Probably with other head coach than Diego Armando Maradona Argentina would be the biggest favorite team to win the World Cup. It might be strange to explain but Argentina is one of my picks to win the tournament even though that they played miserably in the last 2 years with Maradona leading the way.

No other National Head Coach in the world will receive the same coverage and spotlight from the media and the fans than Maradona and believe it or not this will take some pressure off from the players. In theory no other team has more offensive weapons than Argentina but in my opinion it is their defensive scheme that will carry them further in the tournament.

In the past Argentina played a passionated offensive football but short in results. Due to their offensive style the defense gave up too much space on the back but this will not be the case of this team. In the past we all remember the offensive incursions of full backs Javier Zanetti or Juan Pablo Sorin but Maradona does not want this anymore (Probably it was the biggest reason why he left Zanetti out of the WC). In fact Argentina will use a “flat back four” as he wants his defenders to purely defend so they will be less prone to suffer counter attacks! Coincidently or not both full backs starters Heinze and Otamendi already have played at center defenders in their respective clubs.

If we add defensive midfielder Javier Mascherano to the mix then Argentina will always have 5 players on the field in a defensive position and this will turn them a tough team to beat in counter attacks.

On the offensive end there’s no other team in the world such variety of world class players on the roster than the Argentines. Messi, Higuaín, Milito, Aguero, Di Maria or Tevez are terrific players but only 3 of them will start. In my opinion their offensive problems starts at the playmaker position as veteran Verón does not play with the same intensiveness than he used to play in the past due to his advanced age. His backup Pastore is a good player but he is yet to play in a bigger stage. Speaking now on their front three, the starting trio Messi, Di Maria and Higuaín are all coming from tremendous seasons on their clubs but they lack some chemistry between them as strangely Messi looked lost in the field when at the same time he shined in Barcelona. However they had 3 weeks to prepare for the tournament and so we can expect these miscues to be solved or at least to be reduced while those players have the ability to decide any game in just one great play.