The handbook of Escalonism: leadership calm, smoke-free and with changes from one party to another

sells nothing staircases. Neither smoking nor football truths revealed. His leadership is calm (regardless of how he lives the parties), but visible. Even transparent, when he replies if he thought about eliminating Messi at a certain point in the match against Poland.

-No, if you don’t ask me, I won’t take it off.

Even the price is usually lowered, Scaloni. there is never a myself in his speech, it always is we. But the national coach continues to demonstrate that his leadership belongs to him, beyond the admiration for Messi, the only untouchable.

If anyone needed a demonstration that the coach’s wrist doesn’t tremble to make substitutions, the match against Poland left another champion, one more, but very strong. Scaloni eliminated Lautaro Martínez from the starting squadsecond scorer of his cycle with 21 goals, present in 40 of the 52 games played up to that moment.

He liquidated Julián Álvarez, in the same way he put Enzo Fernández (with only five games and none as a starter) and supported Alexis Mac Allister, the new ones. Bets went well, but risky.

“There are 26 who can play, we’ve always said it, beyond the fact that we had a team that was quite out of memory. It is also true that we have undergone some changes, due to injuries, because there are players who have not come with pace. We have the peace of mind knowing that whoever enters can do well and we can decide match by match, believing in what is best for each match”, explained the DT after the 2-0 defeat against Poland and the consummate qualification for the round of 16 the final. 16.

Beware of this: game by game, one of the keys in the manual of escalation.

“We believe that when we do something it’s for the good of the team and sometimes it’s good because the guys who came in had a good game, but we will never think of the individual rather than the collective”to complete.

Therefore, the memory team thing is pretty misleading. It is not in this World Cup that Scaloni has released his mobility from one match to another. It is true that from Saudi Arabia to Mexico he made five changes and that from Mexico to Poland four. After the bad fall on his debut and the loss of the unbeaten record of 36 games, it was logical that the coach made changes and sent a message both inside and outside.

That original sin He pushed the team on a roller coaster with an uncertain destination, but the technical staff managed to find the brake without any internal traces being noticed. There may be angry people inside, but there was no cabaret. Being able to control this is also the task of the guide.

You don’t have to travel too far back in time to find different examples in similar situations. In Russia 2018, after the opening draw against Iceland and the tough victory against Croatia, everything broke down between the team and Jorge Sampaoli. In that period the crisis broke out due to the sudden changes of denomination and system.

Scaloni was part of that technical staff, but his driving style is totally different. A calm leadership, similar to that of Carlo Ancelotti, close to the player. In favor of some precise data: Lionel in long pants is 44 years old (he is the youngest coach of this World Cup) and has experience as a player in Europe, which allows him that closeness, without losing enough distance to make decisions.

And that these decisions are match by match, even beyond the results, is his hallmark.

With the team on the rise, Scaloni made five changes from the semifinals to the final of the Copa América which the national team won in 2021. Nahuel Molina, Germán Pezzella, Nicolás Tagliafico, Guido Rodríguez left for Brazil and Nicolás González to join the Maracaná, Gonzalo Montiel, Cristian Romero, Marcos Acuña, Leandro Paredes and Ángel Di María.

That old football law doesn’t apply to Scalonithe winning team is left untouched. If he thinks adjustments need to be made, he does them, even if he changes half the team. The team understands this because behind these variants there are no tantrums, and because they usually solve us.

Now, with the roller coaster of the group stage blocked and standing on the platform of the round of 16, Scaloni doesn’t sell himself, it’s his way of commanding. Nor does it convey euphoria or candidness.

“We played a good game and we have to continue, we are not candidates for anything, we are not favorites for anything, We are a difficult team, we remain the same: a team that will fight, but to think that because we won today we will be champions is totally wrong,” he explained at dawn on Thursday.

Match by match, with substitutions and without a memory team. No promises or smoke. so is the escalation.

Doha, Qatar. Special delivery.