Argentina may have unlimited attacking options but how many of them can play at one time?

It says a lot about a national team when Carlos Tevez, outstanding for Manchester City this season, treble winning hero Diego Milito and wonder kid Sergio Aguero cannot get into the national team. It’s pretty safe to say all of these would walk into the majority of the nations in this year’s World Cup. Of course keeping these fantastic players out is the world’s best player Lionel Messi and Real Madrid’s Gonzalo Higuain. Argentina seem pretty settled on a 4-4-2 formation but other than Javier Mascherano I have no clue who else is going to be in the starting line up against Nigeria on June 12th.

What Maradona must surely be thinking is how to get a balance out of this team and how can he fit in his world class stars! Well I hope this is what he’s thinking, after using 75 players in the qualification games you kind of get the impression other than Messi he does not know his starting line up yet. How this man can overlook and not select Javier Zanetti and Estaben Cambiasso who have been key in Inter Milan’s success in his World Cup squad, managed by a man who knows a few things about football I have no idea. Cambiasso and Zanetti would have added a huge deal of experience, given two outstanding defensive options, provided balance to let the attacking flair players create the magic that the whole competition must fear.

Two holding midfield players would allow Messi to play in his famous attacking wide right position, it would allow Carlos Tevez or Sergio Aguero the licence to play off the main striker; either Higuain or Diego Milito with exciting prospect Angel Di Maria or solid Maxi Rodriguez playing wide left. This would allow Maradona to have four world class attackers instead of two with security at the back and Juan Sebastian Veron would be able to give his old legs a rest.

But who knows there may be actually a method to Maradona’s madness. It could work out to be an advantage for stars like Messi, Tevez and son-in-law Aguero for the attention not to be on them but to be on the manager who if he does not deliver an impressive World Cup is surely out of a job.