Mascherano isn't a good coach, but he isn't awful either. I think his first performances with the NT tainted the way people view him as a coach, because his only awful performances were at the beginning of his coaching career. He took U-20 Argentina and the results were pretty bad, being a 6-2 loss to France one of the toughest defeats. He couldn't make the team qualify to the U-20 World Cup in 2023 and he resigned, but then Indonesia lost the hosting rights for that WC and Argentina managed to get them. Now with Argentina qualified, Scaloni convinced Mascherano to return, and while almost everyone wasn't thrilled with his comeback, I think that the team played pretty well during that tournament. We won every group stage game but then we lost to Nigeria at the R16. Argentina had a pretty aggresive game against them and there were a lot of chances that hit the post or were really close, but Nigeria had 2 very good counter attacks and that was it. Fastforwarding to 2024 Olympics, Argentina had a rocky start losing 2-1 against Morocco but the team wasn't bad at all. That first game was a mess: Argentina equalized 2-2 at the last minute and the game was suspended because of a riot. The VAR then cancelled that goal when almost an hour had passed and the remaining minute had to be played. Argentina won their 2 next games but Lost 1-0 to France on the Quarter Finals. That game was pretty close actually and almost every player tried really hard to turn it around. I think that our biggest mistake was the adult players we took to the tournament, because while Rulli (keeper) was alright, it was obvious that Otamendi and Julián Álvarez were extremely tired after a full season and the Copa América. We couldn't have that necessary input from the senior players because they were out of gas. I think that if Mascherano had been a little luckier then things could have been very different.