Monday night, the Monumental will host Argentina's final friendly before the oncoming of Copa America, against Albania. It will be Albiceleste coach Batista's last opportunity to test his master plan before results start to matter.
In the last trainings at Ezeiza before the friendly match, Batista experimented several combinations ahead of time; some with Messi while others without, the 2nd as being a precaution in case the Barca star becomes unavailable at any time through the tournament.
On Thursday, an experiemental Aguero-Milito-Higuain front line was tested, where the players moved and combined well. Additionally they done both defensive and offensive set pieces. Esteban Cambiasso seems to have healed from his injury, but it is suggested that he's likely to be rested against Albania to prevent any risks.
A week ago CONMEBOL allowed the allocation of 1 additional player to each team's roster, which makes it 23, as long as each team calls up 3 goalkeepers. With Batista already having called 3 (Romero, Carizzo, Andujar), it led to another outfield player could be safe from the axe on June 26, where Batista should surrender his final list.
Reports are suggesting that Batista looks to split his 23 players the following: 3 goalkeepers, 7 defenders, 6 midfielders, and 7 forwards. It's also thought that Diego Milito will most likely increase the risk for final squad.
Towards the Albania game, here's Batista's lineup: Sergio Romero, Javier Zanetti, Nicolas Burdisso, Gabriel Milito, Marcos Rojo, Ever Banega, Javier Mascherano, Lucas Biglia, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Lionel Messi and Angel Di Maria.
This really is basically the same squad that arranged in the last few first-team friendlies against USA and Portugal, with only Cambiasso missing because of injury aversion (Biglia takes his place).
In addition to the first half against the USA, this line up didn't impress. The middle backs (Burdisso-Milito) are actually very shaky, because the midfield has been without creativity to link with the leading line. Banega put on a good display against USA but nevertheless turned out to be insufficient just like a lone playmaker.
The forwards themselves (Lavezzi-Messi-Di Maria) failed to show the right chemistry needed to successfuly perform Barca-esque system that Batista stubbornly strives for. While using option of quality players like Tevez, Aguero, Higuain and Pastore about the bench at his disposal, Batista continues to live dangerously.
After dismal performances in the last few friendlies, the common excuse was that the players didn't have lots of time to coach together. However this time around there shouldn't be excuses.
Tonight Argentina undertake a team that never featured within the World Cup before, in your own home, after weeks of daily training. It might be tough people to enhance such an expectation, but for a team while using players of the caliber, anything less than a clean sheet, an excellent performance and a minimum of a 4 goal victory margin could be unsatisfactory.
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