Tighe’s 2014 World Cup Tactics Board: Analysing Alejandro Sabella’s Argentina

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: February 13, 2014

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Welcome to the latest in a B/R series where we will take a tactical dive and explore each and every one of the 32 qualified World Cup teams.

Next up is Argentina, who qualified in first place in the CONMEBOL standings with an impressive 32 points. Alejandro Sabella will take his Albiceleste side to the finals as one of the favourites to win the top prize.

 

Qualifying

Argentina's qualifying results were odd from the beginning, and for a long time it appeared as though the nation had failed to shake their irritating tendency to slip up against lesser sides.

Wins over Chile, Colombia and Uruguay—three teams who've qualified for the World Cup finals—were joined by a loss to Venezeula, a draw to Bolivia and a stalemate with Peru.

They ended up staying unbeaten vs. Colombia and did the double over Chile and Ecuador, which helped them keep fellow qualifiers at arm's length and win the group.

Sabella's men scored the most goals (35) in qualifying by a distance and conceded the second fewest (15).

 

Formation and Style

It's early in this series, but trust us when we say Argentina's preferred system is one of the most complex to be on show in Brazil this summer.

Sabella has shown his hand and clearly prefers a 4-3-3 formation, but it's loose, unorthodox and very, very fluid. The manager is pragmatic in comparison to the chaotic Sergio Batista and Diego Maradona reigns, but can still get extremely creative when required.



As is the case in any team he will ever play for, Argentina have worked hard to devise a formation that frees up Lionel Messi to do as much damage as physically possible.

The Barcelona man finished second in the CONMEBOL qualifying scoring list with 10 goals, second only to Luis Suarez, so on paper the strategy worked...but how did Sabella do it?

Rather t...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

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