Argentina: Hernan Crespo

If there was one consolation for England after being drawn with favourites Argentina in the ‘Group of Death’, it came with the knowledge they will have the inside track on their South American opponents.

For in Sven-Goran Eriksson, England possess the ideal man to unlock the secrets of the Argentina team and steer them into the second phase of this summer’s finals in Japan and South Korea.

Eriksson is in the unique position of having signed six of Marcelo Bielsa’s team during his time as manager of Italian giants Lazio, where much of his success, including delivering the Rome club’s first league title for 26 years, was based around Argentinians.

The Swede spent around £90million on Argentinian players, making the £18million purchase of Juan Sebastian Veron a priority, reportedly telling Lazio president Sergio Cragnotti ‘Give me the money to buy Veron and we will deliver the Scudetto’.

Yet it may well be Eriksson’s knowledge of striker Hernan Crespo that holds the key to England’s progress in the Far East, as the 26-year-old striker spearheads probably the most expensive team ever assembled.

Crespo was the most expensive player in the world when Eriksson paid Serie A rivals Parma £37.5million for his services in July 2000, later surpassed by Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo, and although Eriksson did not have long to enjoy his new signing’s skills before taking over as England coach in January 2001, he is full of admiration for the Argentinian.

‘‘Of course Argentina will be favourites, but in all my time as manager I have never met a team that is unbeatable,’’ Eriksson said. ‘‘The one good thing is that I know most of this team like my own family.

‘‘Crespo, Claudio Lopez, Diego Simeone, Veron, Matias Almeyda, I had them all at Lazio. Tremendous players every one.

‘‘I took Crespo to Rome in the biggest deal in the history of Italian football, and one year later he was the top scorer in Serie A. He is a fantastic natural goalscorer and a wonderful all-round player.’’

Crespo was the third top scorer in Serie A the previous season with 21 goals ﷓ only Gabriel Batistuta and Andrei Shevchenko found the target more frequently ﷓ having joined Parma in the summer of 1996 from Argentine club River Plate where he had won the title and the Libertadores Cup.

In total he scored 62 goals in 116 Serie A appearances for Parma and established himself in the national team at the expense of fans’ favourite Gabriel Batistuta.

The system favoured by coach Bielsa is modelled on a version of the Dutch ‘total football’ formation, relying on the whole team working hard to win the ball back and then attacking at pace and in waves, playing as much as possible in the opposition half.

After a sticky start it proved remarkably successful, Argentina losing only one of their 18 World Cup qualifiers, away to Brazil, winning 13 and drawing four and scoring 42 goals in the process ﷓ with Crespo the joint top scorer in the South American qualifiers with nine goals.

Juan Pablo Sorin, one of the few members of the squad not to play in Europe, calls Bielsa ‘‘the most attack-minded coach in the world’’.

But his system has room for only one striker, meaning Batistuta, a goalscoring phenomenon in Italy for years, was a bit-part player in the qualifiers behind Crespo, although he still contributed five goals.

That meant the fans were slow to warm to Crespo as he usurped ‘Batigol’ in the national side but his performances as Argentina cruised through to the World Cup finals have won them round in style.

And few would bet against him winning the Golden Boot as leading scorer in the finals as Argentina look to win the trophy for the first time since 1986, perhaps the ‘Boot of Crespo’ replacing the ‘Hand of God’.