It’s time for Sergio Batista and his merry men to stand up and deliver or face the indignity of an unprecedented failure on home turf as Argentina seek to kickstart their faltering Copa America campaign.
La Albiceleste know that only a win over Costa Rica will see them guaranteed a place in the knock-out stages and even that will only slightly lessen the noose the home fans and media have placed around the teams neck following toothless opening draws with Bolivia and Colombia.
These results only tell half of the tale because of more angst to the natives has been the nature of the performances, with Argentina devoid of any cohesion or penetration despite boasting one of the most enviable set of offensive players on the planet.
But such attacking stocks have eschewed Batista’s judgement. Round pegs in square holes across the six midfield and forward places has resulted in 180 minutes of disjointed football, many moons away from the fluidity of Barcelona that Batista set out to emulate.
With two lackluster showings in mind, Batista is set to re-jig his assets to suit the team rather than the individuals which supposedly made up the team. The 4-3-3 with Lionel Messi as a conventional central striker will be consigned to the circular filing cabinet in favour of a return to the traditional Argentine past-time of 4-2-3-1, with Messi reverting to an orthodox number 10 flanked by Angel Di Maria and Sergio Aguero giving the width behind Gonzalo Higuain as the most advance of the pack.
These wholesale changes could ordinarily be construed as a gamble given the necessity to win but it’s hard to see how the side could perform any worse than they’ve already demonstrated in Batista’s doomed Barca replica.
Ironically, this revised set-up is how Batista would have gone about things had he not buckled to internal pressures to shoehorn Carlos Tevez into the equation. Tevez will belatedly have to do with a place on the bench along with Ezequiel Lavezzi and either Ever Banega or Esteban Cambiasso as Batista attempts to try to find the balance to enable his side to play with the freedom and attacking guile he preached pre-tournament.
Such competitions are marathons rather than sprints and recent World Cup’s have demonstrated la Albiceleste’s proclivity for firework starts before burning out prematurely. A role reversal this time will be needed as there has been very few bright sparks about the slovenly start to this escapade.
Football’s connoisseurs will recall the hapless Italians coming good at Spain ’82 and the Germans regularly huffing and puffing through the meander before finding their stride, but in today’s ultra-expectant football society there is a demand for instant results and reward regardless of circumstance.
Even still, Batista will find few allies with the patience to put up with that analogy after the way things have gone so far, even if the Argentinian tortoise does end up eventually outrunning the hare.
No comments:
Post a Comment