Inquisition

There are two outside midfielders in 4-3-1-2. Their job is to support the enganche (also playmaker) on offense and help the holding midfielder on defense.

Enlisting Veron was to establish an alternative playmaker solution by sacrificing a dedicated outside midfielder. So in the case the playmaker (Roman) is shut down, this alternative playmaker could possibly open up new options.
But by doing so, Veron was distanced from the rest of the offensive group, and he failed to get involved in the first 2 matches.
So Veron wasn't working out as a hybrid between outside midfielder and secondary playmaker.

Veron is more of an CM than an outside midfielder. His alternative has to be a player used to be playing wide. Maxi would of been the best choice but Basile picked Lucho due to Maxi's previous injury.
Then he probably realized lucho sucked ass.
When Veron's invented secondary playmaker role failed to work out, it was too late to get another outside midfielder in (tourney had already began).
So the choices Basile was left with:
1. play Lucho
2. play Veron out to position as outside midfielder and forget the secondary playmaker plan.

Some might ask, why wasn't Aimar put in then?
Because Aimar isn't an ideal outside midfielder either. And Veron has better defensive attributes, is therefore more reliable to play out of position in this case.
On top of that, Aimar, besides acting as supersub for Riquelme, also served as sub for the left outside midfielder position occupied by Cambiasso.

Cambiasso playing the other outside midfielder was necessary. He could play a holding midfielder role and he can still run up to join attack from defensive positions.
What didn't work out for Cuchu was the fact NT moved the ball very fast. 4-3-1-2 maintains possession via speed. So for Cambiasso, it wasn't the same as playing in Inter. There's too much ground for him to cover in NT and he couldn't get to good offensive positions on time when playing with the Albicelestes. Cuchu's offensive contribution in this copa had been generally limited.

Why didn't we have ideal outside midfielders in the lineup?
Argentina does not have a shortage of football talents.


Because Basile took the wrong approach when structuring this team.
He picked out (or other people picked for him) the doctrine and a set general strategy (offensive, 4-3-1-2) to follow. The strategy was obsolete and flawed. So he made adjustments (Veron's hybrid role, Center backs pushing up to strengthen holding midfield, etc) to deal with the shortcomings of the design. But that was like forcing the formula to fit the solution by alternating variables.

The right way is to find out the variables (players) first, then derive a formula (strategy) that would lead to the solution (winning) by utilizing these variables.

In other words. The proper way of structuring a team is to find the best and most talented players first, then build a strategy based on their attributes. So the formation could take advantage of the strength and compensate the weakness of these players.

Alfio Basile took the wrong approach to this campaign and had committed heresy! That's why he lost with such an extraordinary group of players. BASILE MUST BE CRUCIFIED!