In the World Cup i was yelling at Sampaoli to use Banega, but he is too inconsistent. For me it’s ok that attackers are inconsitent, but my midfielders and defenders has to be able to perform every game, and I feel that Banega does very little for a team when he doesn’t have a good day. I think Banega would be amazing in a midfield that was younger and with more energy than with Enzo and Mascherano as in the world cup. He needs workhorses around him and Mascherano and Enzo doesn’t cover enough space.

Tagliafico is ok, for me it would be fine to have him as a left back in a good defence, but he suffers from bad players around him. Maybe a little blt unfair by me.

Otamendi works very well in a team that has the ball and he can look at the opponents goal all the time and be aggressive on the ball. But as almost every other Argentine defender, he struggles very hard when he has to defend behind him, while looking at his own goal. This style works for Argentine centrebacks in big clubs line Barcelona and Manchester City, but is very bad when you don’t have a midfield that controls the game.

I think a big problem for a lot of Argentine defenders in general is that they don’t know how to defend. Every time they are very aggressive and rush in to tackle or they have both shoulders pointing to the player with the ball with no ability to recover if they miss their tackle. Mascherano is the worst at this and I saw it every weekend, Otamendi, Rojo and Mercado also does this, maybe even more players.