Argentina showed against Poland their artistry is built on aggression

There was a certain irony in Argentina’s 2-0 victory over Poland. Whereas Czeslaw Michniewicz’s side abandoned any hope of scoring a goal midway through the second half, and instead banked on their fair play record to secure progression ahead of Mexico, they were playing against the most aggressive side in the competition.

𝗔𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗦 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗗 | 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗗

Poland would progress to the #FIFAWorldCup knockout stage on ‘Fair Play’, due to having fewer yellow cards than Mexico

🟨 Yellow cards:#POL: 5#MEX: 7#POLARG | #KSAMEX

— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) November 30, 2022

Argentine football has always been something of a contradiction. On one hand, it is focused on beauty and grace, revering the classic No 10 perhaps more than any nation. On the other, tune into an Argentine top-flight contest, and you’ll be shocked by the level of physicality, the brutality, the sense that there’s often more midfield destroyers than playmakers. Argentine football is about aggression as much as artistry.

And aggression, when channelled properly, can be an extremely valuable footballing attribute. Here, in front of probably the most raucous support the tournament has seen so far, Argentina were aggressive in all the right ways. They imposed themselves on the game, with and without the ball. And, to be more specific, they imposed themselves without the ball, in order to get it back.

Half an hour after full-time, the Argentines are still singing. “Muchachoooooooos” pic.twitter.com/E6H87QLcPr

— James Horncastle (@JamesHorncastle) November 30, 2022

After every round of matches in this World Cup, FIFA’s ‘technical study group’ — which you may have heard about last week, when Iran manager Carlos Queiroz called for Jurgen Klinsmann to resign from the panel — holds a briefing for the world’s media. It’s essentially the most poorly attended press conference of the dozens held every week at the tournament’s enormous media centre in Doha, with a varied selection of ex-players and ex-managers commenting on the tactical trends of the tournament.

The main focus of the first briefing of the tournament was the subject of counter-pressing. This is not a new concept in football. It came into particularly sharp focus during Jurgen Klopp’s success at Dortmund a decade ago, and upon his appointment at Liverpool in 2015. But, tactically, international football tends to lag behind club football. International managers don’t have the time on the training ground that their club counterparts enjoy, and they can’t drill concepts into their players unless they’re well accustomed to them at club level. And counter-pressing is the exact type of thing that, if attempted without near-perfect cohesion, can fall apart dramatically. Even Klopp has experienced that.

FIFA’s technical committee are mainly concerned with comparing this World Cup to the previous World Cup. And their most immediate finding from this World Cup has been the dramatic rise in counter-pressing. “What the data is showing us is that teams are counter-pressing more,” said Chris Loxston, head of the technical study group. “They win the ball back quicker, and they’re also having more attempts at goal [following the counter-press].”

Former Milan and Japan manager Alberto Zaccheroni weighed in. “Counter-pressing is very important, even more so today” he said. “While being very taxing, today there are five possible substitutions. So this is a tactic which can be used for the whole 90 minutes. With three substitutions, this wasn’t possible. Today, you can do it continuously, because five changes is half the team.”

And whereas at previous tournaments, most sides generally retreated into a solid defensive shape after losing possession, at this tournament teams are counter-pressing more. The best example are Argentina.

Twice within the opening 10 minutes, Argentina lost possession in the final third, and then multiple players steamed in to win the ball back quickly. After 15 minutes, midfield terrier Enzo Fernandez lost the ball cheaply with a misplaced square pass, then immediately sprinted after the ball, jumping in to win it himself. This set the tone.

Argentina were generally careful with their passing, and Poland made little attempt to win it from them quickly. But after every stray pass, Argentina were on the scene quickly. Poland barely got the chance to counter-attack. Robert Lewandowski was badly isolated, at one point flicking on a long ball to absolutely no-one, then looking around wondering where his support was.

Argentina’s performance was also characterised by two extremely fierce tackles. The first came midway through the first half, when Nicolas Otamendi absolutely crunched into Przemyslaw Frankowski, leaving him writhing in agony. No foul was given, and Argentina were annoyed when the referee eventually stopped the game to check the Poland winger wasn’t badly injured.

The second came 15 minutes into the second half, a huge, two-footed crunching tackle from Rodrigo De Paul on Bartosz Bereszynski. Again, he escaped without punishment. Later, Cristian Romero won possession, passed the ball out from the back, ran forward because he thought an attack was developing, but then found himself in a perfect position to win the ball again, after Argentina had given it away. Romero, probably the most aggressive top-class defender in the modern game, summarises this team as much as anyone.

There is, of course, tremendous technical quality in this side as well. Both full-backs pushed forward effectively, with Nahuel Molina setting up the opener for Alexis Mac Allister. Fernandez’s dribble and subtle dink for Julian Alvarez’s goal was delicious. Leo Messi, who started as a false nine in a 4-3-3 and ended up as a No 10 in a 4-4-1-1, remains a master of receiving the ball between the lines, dribbling in tight spaces, and floating the ball over to full-backs pushing on.

But other sides have attacking full-backs, creative midfielders and clever No 10s. Arguably no-one else offers this level of aggression, or this level of traveling support. The two probably go hand-in-hand; Klopp’s counter-pressing has succeeded at two clubs who pride themselves on a good atmosphere. You can’t play heavy metal football in an empty stadium.

There’s always a risk that aggression will boil over into serious foul play, of course, although referees at this tournament seem keen to keep their cards — particularly red ones — in their pockets. That might suit Argentina. They can play, but they can also fight.