Jonathan Wilson: Diego Maradona's World Cup tactics - madness or magic?

Argentina / Jonathan Wilson / 03 June 2010 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet

El Diego passes on tactical advice to Lionel Messi

Before he jets off to South Africa - from where he will providing a World Cup diary for Betting.Betfair - Jonathan Wilson discusses El Diego's negative tactics and why attacking full-backs are often integral to World Cup winners.

"Maradona's approach seems oddly negative; to play in such a stodgy way seems wilfully perverse, as though he's trying to recreate the template of 1986, when he was the shining light in a team of relatively average talents."

There is something magnificently contrarian about Diego Maradona.

Recent history tells us that the team with the best - or at least the most in-form - pair of attacking full-backs wins the World Cup: Branco and Jorginho for Brazil in 1994, Lilian Thuram and Bixente Lizerazu for France in 1998, Cafu and Roberto Carlos for Brazil in 2002, and Gianluca Zambrotta and Fabio Grosso for Italy in 2006. But Maradona has gone into this tournament almost eschewing the notion of the attacking full-back.

His Argentina squad, who have shortened to [8.0] to win the World Cup, includes only one out-and-out full-back in Clemente Rodriguez of Estudiantes, although given that Gabriel Heinze and Nicolas Ottamendi, while centre-backs, have regularly played at full-back that is not quite the oddity it may at first seem. Jonas Gutierrez, although likely to be used on the right side of midfield, can cover as a right-back if necessary.

Maradona insists his full-backs will be there to defend, that they have no business crossing the half-way line, which flies in the face of almost all recent precedent (Stoke City have done well with a back four made up entirely of centre-backs this season, but Maradona is presumably aiming higher than that). It surely is no coincidence that Internazionale, Bayern Munich and Barcelona have fine attacking right-backs in Maicon, Phillip Lahm and Dani Alves, while Manchester United and Chelsea have fine attacking left-backs in Patrice Evra and Ashley Cole.

A block of four leaves Maradona effectively able to field only one holding midfielder, which will be Javier Mascherano. He is arguably the best defensive anchor in the world, but the sense is that because his range of passing is so limited, he needs a passer - such as Xabi Alonso - alongside him. That probably means Juan Sebastian Veron sitting quite deep alongside him, with Guttierez, a willing runner, to the right, and the gifted Angel Di Maria to the left. Lionel Messi will then have a free role operating behind Gonzalo Higuain.

The approach seems oddly negative; to have the likes of Carlos Tevez, Sergio Aguero, Diego Milito and Lisandro Lopez available and play in such a stodgy way seems wilfully perverse, as though Maradona is trying to recreate the template of 1986, when he was the shining light in a team of relatively average talents.

Entertaining the rest of the world, of course, is not one of Maradona's objectives, and if he believes two fairly functional banks of four are the best way to win the World Cup, it is of course his prerogative to play in that way. When Alfie Basile was trying to squeeze in as many of his array of attacking talents as he could, of course, qualifying went extremely badly, so perhaps there is some logic in what Maradona is doing.

But there is a wider point here, about why attacking full-backs are such a boon. As Jack Charlton pointed out in 1994, the full-backs tend to be the players on the pitch with the most room in front of them, which means, without direct opponents, they have more options as to the positions they take up than anybody else. That means they can push on and change the angle of attack. Even against a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1, when the full-back is facing a winger, he can effectively neutralise him by driving forwards. The Netherlands [12.0], excellent as they were against Ghana on Tuesday, may suffer a similar lack with deep-lying full-backs in Gio van Bronckhorst and Gregory van der Wiel.

Without that option, Maradona's Argentina may struggle for fluidity, the inter-movement for which Argentinian football is so justly famous may grind to a halt. Given Veron's age, he is unlikely to be able to drive forward, meaning attacks are very much going to focused on Di Maria and Messi. Many other nations, of course, would love to have two such talents, but it feels wrong that a side that could be as glittering as Argentina should so restrict themselves.

Again, that is Maradona's choice, but it does seem odd to opt to grind, to play like a nervous team in the away leg of a two-legged tie when creativity seems to come as standard in Argentina.

Tags: Argentina, Diego Maradona, football betting, Holland, Jonathan Wilson, Lionel Messi, World Cup betting