusp, Lao Ma is the spiritual pillar of Argentine football and has been deified, which means that Lao Ma is desperate, only allowed to succeed, not to fail, such pressure is too great for the entire Argentine football, in case the old horse falls, I am afraid that Argentine football will have a long period of downturn, which is the last thing all Argentine fans want to see.

There is no doubt that Maradona, who plays football, is God, but as a coach, he really doesn't dare to compliment, he is completely out of the stream, and he has not seen him improve or improve in any media until now.

However, Maradona also has his own advantages, one is his huge influence, as a hero in the hearts of Argentines and an idol in the hearts of Argentine players, his appeal is unquestionable.

After Maradona took office, he said that he wanted to instill patriotism in the Argentine national team, and he wanted Argentine players to regain their love for the blue and white jersey, which the Argentine national team lacked in recent years.

In addition, Maradona's ability to integrate the team is also worthy of recognition, Argentina has no shortage of good players, what is lacking is a good coach who can unite the team, and Maradona has this cohesion.

Bielsa, Pekerman and Basile all have some problems with dressing room management, and Maradona will face much less resistance in dealing with them.

In addition, Maradona also has some new ideas in the team's tactics, such as on the use of Messi, he said that Messi should not be put too much pressure, to liberate Messi from excessive responsibility, Messi must be given greater freedom, let him fully enjoy the game.

Maradona took over at a time when Argentina had just beaten Chile in the South American qualifiers for the World Cup, which was unacceptable for the Argentines and coach Basile had tendered his resignation, partly because the players were difficult to manage in the dressing room. The Argentine Football Federation accepted the resignation of the veteran coach and was desperate to find a manager who could control the team and restore the confidence of the Argentine fans. And in the hearts of Argentines, the biggest hero is, of course, Maradona, so, Maradona came.

Maradona soon made his debut at Hampton Court Park against Scotland, and coincidentally scored his maiden goal for the national team 19 years ago.

Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero and Riquelme were not involved in the game, and Ma Dashuai surprisingly used a conservative two-back formation, and finally won the game with Maxi Anderson. Rodriguez's goal was a 1-0 winner.

The start was good, and people were very happy, but the honeymoon period was soon over, and Argentine football ushered in a big shock, Maradona criticized Riquelme's performance at club and asked him to make changes in an interview with television, and Riquelme responded by announcing his retirement from the national team.

Of course, Maradona will not take the initiative to admit his mistake in a low voice, and his countermeasure is to deal with toughness with super toughness, and immediately said that he will never use Riquelme.

In such an atmosphere, Maradona ushered in his first international break after taking office, the first official game defeated Venezuela 4-0 at home, so that Maradona's reputation reached its peak, but only four days later, tragedy struck, Maradona, who thought too much of himself, played against Bolivia in La Paz away from the plateau, and was bloodied by the opponent 6:1, creating the most humiliating defeat in 51 years, and the whole country was shocked when the news came.

The defeat greatly touched Maradona's self-esteem, and he decided that Argentina's problems were psychological, and began a massive attempt to recruit lesser-known players.

In the warm-up match with domestic players as the team, Argentina defeated Panama 3-1, and Maradona made up his mind to reuse Argentine players from the local league.

After the resumption of World Cup qualifying, Argentina first beat Colombia at home thanks to a goal from defender Dias, and then lost again on the road, losing 0-2 to Ecuador.

For the first time after the game, the Argentine media began to doubt the correctness of choosing Maradona as the coach, and Maradona said he was as confident as ever.

After that, with Aguero's brave performance, Argentina defeated Russia away in the warm-up match, boosting morale in preparation for the strong matchup against Brazil at home.

But when the Brazilians really arrived, Ma Jiajun was sluggish again, losing 1:3 at home, and then losing 0:1 away to Paraguay, suffering three consecutive defeats.

At this juncture, Maradona actually chose to leave Argentina and go to Italy for weight loss treatment, which caused strong dissatisfaction from the Argentine Football Association.

Before the start of the last two life-and-death matches of the World Cup qualifiers, Maradona once again had a conflict with the Football Association, and he publicly criticized Bilardo at a press conference for not fulfilling his duties and not going to England in time to bring Zabaleta back.

In the first game against Peru, with a magical goal in the last moment of Palermo, Argentina won 2:1 and took the initiative of qualifying into their own hands.

The last game away to Uruguay, Mondevia's Centennial Stadium has never been a blessed place for the Argentine team, before the battle of life and death opened, the Tango Army's record here was 1 win, 3 draws and 6 losses, but in front of the Argentine team at that time, or in front of Maradona, there were really few choices, if you don't directly advance away from home, there will be extreme fans who will send a grenade to Diego and his disciples.

The atmosphere before the game was tense and the on-site environment was very oppressive, and the home team was no better than their last opponent, Peru, and Uruguay, who drank the water of the La Plata River, also needed a victory.

Therefore, although the 2002 World Preliminary Tournament and the 2006 World Preliminary Tournament Argentina team gave a peerless gift when Uruguay was in dire need of points and the team had already qualified, at the Centennial Stadium, the Uruguayans did not have any capital to return the friendship, in fact, until the 83rd minute Boratti scored the icebreaker, Maradona and his Argentine team were still on the edge of the razor.

1:0!

The significance of that game may not be an exaggeration to elevate the Argentine concept to any level if it were dissected many years later, but for Maradona at the time, when the final whistle blew, would he remember the moment when he played the Hercules Cup from Havelange at the rostrum of the Estadio Azteca in 1986?

Maybe not, because he is Maradona, a man who never believed that he could only live in the past, a football tycoon who firmly believed that he could keep pace with the times, a believer in Satan, a guy who dared to set a gamble with God and become a winner.

"We qualified for the World Cup like men, but I'm sure the media will continue to insult me in the future, but we have to fight until the last minute, and it doesn't matter what the mother-proof journalists say! Let's fuck you! ”

Diego's post-match speech was as passionate as ever, and it was completely relieved after being extremely depressed. In addition to yelling at those BS own media reporters, the spirit wizard of the Argentine team once again recited his magic spell: "I let them attack, they can attack, I let them control the ball, they can control the ball, I let them explode, they can explode!" ”

If you don't watch the game, when you hear Maradona's speech, the picture that comes to mind must be very wonderful, the gauchos are playing flowing football, the coach on the sidelines is calmly responding to the situation of the game, and the opponent must have been beaten by the tango army like his grandson.

But is that really the case?

Looking at the statistics of that game, it is not difficult to find that apart from the results and becoming the winners, the Argentine team basically has no capital to boast about.

If you win, everything is reasonable, and the Argentine people can save those prepared national scoldings for later, but the headline of "Clarion", the largest media in Argentina, is enough to show that although Maradona's journey as the head coach of the World Preliminary Championships ended satisfactorily, what he left to Argentine fans was a rather bad painful memory.

The formation of the style of play is inexplicably adjusted every once in a while, the recruitment of international players such as the supergirl draft, the organization core changes hands N times, excessive ignorance of European stars, and the abolition of Messi's martial arts by nearly fifty percent, all of which were concocted by Maradona.

Therefore, no matter from which point of view, don't look at the old horse to win this battle has some meaning of nirvana and ascension, but in fact, many fundamental problems of the Argentine team have not been solved, although it is not an incurable disease, but it cannot be solved in the World Cup, South Africa in 2010, the Argentine team will definitely do more foreign appearances.

Maradona scolded his critics for the Argentine journalist after qualifying, but it was clear that that didn't change the facts. Argentina did win, but it was an unsightly win, and it could even be said that it escaped under the protection of Lady Luck.

Throughout the game, Argentina were a bit of a threat with Brahman's shot, while Uruguay could have scored two in the first half if they were lucky.

However, the Argentine team won that game in the end.

If this is a World Cup final, you can ignore all the process and praise the greatness of Maradona, but it is just a World Cup qualifier, Argentina is still far from the end of the pile of honors, people have to care about the running posture of this former giant, in fact, Argentina was passive in the game as early as expected, just look at the starting lineup, four central defenders started together, midfielder Veron and Mascherano are double midfielders, right forward Gutiérrez is also a defensive giant, Di Maria, the only one who could support the attack, was firmly restrained, and Messi had to drop back to the centre circle to get the ball, Higuain's strength was his impact, but the midfielders frequently kicked the ball over his head.

The World Preliminary Tournament with the Uruguayans is the eighth qualifier coached by Maradona, compared to Peru, Ma Dashuai made three personnel adjustments, respectively, with Veron to replace Aimar, with Otamendi instead of Perez, with Demichelis instead of Insua, so that in eight games, Maradona has made a total of 30 adjustments to the starting lineup, only Messi and Heinze have been starting from beginning to end, and even the two of them, the position has been changing, Messi plays right winger for a while, and striker for a while, At the same time, he played at right midfield, and Heinze was moving between left wing-back and centre-back.

The direct consequence of this is that Argentina has no cooperation and tacit understanding at all, and Messi and Mascherano, who have performed bravely in the club, have never found a feeling, and even played worse and worse, and the players on the pitch played more by their own instincts.

Some people say that Argentina's problem is that the players don't even have time to train together before playing, but in fact, even if they are given a month to practice together before each game, it still can't solve the problem, because next month Maradona will come up with a different set of things, the position of the players is unfamiliar, and the partners around him are also unfamiliar.

It's not a sin to play ugly, Dunga's Brazil also played ugly, but at least he knows what he wants, what he pursues, and successfully won the Copa America and got the World Cup ticket in advance, but Maradona doesn't have a clear idea, he doesn't know what he is pursuing, he can hold high the banner of attack today, and hope for an Italian victory tomorrow.

After winning the match against Uruguay, Maradona's position was once again secured, and despite many rumours against him, unless he voluntarily resigned, there was probably nothing to prevent him from returning to the World Cup after 16 years.

One can only hope that Maradona will suddenly open up, listen carefully and bring stability to Argentina, but in the past, this is much more difficult than beating Uruguay on the road.

It is undeniable that Argentina's main squad is not as talented as the German World Cup, in addition to Messi and Mascherano are at the peak, several heavy generals are going downhill, Ayala retired, Zanetti's defense leaked again and again today, Gago was reduced to a marginal person in Real Madrid, his former teammate Heinze has been exiled to Ligue 1, Maxi was deprived of the captain's armband in Atletico Madrid, Veron won the Copa Libertadores is more like a return to the past, and Gutiérrez, who is considered by Maradona to be the third key man of the team, is now in the Championship.

Of course, Maradona's own responsibility is also difficult to shirk, Cambiasso and Samuel, who played smoothly in Inter, were always not favored by him, and even after Demichelis was injured and absent, the old horse still ignored the existence of "rocks".

Cambiaso has long been proven to be able to effectively balance the midfield, and he is the absolute main force under Pekerman and Basile, but the old horse does not believe in evil, and does not recruit this champion cornerstone who is regarded as the treasure by Mourinho once, and in the end, veterans such as Veron and Palermo have become lifesavers and are asking for their own hardships.

The problem is that most of the domestic players he selected are not up to the national team standard, with the capacity of today's European football market, how many pearls can remain in the Argentine league?

In the goalkeeper position, although Andujar and Romero went to Europe, one defected to the weak team in Serie A, and the other worked hard in the Eredivisie, both of which are second- and third-rate teams in Europe, and the Brazilian giants are not the same as the defense.

There have been rumors in the Argentine media that some players' agents and clubs have bought international places from Maradona in order to plate the players for promotion and then resell them, as was the case with former Brazilian coach Luxemberg. Rumours cannot be confirmed, but Andujar and Otamendi can be selected by European clubs, apparently thanks to the status of the international given by the old horse, who has also been rumored to have been with Real Madrid. But a duck can't fly even if it has wings, just like Datolo, the last game was played, and this one has a prototype, Messi's overnight fame, after all, it is hard to find.

The most incomprehensible thing is Maradona's use of Messi, although he once said when he took office that he wanted to relieve pressure on Messi and let him play easily, but in fact, Maradona is using Messi as a panacea, Messi is very glorious in Barcelona, but Argentina's Messi is probably just a shadow of Barcelona's Messi.

In the World Cup, the first big victory over South Korea, Maradona seemed to have found the feeling of a famous coach for a while, but in the second game against Nigeria that was disabled by Belgium, Argentina had no choice, if it were not for a reckless attack mistake by Nigerian goalkeeper Enyeama, perhaps Argentina could only play a life-and-death battle with Belgium now.

After the 1-0 victory over Nigeria, some Argentine domestic media commented that the current Argentine team is a "three-no team", one by one, the head coach has no level, the players have no sense of responsibility, and the team has no strategy.

When Belgium announced the starting lineup, Maradona was still shouting, you look down on people, Fack, Shet, obviously people will not take care of Maradona's dissatisfaction.

Because everyone thinks that in the face of such Argentina, in the face of a grass platform team led by a third-rate head coach, it is already very kind for Belgium to come up with this lineup to play with you.

After all, the big man Deegan didn't stand in the goalkeeper's position!

Isn't it?

Back on the court, Maradona today is still wearing that dirty gray suit, which sets off his bloated figure, looking a little ridiculous, standing on the sidelines with a big belly, looking a little nervous.

What about Antienes on the other side?

Although many people think that his current achievements are completely borrowed from Di Gan's light, looking at the calm appearance of others, it is not difficult to feel what a famous handsome is.