For those of a certain generation — at least those whose teams were not victimised by him — it is hard not to want Diego Maradona to succeed. It is not only the outrageous talent, the iconoclasm or the compelling personal story with its layers of contradiction.
It is that the Argentina national coach continually stimulates discussion and controversy.
Like a brilliant columnist, you may agree, you may disagree, but you are rarely left bored or untouched by his argument.
On Saturday night, Maradona’s Argentina hosted Colombia in a World Cup qualifying match. Given that they had suffered their worst-ever defeat in their previous outing (a 6-1 drubbing by — of all nations — little Bolivia) and that a slip-up could see them slide uncomfortably towards the middle of the pack in the two-year slog that is Conmebol qualifying, the pressure was very much on.
In typical Maradona fashion, he was bullish and outspoken in the run-up to the match. With rumours rife that there was tension growing between him and Sergio Batista, one of his assistants and coach of the under-20s, he replied: “I don’t know what’s wrong with him, maybe he’s having his period right now . . . maybe he just needs some attention and a kiss on the mouth.”
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The match itself was a different story. Argentina won the crucial three points, scoring the only goal in the second half through Daniel Diaz, but the performance left a lot to be desired. “Argentina showed no ideas and had no clue about how to control the game,” wrote La Nacion, the Buenos Aires daily newspaper.
It did not hesitate to hold the coach responsible: “Maradona has not given the side a style of play, nor has he put together a balanced formation. One has the impression that he worries more about fitting the big names into the XI than in giving them rational tactical duties.”
It is difficult to argue with the last point. Against Colombia, Argentina lined up with a 3-3-1-3 formation that, in itself, seems somewhat anachronistic. The front three were Sergio Ag?ero, Lionel Messi and Carlos T?vez: outstanding players all, but the fact that Ag?ero, at 5ft 7in is the biggest of the three inevitably means that the attack will be somewhat one-dimensional. It is lost on few that the trio is made up of Maradona’s son-in-law (Ag?ero), his heir apparent (Messi) and the player who, by Maradona’s own admission, is most on his own wavelength (T?vez).
When you are so emotionally bound to your players, sometimes you can be blind to the obvious. Which, in this case, is that Argentina looked a lot more threatening when Ag?ero was forcibly replaced by a real centre forward, Diego Milito, with five minutes left in the first half.
But the most questionable decisions came in midfield. The 3-3-1-3 system is predicated upon an outstanding playmaker sitting behind the front three. It is tailor-made for a player such as Juan Rom?n Riquelme. However, he fell out with Maradona and hasn’t been seen with the Albiceleste in nearly a year.
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So, in his place, the coach turned to Juan Sebasti?n Ver?n. Disassembling your side for a maddeningly inconsistent 34-year-old was bad enough, but Argentina could still have weathered that storm if the coach had used
nous with the back six. Instead, Maradona used a three-man defence (which, in itself, is questionable in today’s game) with a line of three midfield players in front of them: Fernando Gago, Javier Mascherano and Jon?s Guti?rrez. Gago is no wing back. “I was wrong about Gago, he can’t play wide,” Maradona said after the match. “It’s my fault. But that’s why I fixed it by sending on [Javier] Zanetti.” But Zanetti, Inter Milan’s jack-of-all-trades, is 35: at some point Father Time will catch up with “the bionic tractor”. What is obvious is that there is plenty of work to do and that Maradona may want to go back to basics.
Public opinion is still with him, of course. And so too are the players. “Yes, we played very badly but we showed we had the guts to get a result.” T?vez said.
Talk about spin. The uncomfortable truth is that Maradona the player remains an otherworldly being. Maradona the coach, for now, seems to share too many traits with other legendary players who were fast-tracked into the job without any clear idea of what coaching and tactics mean.
Sweden struggling to maintain proud record
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Sweden, a nation with a population smaller than London’s, are justifiably proud of their record in qualifying for international competitions. They’ve reached every European Championship or World Cup finals since 1998. Yet South Africa looks out of reach after the home defeat by Denmark at the weekend.
Lars Lagerb?ck’s crew are seven points behind Hungary, who are in second place in group one, with five games to go. To make matters worse, not only must they catch the Magyars, they have to finish ahead of Portugal, who are third. Cristiano Ronaldo and Co left it until the second minute of injury time to score the winner against Albania. A draw would have virtually eliminated them.
With Denmark in control of the group, it appears certain that either Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Ronaldo will miss out on the World Cup. Which, given that they are both sponsored by Nike, would be a disaster for a certain sports apparel company.