Military minds are fond of saving that “no plan ever survives first contact with the enemy.” Substitute “opposition” for “enemy” and we have a fair approximation of a situation that Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni has already faced twice in his brief coaching career.
One was in his side’s opening game at the World Cup. Argentina came to Qatar riding high on a 36-game unbeaten run based on a single idea — a patient, possession based midfield would control the ball, bring Lionel Messi into the game on a regular basis, many of them close enough to the opposing goal to do serious damage.
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Saudi Arabia gave Scaloni a rude awakening to the World Cup, with a ferocious high line that forced Argentina into a type of game in which they were not comfortable — and forced Scaloni into a rethink. Since then there has been plenty of tinkering, almost all of it successful. If Messi is going to be more sporadic, then there must be more mobility up front — hence the introduction of forward Julian Alvarez over the struggling Lautaro Martinez.
If the team cannot always control the ball then there will be times when a shift to a back-three is advisable. Initial contact with the opposition, then, has obliged Argentina’s coach to come up with variations on his theme.
Closer to the start of his reign, though, Scaloni had to do something far more drastic. He had to ditch an entire project. Appointed after the 2018 World Cup, initially on a caretaker basis, Scaloni had served on staff as an observer of Argentina’s opponents. The one which left the deepest impression was France — the team that eliminated Argentina in the second round.
“France robbed the ball and were in a position to shoot in three or four seconds,” he said in his introductory news conference. “That’s the way football is going, it’s the football I like and the moment has come to introduce this in Argentina. We’re going to be more direct and vertical.”
