Five options and a surprise: Scaloni eyes a non-defender for Balerdi | OneFootball

Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni confirmed at a press conference on Monday that, after this Tuesday’s friendly against Iceland, starting Wednesday the player who will complete the 26-man World Cup squad will join the team and take the place of Leonardo Balerdi, who was ruled out after tearing the soleus muscle in his right leg. The big news, however, is that the coach revealed that the center-back position is already covered and that he will take a player from another area of the pitch.

The players still in the running to make the World Cup squad are: Emiliano Buendía, Nicolás Capaldo, Agustín Giay, Máximo Perrone and Guido Rodríguez. All of them were included in the preliminary list of 55 that the coach had previously drawn up and have been part of the cycle at different times, with more or less continuity. According to TyC Sports, the selected player will be announced on Tuesday before the friendly.

“I’m not going to say it immediately after the match, but tomorrow we’ll have a clearer picture. We can take these days, and on Wednesday, whoever we decide on will be with us. We may already be covered in the big guy’s position, and we’ll look at other possibilities depending on how the rest of the players finish up. We have an idea based on how they come through. Tomorrow we’ll decide, but it won’t go beyond Wednesday,” Scaloni said on Monday.

The truth is that the back line is covered with Cristian Romero, Nicolás Otamendi, Lisandro Martínez and Facundo Medina, who is naturally a center-back, although Scaloni also takes him as an alternative to Nicolás Tagliafico because he plays as a stopper at Olympique de Marseille. Until now, Giay and Capaldo appeared to have the best chances. Both right-backs are with the squad for the friendlies, but both were called up because of injuries to Gonzalo Montiel and Nahuel Molina.

Scaloni assessed the situation of the injured players and confirmed that Paredes is improving

However, both players trained with the squad for the first time on Sunday, and today the coach announced that they have been medically cleared, so their recoveries have gone well and, unless one of them is ruled out again, it would be strange for him to add a third right-back, unless he plans to use one of them on the left.

As for the rest, Rodríguez, who is in good form at Valencia, has not played for the Albiceleste since 2024, but he was a regular at the start of Scaloni’s cycle: he won both Copa América titles and was one of the world champions. With Leandro Paredes carrying a knock (Scaloni said he will rejoin his teammates at the end of the week after the muscle tear he suffered against Universidad Católica), taking a holding midfielder who can replace him in the center of midfield would be an option. In the friendly against Honduras, Scaloni had to use Exequiel Palacios in that role. One option is Perrone, Nicolás Paz’s teammate at surprise Serie A side Como, where he was one of the standout players. He has two caps for the Albiceleste and was called up for the March friendlies against Mauritania and Zambia.

Otherwise, though with a much more attacking profile, there is Buendía, who had a great season at Aston Villa, scoring 11 goals in 54 matches. The 29-year-old from Mar del Plata has two appearances for the national team and last played in November, but he was one of the cases that caused some surprise when he was left out of the 26-man squad because of the level he showed in the Premier League. He is coming off winning the Europa League and, last week, when Nico Paz’s availability was in doubt, the national team contacted him to tell him to keep training and stay ready.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.