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Blinders & Blunders: Diego Maradona

Written by Dan Bolas on Saturday, 10 July 20102 Comments

At the start of the 2010 World Cup, everyone saw Argentina as a potential winner. The sheer wealth of footballing talent in both the squad and starting eleven made for a side that was going to be both entertaining to watch and difficult to beat. In fact, the one issue that many people found to be a negative is who there coach was, former number 10 and footballing legend, Diego Maradona. The fact that Maradona seemed to lack tactical knowledge, technical coaching attributes and at times sanity, all pointed to a potential chink in the armour of the second most successful South American Team. Almost botching the qualification campaign and using a ridiculous amount of players during the period, Maradona further shocked the world by leaving out European Champion’s League winners Zanetti and Cambiasso, opting to play Jonas Gutierez out of position at right back, a player who has been playing second tier football in England for the past 12 months. The option of taking 6 out and out forward players in a squad of 23 also showned a certain naivity about Maradona’s grasp of the squad game, especially in a major competition.

So quite surprisingly then, I am passing the Maradona World Cup situation as a Blinder. Here is a man in charge of a team filled with some of the world’s best footballers, who blatantly doesn’t have the coaching expertise to back it up. He looks like a modern day South American gangster, and would be more at home on a documentary with Ross Kemp. Yet all of this doesn’t matter, because in a climate where coaches seem to be studious, detached and almost robotic, here is a man who is nothing more than a fan with power. Whilst naive, his squad selection is based on wanting to just win matches, with no clever second thoughts, and his man motivational skills are amazing. Imagine coming off the pitch and hearing from Diego Maradona, one of the greatest of all time, you played well. Ultimately, his downfall was his lack of tactical nouce and the Germans and Loew outsmarted the Argentine side, and in spite of Maradona’s coaching staffs best efforts, the intellegance shone through. But in a World Cup hampered by underperforming stars and mediocre defensive minded matches, a character like Maradona has captured the imagination of many, and whether he is the coach for another 4 days or 4 years, he has certainly won me over, again!

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