Diego Maradona suggested that Argentina coach Jorge Sampaoli find a new country to call home if his charges continue to underachieve at the 2018 World Cup. The 1986 World Cup winner stole the show in Moscow on Saturday as he took in his nation’s (Aregentina) first game.
And the football legend pulled held nothing back in registering his displeasure at what he saw from Sampaoli and his players.
“If he carries on like this, Sampaoli can’t come back to Argentina,” he fired in Telesur’s ‘De la mano del Diez’ show.
“It is appalling not to have a single prepared move. Knowing that all the Icelandic players are 6’3″ we looked for headers at all the corners. We didn’t do a single short one.”
“His game plan was a disgrace. I don’t blame the players. I blame a lack of preparation because there obviously hasn’t been any,” Maradona added.
“The time for talk is over. You can take 25 coaches with you, but do some work – we saw that Iceland had worked harder than Argentina and that hurt me a lot.”
“Playing like that, he can’t come back to Argentina,” the 1986 World Cup winner told Venezuelan television.“It’s a disgrace. Not having prepared for the match knowing that Iceland are all 1.90m tall… I get the feeling there’s a general anger at the heart of the team,” said Maradona.
Maradona said that the road to qualification is difficult pointing Nigeria as a stubborn opponent that may stop them in their last qualification match.
‘’The Nigerians are young and very fast. Their counter-attacks and pace are a beauty to behold. I wonder how Sampaoli do it. All I know is that he would not be welcomed back to Argentina if he does not guide Argentina to beat Croatia and Nigeria to qualify.”
On June 21, Argentina will resume their World Cup campaign against Group D leaders Croatia, who triumphed 2-0 over Nigeria in their World Cup opener.
