Why Argentina Isn’t Playing As Expected

Argentina is usually heralded as a futbol powerhouse due to star players and a chemistry between players that–until recently–allowed many a set piece and play to seem effortless; however, anyone who has been following the World Cup this year could say that Argentina isn’t exactly living up to its reputation, as shown by Argentina barely scraping by the group stage. So, why is that?

For starters, Argentina has long been criticized on its heavy reliance on solo attacks by their forwards and midfielders rather than working the ball up the field. They have a tendency to always get the ball to either Messi or Agüero and let them do the scoring; so, if Agüero and Messi aren’t having a good game, the whole team suffers.

Another issue is the management of the team. For almost forty years, the team went through only eight coaches; but in the past eight years alone, there have been five different coaches of the Argentinian national team, three of which were cycled through in the qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup alone. Although a team does not need a coach to play on the field, a good relationship and dynamic with the head coach helps a team bond and build the chemistry it needs to move as a unit and, thus, play better together.

These reasons, coupled with the peculiar choice of head coach, Jorge Sampaoli, and his questionable player choices, has resulted in a major blow to the coordination and lethality of Argentina’s team in the World Cup and is the reason many peoples’ brackets have been marred beyond saving.