“Listen, if you want a street fight, we’re ready for it.”
Roy Keane was furious with Di Maria following Argentina’s shock 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia in the first round of the 2022 Qatar World Cup.
Argentina went 1-0 up just eight minutes in when Lionel Messi converted a rather controversial penalty, one which Keane thought should never have been allowed, much to the disgust of Graeme Souness but that’s a different story – which you can read here.
In the second half the Saudi Arabia took the game by the scruff of the neck, and equalised with a very clever finish from Al Shehri, before Al Dawsar blew the roof off the place with a second to give his nation the lead.
Argentina didn’t so much huff and puff as they did gasp and sigh, as they were second to every ball, weak in the challenge, and completely out of ideas going forward.
They lacked the one attribute that Keane ranks more important than any other, and that’s aggression.
“There’s no aggression, you got to go attack the ball, they’ve lost their composure, they’ve lost their heads.
“Look at Di Maria. Di Maria, my God.“
“It’s something to hold on to, when they got to 2-1 up, you were looking at Argentina and going, ‘Listen, it’s a long way back, but they’ve still got that quality’.
“But they didn’t show the quality. Di Maria – decision making, he got into one or two positions, they were hesitant. (Saudi Arabia) got bodies on the line, fantastic.
“But Argentina’s got to do better. Saudi Arabia got bodies back, they were aggressive, they big and strong, they got a little bit of luck, as you need, goalkeeper done really well.
“The quality of Argentina going forward (was lacking).”You think when it was getting physical that Argentina could go into that and say, ‘Listen, if you want a street fight, we’re ready for it.
“They weren’t even ready for that. And then they’re just depending on their quality and even that wasn’t at it. So, this desire and fight that we always talk about with Argentina, it wasn’t there.
“But if you start a game slowly like they did, you can’t get momentum into the game. You look at Messi, no, no, they weren’t as a team today. A huge setback for them. Huge.”
Related links:
- You’ll learn more if you listen: Souness scolds Keane like the bold child in class
- Graeme Souness goes out of his way to remind British viewers of Irish treatment live on ITV
- Roy Keane on England biggest concern; as he praises amazing Jude Bellingham
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