Saturday, August 29, 2009

All our strikers are scoring for their clubs...

...is that a good thing or not?

Lisandro LOPEZ scored three in a mid-week Champions League qualifying match vs. Anderletch then adds another on Saturday for Lyon to beat Nancy 3-1. Lisandro's got 2 goals in 3 league matches and 4 goals in 2 UCL games. That's 6 goals in 5 matches in this very young European season.

Sergio AGÜERO was also on target for Atlético Madrid against Panathinaikos in the Champions League qualifyers and he'll play tomorrow Málaga. He had also scored in the first leg in Greece.

Diego MILITO provides two assists and scores from the penalty spot for Inter in a 4-0 derby win over AC Milan.

Lio MESSI will skip Barcelona's opening league match, but he provided the assist for Pedro to score the only goal against Shaktar in the European Supercup and the Flea also scored two against Athletic Bilbao to help Barcelona secure the Spanish Supercup.

Carlos TEVEZ will play tomorrow for City against Portsmouth, but he comes from a good Carling Cup display with a headed goal in a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace on Thursday -which was Carlitos' first official goal for Man City-.

We'll see what Ezequiel LAVEZZI does on Sunday for Napoli.

But the question I want to ask you is:

If this free-scoring period from all our Argentine forwards a good or a bad thing ahead of our match against Brazil?

Will these goals give only mean our forwards will grow in confidence?

Or will they become a source of pressure on them and they will try to do too much in Rosario? I'm talking about the old argument of 'you perform well for your club but you can't cut it with our national team'.

What are your thoughts then?

8 comments:

johnny said...

All good Seba ! I'd rather have in form strikers with lots of confidence-as long as they are not so confident that they won't pass the ball !

Milito looked great today, but it looked like he landed awkwardly at one point and maybe strained something. I hope he is ok.

What a pathetic showing by Milan. I'm sure their fans are about ready to lynch somebody.

John said...

Further goals from the Albiceleste on Saturdays.

Ernesto FARIAS scored for FC Porto in their 3- win over Naval in the Portuguese league. Franco CANGELE scored twice for Kayserirspor in their 3-0 win over Denizilispor

Victor said...

How can you say goals are bad?
I know its a saying but i thought you were better than that seba. Come on cheer up, we are argies. Goals = Win = Fun

Anonymous said...

Sure scoring before Brasil and Paraguay gives you a good dose of optimism.

I wanna see Salvio scoring against Boca this Sunday. I think I read Maradona called up him for wednesday, which is what I definitely wanted, and scoring in this important match will put him in the spot.

And I'm very happy to see Clemente Rodríguez back on the national league. A defender I'd love to see playing for the NT.

John said...

Well I guessed the timing was just right for our strikers for them to build their confidence towards this important match of the year. At least based on current form, Diego was right to call up Lisandro LOPEZ, Kun AGUERO & Diego MILITO because they are the ones who are scoring at the moment.

Most particularly Licha who has been on fire for Lyon and I’m not sure about the rest but I feel Diego must start him alongside MESSI against Brazil.

Its pity with the situation that we are facing with both Gonzalo HIGUAIN and Fernando GAGO at the Bernabau as they were on the bench.

Sebastian said...

Hey...even OTAMENDI scored on Saturday. He opened the scoring for Velez in their 3-1 win over Arsenal de Sarandí.

Victor...I was just trying to make you all write about this subject.

I succeeded, didn't I?

And I didn't express my opinions in that post. I just got the ball rolling so we could all discuss this matter here.

Of course I'm all for every forward we've got to be high on confidence and feel like they can find the back of the net pretty easily.

Anonymous said...

MILITO scored on a PK I would not go crazy with that. Last week vs Bari he had tons of chances and missed all. Milito is not worthy. Licha deserves to play with Messi.

ZiggY said...

Scoring goals is always a good thing... In addition to oxygen, food and water, strikers need confidence! There is a high psychological factor playing as a forward, and this goals-galore couldnt come at a better moment. We need our strikers to have this confidence against Brazil, we need them to have this high morale.

Lisandro is currently HOT HOT HOT at Lyon, scoring goals left and right (dont forget his goal against Russia too). Diego Milito has been the focal point of Inter Milan's attack (edging out Eto'o), providing assists and scoring goals. Aguero has also rediscovered his good form and has looked very menacing against all opposition this month so far (not to mention his great performance against Russia). Tevez is playing great with Man City and has already scored a goal and provided and assist. Finally as for Lionel, needless to say... ALWAYS in form, always scoring/assisting the deciders, always involved and always leading Barca to glory.

Yes, its a pity to see Higuain and Gago on the bench at Real. Personally i expected this. I kinda see it a bit hard for Gago to clinch his starting position back in midfield, however im more optimistic that Higuain will prove himself in the little time he gets. He always does, and im sure he'll edge out either Raul or Benzema one day to become the starter.

As for the national team, Maradona must definitely be happy to see his forwards in such a great form, and he must be having headaches, getting little sleep and waking up in the middle of the night (as he says) thinking of who to put up front. Anyway, i just wanna mention that i think he's not capitalizing well on Messi by putting him up front as one of the two attackers. Lionel should be used the way Guardiola uses him at Barca. He's most comfortable when given a free role behind the offense, orchestrating the play and running AT the defense instead of receiving the ball with his back towards them and trying to twist round them.

That said, i think Diego should place Messi as an attacking midfielder with two forwards up front. One forward must be a tall, strong, good in the air, fast and opportunistic player, who knows how to make the right runs, beat defenders and have that killer instinct inside the box (a la Batistuta or Crespo). The second must hold the title "second striker" who has those mazy runs, tricky feet, lethal passes and dangerous shots as well.

For the first type, i think most of us would agree that Milito fits this description most. Plus add the fact that he's also pretty skillfull himself, always making those neat fakes and providing good assists.

For the second type, well its a tough choice between Tevez and Aguero. Both fit this description well, but currently Aguero is more in form and i think his finishing is usually better than Tevez. But also, there's the fact that Brazil's defenders are big guys that are very physical and use their body weight. Aguero is the type of player that needs space in front of him and unless he can get himself into that space away from the Brazilian defenders, i think they will close him down. Tevez can cope better with physical pressure.

Anyway, in the end, i also would love to see Lisandro Lopez given a chance up front. He has been under-rated for too long with people claiming that he gets his abundance of goals just coz he plays in the Portuguese league. Well now he's doing the same with Lyon. He's also a skillfull and very opportunistic player. He plays with a lot of aggression, power and confidence.. and he's dynamic enough to be both a second striker kind of player and a main striker kind. I think he'd do a good job against Brazil's defence.

So i'd probably go for a Milito-Lisandro front line with Messi behind them... and in the second half, if there's a lot of open play, bring on Aguero. If not, then bring on Tevez.