Torrent for the Venezuela match.
Let's start from the back line.
Left back position is obviously the weakest link of the entire formation (lack of #9 sits right behind that). Heinze is not only not very good on the offensives, he has also been prone to injuries since his misfortune before 06'WC. So from both productivity and reliability stand points, Heinze is not an ideal left back for the NT.
Some people think Burdisso could play all defender positions. That's not true, and clearly demonstrated in Venezuela match. He doesn't position very well as fullback, and he's not natural to the left side. Several times our beautiful possessions ended on Burdisso. Not only that, he also allowed some dangerous openings. Nicolas Burdisso is a terrific center back or right back (for the left hammer right anvil way we play), but not the solution to our left back problem.
He's ok from the injury. He was unconscious for a few seconds though.
Milito has decent header and can defend in the box very well. His problem is the lack of speed, which means he couldn't cover a large zone. He's actually quite aggressive/offensive, but unfortunately too slow to be a good leftback. Not to mention, we need a wingback...
Daniel Diaz did not impress me. He's also 28 years old so not a real future possibility. He was not really tested since Venezuela didn't go right after Burdisso's injury, but like Burdisso, Diaz did not provide the necessary width on the left.
Now, right back. Zanetti is becoming irreplaceable. He's now also taking care of the right wing due to Maxi's problems. Zanetti is OLD AS SHIT! We cannot keep relying on him, let alone making him shoulder more responsibilities.
Ibarra was pretty good at right back. He's very experienced and he makes the correct decisions. His pass to Tevez was brilliant, and he made quite a few good defensive moves. The yellow card was a necessary foul too. It's too bad Ibarra is 33 years old.
Demichelis is a welcome addition to the CB lineup. He plays LCB for Bayern so we know he can do both sides. This guy is solid, and we still have Burdisso, Milito and soon Gonzalo Rodriguez in the lineup. The CB position is pretty filled up. Few others might deserve a try but it's not necessary.
If we could find 2 good fullbacks, this defense can win the world cup.
Venezuela took the initiatives on several occasions. They pulled out some high class offensives but were ineffective in top 1/3 of the field. On defense, Argentina went into a 4-3-3, alot of midfield disruptions ensured the ball was rarely carried by opponents to striking distances. However, this also has to do with the way Venezuela was setup. They played a 4-5-1 with just Maldonado up front. We had 2 solid CB marking him, making it impossible for Maldonado to open himself up.
Against Venezuela, Basile pulled out practically 3 defensive midfielders. Even when he switched Ibarra off and dropped Zanetti back, it was Gago that came on so there remained to be 3 defensive midfielders. It looked good on defense, but these weren't offensively minded players, and didn't provide enough support when attacking.
Gago is probably the most offensive of these DMs. He doesn't have the touch and control of Riquelme, but he's definitely a playmaker option.
We have other offensive wingers even if Maxi couldn't adjust himself to suit this team, D'Alessandro for example, is probably worth a try.
However, I do think Gago can provide a better balance on the right, especially if we use a more aggressive fullback than Zanetti. He has better distribution than either Mascherano or Cambiasso, and he's better than Cambiasso in defense. What Gago needs to do is to be a little more conservative, he makes some dangerous choices.
Riquelme is the best enganche we've got. It's simple as that. There's no one else can cope with Messi better. Some of the works between those 2 were from another world.
But Roman did not make the same kind of passes to Tevez.
Technically, Tevez and Messi are similar so one should hit them the same way too. AKA. low and tight. IMO the reason Tevez doesn't get the balls like Messi is because he plays on the left more. Our offense leans left, so left forward is more vertically aligned with Roman. This means there would be more defenders between Tevez and Roman, making direct ground passes more difficult to Calito than for Messi.
The solution to that is still width on the left. Provide indirect routes to reach Tevez.
Even if Tevez did get the right passes, he still wouldn't of been very effective from where he played. He didn't have a target to cross to.
We didn't have a target person, so the middle of the box was empty. Over and over, the ball reached Tevez high up on the wing, then he had no target to hit, ended up sending the ball back. That's frustrating to watch, and as much as I've supported the 2 shorties experiments, I believe we're still better off with a real target player.
It's not to say I'm losing faith in Tevez though. In fact, I think he made the right choices to turn the ball back from the left wing. When Messi switched position with him, he tried to cut into the middle and was unsuccessful. Tevez's choices at least allowed us to retain possession.
Denis offered that target person option to certain extends. Once he came on, there was clearly a person to hit in the middle. His positioning was also very nice so he got a few very good chances within the 10 minutes he played. Haven said that, Denis' finish was EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING. Everybody is nervous the first time playing on NT, but a professional player like Denis should of known opportunities like that don't come very often. He had 2 beautiful breakaways, one of which there was no excuse for not hitting the goal and he managed to shoot it wide...
Speaking of which. I get more impressed by Messi every time. He went out of his way again and again to set his teammates up. It's true he didn't take the chances, but scoring at that point would do nothing more than humiliating the host. Instead, he choose to move on after reaching scoring position, and forced his way to set up both Tevez and Denis (did the same for Aguero against Chile too). That IMO is more difficult to do than shooting, and it shows the big heart and unbelievable unselfishness from Messi.
Another player satisfying to watch was Mascherano. Mascherano accomplishes his defensive duties like no other, but even more impressive was his ability to produce runs and draw fouls. He's done that many times for Liverpool, and now he's done that on the NT as well. He also scored a goal when playing for River from the same concept. That's one of his specialties, make no doubt.
Mascher was send down the wing late against Chile. It was a stupid move by Basile. Can't believe it takes trials and error for our NT coach to see that...
Last I want to mention Cambiasso. Cuchu has his qualities. He works hard, and knows when to push and when to defend. Problem is, he does neither very well. On teams like Inter, there are plenty garbageman to pick up trash he left off, but on our NT that's not the case. The ball must be processed precisely inside the box for us to score because we don't have a #9 right now (unless Crespo comes back but how long would that last). Cambiasso is a difficult to utilize element eventhough he had done ok at that position in the past.
There are plenty choices for outside midfielders. D'alessandro, Almiron, Zabelata, Ledesma, etc. We need to try them out, and focus on finding fullbacks and target players.
