World Cup managers shun the celebrities
Provisional World Cup squads have been announced this week, and there are a few big names that we won’t be seeing in South Africa. No Van Nistelrooy, no Ronaldinho, no Vieira, no Zanetti, no Cambiasso, and no Michael Owen.
The majority of these decisions, of course, are very logical and the players involved haven’t been able to prove their form or fitness. Indeed, Tim Vickery’s ever informative blog on the BBC website provides a very good summary from a South American perspective.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/timvickery/2010/05/brazil_squad.html
Interestingly, Vickery suggests Brazil coach Dunga’s call to omit Ronaldinho and Adriano is entirely logical, whereas Maradona’s decision making is, erm, a little more haphazard. Hard to believe I know… Certainly it looks as though the exclusion of Javier Zanetti from the Argentina squad is particularly harsh – the Inter defender has been a class act for over a decade now, and brings significant experience and quality. Another fascinating choice is Maradona’s faith in Juan Sebastian Veron, a talented and rejuvenated player no doubt, but one who didn’t entirely justify the £42 million that was collective spent on him by Manchester United and Chelsea, and certainly isn’t at prime age.
Of course every fan has their own perspective – personally, I can’t understand how Alex has not made the Brazil squad. Yet the tournament itself will ultimately define how successful these decisions have been. And don’t rule out the possibility of late inclusions either – injuries have a habit of striking when least expected.
The examples of Brazil and Argentina selecting some unheralded names whilst ditching some of the stars is a very interesting contrast. Over the last few years Dunga has basically worked to create what he sees as a unit rather than a collection of individuals and has only selected players that he trusts completely. There’s a few in the squad who British football watchers might think ‘surely Brazil can get better players than that?!’ (like Gilberto & Elano etc.) yet they are there because over the last few years they have been moulded into a coherent team. If you look at Brazils’ squads over the last year or so they have basically been comprised of the same 22/23 players every time.
ReplyDeleteArgentina on the other hand is completely different, in that Maradona has already used a staggering amount of different players in just a few months, well over a hundred during his reign! His unheralded names seem to come because of personality clashes or a loyalty towards those that still play in Argentina. As you say, the proof will come at the tournament itself but right now there are some very interesting selections being made with the world cup squads and some big name omissions.