Brazil show Argentina way forward

[Ben]

I'll be going to Brazil, hopefully. Can't be a much better place to go to watch the beautiful game.

 

[Joss]

Pearce impresses me, actually. He's playing a very, VERY fluid 4-2-3-1/4-4-2 cross at the minute, sometimes it looks a bit more like Villarreal's 4-2-2-2 with the wingers coming inside and the strikers wide. Destroyed Denmark, anyway.

He does have an immense squad though - Henderson, Sturridge, Delfuneso (WTF how do you spell that?), Welbeck, Sinclair etc.

Second/third year of Uni, off for the summer, not taking a gap year so I'll have money to use...

FM-Base trip to WC 2014 is on then?

Definitely!

christ, how young are some of you? but yes FM-base to Brazil. If im stilla member of this forum come october 2013, I will be starting a serious thread about it

What do you mean 'if'? I'm disappointed with you, Mike!

 

[Mike.]

Pearce impresses me, actually. He's playing a very, VERY fluid 4-2-3-1/4-4-2 cross at the minute, sometimes it looks a bit more like Villarreal's 4-2-2-2 with the wingers coming inside and the strikers wide. Destroyed Denmark, anyway.

Think you're being a tad harsh on Redknapp: does he not play 4-4-1-1 in Europe?



Second/third year of Uni, off for the summer, not taking a gap year so I'll have money to use...

FM-Base trip to WC 2014 is on then?

In nt sold on Redknapp at all, his 4-4-1-1 might as well be 4-4-2 considering where VDV plays and it consists of a direct game up top, all very blitzing italian sides that play narrow, try that against germany or spain and they' eat it up and counter us left right and centre

Has to be pearce

---------- Post added at 10:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:37 PM ----------

To be fair I didn't like Argentina against the US. Lavezzi doesn't really look like he fits there, didn't have a good game against Portugal, either. Our midfield lacked creativity (Guess who had to provide the creativity...), and our front 3 often had no support from the midfield whatsoever. In the last minutes of the match our forwards were battling 7 outfield players and the keeper with absolutely no support. Marcos Rojo was good on the offense but weak defensively, just like in the Portugal match. Milito is a good CB but he's too short IMO, every cross or set piece was headed by - insert player - and their equaliser came that way. Our weakness in the air was also evident against Portugal.

Overall, I'm dissapointed with the NT so far, but time will tell. Can't get much worse than Maradona, either.


//Edit - On a more important note, I wouldn't miss the WC in Brazil for anything in the world.

your front three doesnt contain a 9 of any sort, Lavezzi does so well for Napoli becuase he has a real finisher with Cavani, Aguero must play somewhere in the front 3

 

[DMF]

Pearce impresses me, actually. He's playing a very, VERY fluid 4-2-3-1/4-4-2 cross at the minute, sometimes it looks a bit more like Villarreal's 4-2-2-2 with the wingers coming inside and the strikers wide. Destroyed Denmark, anyway.

Think you're being a tad harsh on Redknapp: does he not play 4-4-1-1 in Europe?

He only really plays 4-4-1-1 because he can't drop Van Der Vaart. When VDV is injured/unavailable, it's 4-4-2. It's like he hasn't got a Plan B.

He wasn't even planning on signing VDV until the afternoon they got him, so it's like the 4-4-1-1 was forced upon him because he couldn't afford to pass up an opportunity of signing such as World Class player.

 

[Athe~]

your front three doesnt contain a 9 of any sort, Lavezzi does so well for Napoli becuase he has a real finisher with Cavani, Aguero must play somewhere in the front 3

We have Higuaín who's injured, and there are plenty of other who can play there, and Batista has played them, so I'm confident he'll try that out. I am, however, more concerned by the lack of creativity in the midfield, and the lack of support to our frontmen.

 

[Alex]

I'd be well keen on an FM-Base trip to Brazil. Would be epic with a capital E.

 

[curtis290]

To be fair I didn't like Argentina against the US. Lavezzi doesn't really look like he fits there, didn't have a good game against Portugal, either. Our midfield lacked creativity (Guess who had to provide the creativity...), and our front 3 often had no support from the midfield whatsoever. In the last minutes of the match our forwards were battling 7 outfield players and the keeper with absolutely no support. Marcos Rojo was good on the offense but weak defensively, just like in the Portugal match. Milito is a good CB but he's too short IMO, every cross or set piece was headed by - insert player - and their equaliser came that way. Our weakness in the air was also evident against Portugal.

Overall, I'm dissapointed with the NT so far, but time will tell. Can't get much worse than Maradona, either.


//Edit - On a more important note, I wouldn't miss the WC in Brazil for anything in the world.

What would be your ideal starting XI for Argentina? On the one hand, I feel like they should stick with Batista's plan of the 4-3-3 imitating Barcelona...I think you have to play like that to get the most out of Messi, and since he's the best in the world, that's what you have to do. The front three, IMO, should definitely be Higuain, Messi, and Aguero. Maybe Di Maria, Tevez, or even Lavezzi when one of those three is injured. This formation also works because Argentina is very weak right now in terms of wingers...Di Maria is their only good natural winger right now. I guess there's Perotti at Sevilla, but I've hardly seen him play.

As for the central midfielders, Argentina has some great CM's right now but they are all DM's...Cambiasso, Banega, Mascherano, Gago. The two CM's that would try to play the role of Xavi and Iniesta would probably have to be Veron and Lucho Gonzalez. Veron is almost perfect for the role but he's too old for 2014. And I don't think Lucho is good enough, though I haven't really watched him play very much over the years. There's always Zanetti, but I don't know if he'd fit in that role, not to mention he's way too old to be considered for 2014. I think you could play Banega as one of the CM's, and then play Cambiasso (or Mascherano or Gago) as the DM. But the other CM has to be a creative player with great technique and passing skills who goes forward very well. And Argentina is definitely lacking this type of player right now...I'm surprised they don't have any good natural CM's at the moment other than Veron. Maybe you could put Pastore there, but would he fit in well in such a role? It seems like he's much more of an enganche than the deep-lying playmaker the 4-3-3 would call for. I probably haven't seen him enough to make that judgment though.

The other problem with Barca's 4-3-3 is it requires outside backs who are great at going forward, ie Dani Alves and Adriano. Argentina doesn't have this right now, either.

The other part of me says that Argentina should just stick with its classic 4-4-2 diamond with Messi as the enganche. You'd have Di Maria on the left, and Zanetti on the right for now, followed by whoever succeeds him in the next few years. A nation as great as Argentina should be able to produce a good right winger during that time period.

Aguero Higuain
Messi
Di Maria Zanetti (Perotti, Maxi Rodriguez, whoever they can find to play RM)
Cambiasso (or Banega/Mascherano/Gago, among others, lots of options there)
Pick your defense and keeper.

Another big problem with Argentina is that they need a tall, big, imposing CB, and all of theirs right now are the Gabriel Milito type (small and technically sound). Maybe Galeano can emerge as that player by 2014? Hopefully he can turn out in real life as he does in FM11.

 

[pistolped7]

All this talk of trips to the 2014 WC, you're all forgetting the world ends next year.

Brazil looked like scoring every single time they got into our half, and I think Neymar showed the full potential he has in that game. He wasn't amazing, but he was incredibly important to Brazil. He was creative on the ball, and every time he got it, I held my breath. He is just that good.

Not seen Argentina recently, but imo Aguero > Di Maria.