As soon as the ref blew the final whistle and put Argentina out of their misery against Croatia, I began to hear John Legend singing the chorus of Kanye West’s song the “Blame Game.” The lyrics that relate to this situation that Argentina now find themselves in are – “Let’s play the blame game for sure. Let’s call out names, names, I hate you, more. Let’s call out names, names, for sure.” This was the first time since 1974 that Argentina had failed to win either of their opening two group stage matches so it is natural that the blame is going to be placed somewhere. For all those watching what took place at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium it was clear to see this Argentina team are a broken side. While it’s still early in the tournament and Argentina’s hopes of advancing are still alive especially after Nigeria’s win over Iceland, I get the sense that many members of this Argentina team have already given up hope of accomplishing anything at this tournament. Which leads me to my next question – where are we placing the majority of the blame for this situation that Argentina now find themselves in? The players? Their coach Jorge Sampaoli? The Argentine FA?
In football when results don’t go a team’s way the blame first falls at the feet of the manager, and Sampaoli is no different. With whispers that are beginning to grow into shouts at this point of him losing the the trust of his players, Sampaoli has to change things and act decisively if he is to save his job and salvage something out of this tournament for the Albiceleste. Social media erupted after Argentina’s lackluster performance against the Croatians and one of the common themes was calling Sampaoli a terrible manager. While I do think he got his tactics and team selection completely wrong on Thursday, to call him a terrible manager is a reach. This is still the same manager who had fans around the world fall in love with his Universidad de Chile, Chilean national teams, as well as his Sevilla team before taking the job for his country. He was also on the three-man shortlist for FIFA World Coach of the Year only 3 years ago. One doesn’t simply become a terrible manager overnight and this definitely isn’t the case here. Every manager is capable of getting it wrong on any given day, but had Enzo Perez not missed an empty net at 0-0 and Argentina snuck out with say a 1-0 win would we call that a tactical master class from Sampaoli? I guess we’ll never know the answer to that but what we do know is that Croatia didn’t look back and exploited gaps in Argentina’s backline and midfield on the way to a famous victory.
While most look at the manager when things go wrong, some tend to look at the players. Most of Cristiano Ronaldo’s fans have no doubt enjoyed watching Messi and co struggle in Russia. How much of the blame should they shoulder for what has taken place so far? Let’s not forget that two managers before Sampaoli were sacked during their very troubled qualification campaign to get here so is it the players who are actually to blame? Make no mistake this Argentina team is full of very talented players but they can’t seem to play together as a cohesive unit. Cesc Fabregas offered the best insight as to why Argentina struggled against Croatia when he said Argentina were playing with 5 defenders and 5 attackers vs the best midfield in the world. Caballero’s mistake was glaring and cost his team but at no point after did Argentina look like they would mount any sort of serious comeback. The lack of fight from a team with so much quality was shocking. We can all agree that a team that boast the likes of Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Angel Di Maria, Gonzalo Higuain, Paulo Dybala, and more should not have this much trouble scoring goals.
So then is it on the Argentine FA for a lack of clear direction? Three managers later and they are still probably scratching their heads wondering what is happening. I’m interested to see if the Argentine FA will continue with Sampaoli and his project if they crash out in the group stages knowing that they are still paying their two previous managers and would still have to pay out Sampaoli considering he is only in year two of his five-year contract and the buyout reported to be the total worth of the contract, $20 million. This will be one of the more interesting storylines to follow after the conclusion of this tournament.
If you were the manager of Argentina how would you have them line up in their final group match and potentially beyond in the rest of this tournament? How would you turn around a group that seems to be quitting and ready to head on summer holiday already? Who would you rest the blame on if things continue to go the way they are for the Albiceleste? One thing is for certain all eyes will be on Sampaoli, Messi, and the rest of this Argentina team as they fight to get out of the group stages…
