What has Maradona done to Argentina?
Diego Armando Maradona, what can be said about him as a player? Arguably the best player of all time, a man capable of almost single-handedly guiding Argentina to World Cup glory in 1986. A player often attributed with scoring both the greatest goal of all time and the most controversial goal of all time against England in that same World Cup. However, in the recent past, Maradona has lived a difficult life under the scrutiny of the sporting press for his many drug related problems. In November 2008 he seemed to have finally recovered from all his troubles when he became the head coach of the Argentina national team. Unfortunately for Maradona, this experience has led to further problems, this time of a footballing nature.
Argentina currently lie fifth in the South American World Cup qualification table, just two points away from Colombia in eighth and are facing the very real possibility of not qualifying for a World Cup for the first time since 1970. Maradona took over from Alfio Basile after Argentina lost to Chile in October 2008, however since taking over the Argentine side has won two and lost four of the six qualification games played with Maradona as coach. Most recently, Argentina were outclassed by their archrivals Brazil, losing 3-1 at home, this was followed by a 1-0 defeat to Paraguay, which has left the national in a precarious position.
When considering the latest defeats, it must be said that the majority of the blame falls on Maradona’s shoulders particularly when one analyses his team selection. Against Paraguay Maradona opted to play with the following 4-4-2 formation: Romero, Zanetti, Dominguez, Heinze, Papa, Veron, Mascherano, Gago, Datolo, Messi, Aguero. There are several questions that need to be raised about this formation, firstly in defence; Dominguez was playing in only his second international having debuted against Brazil, surely in two games of such importance a coach should opt for experience. Furthermore, Gabriel Heinze was played in the centre of defence despite the fact that he has been playing at left back for the past three seasons at club level.
Although there were some surprising selections in defence, the midfield was even more worrying. All four midfielders have defensive characteristics, Veron is perhaps the most offensive of the four but as he has aged he has become more of a defensive playmaker rather than an offensive one. The most significant issue is the fact that there was no connection between the midfield and the attack; Messi and Aguero are two players that require a link to the midfield in the form of a ‘trequartista’, a role that was not executed by any of the four midfielders largely due to the fact that they are not capable of it. These factors led to there being a total lack of understanding between any of the players, the football was stunted and Argentina never looked dangerous. In fact Argentina’s football was so limited that Messi was voted worst player in the match, a tall order for the future European and World footballer of the year.
Yet, perhaps the most worrying aspect of all was the substitute bench: Burdisso, Schiavi, Bolatti, Brana, Palermo, Lavezzi. Apart from the fact that the majority of these players are largely unknown, the most shocking aspect is that their average age is 34. It is incredible to think that this was the extent of the Argentine national team on Wednesday evening against Paraguay, particularly when one considers the amount of talent the Argentine coach had at his disposal around the world. For example, Diego Milito was left in the stands against Paraguay despite having scored 24 goals for Genoa last season.
In fact, here are a just a few of the players Maradona has failed to call up recently: Mauro Zarate (16 goals – 8 assists in Serie A), Gonzalo Higuain (24 goals – 9 assists in La Liga), Walter Samuel one of the most experienced defenders in Serie A, Gonzalo Rodriguez of Villareal, one of the most promising young defenders in La Liga, Maxi Rodriguez, Cristian Ledesma, Lisandro Lopez, Lucho Gonzalez. Unfortunately the list could go on, one needs to question why these players are not being included in the side, more importantly, one needs to wonder where Argentina might be had these players been selected for the six World Cup qualifiers that Maradona has been in charge of.
It is difficult to come to terms with the fact that such a marvellous player has become such a nightmare as a coach, but perhaps the toughest thing to accept is that Argentina might not actually qualify for the 2010 World Cup and therefore we will all be deprived of some of the most brilliant talent on show in world football today. A team once capable of producing this:
