Mascherano to captain Argentina

JAVIER MASCHERANO is set to become captain of Argentina under newly-appointed coach Maradona after insisting reports he had turned down the post were down to a misunderstanding.

Maradona was officially named as Argentina’s new manager on Tuesday night and there was immediate confusion when he announced Mascherano would be his skipper, despite stories that the Liverpool midfielder had already refused the honour.

The mystery deepened when the legendary number 10 did not, as had been predicted, turn up at Anfield to watch Mascherano in action for Liverpool in a 1-1 Champions League draw against Atletico Madrid, choosing to stay in Buenos Aires instead.

For his part Mascherano was still on a high after Steven Gerrard scored a controversial injury-time penalty to save the home side from defeat in Group D. And afterwards he was keen to clear up any confusion about his international future.

He said: “It’s not true that I turned down the captaincy. I just said that in the last few games we have had a captain in Zanetti and out of respect for him I don’t want to talk about it.

“I need to have a meeting with Maradona first. Obviously it’s very good for a player to be captain of his country but I don’t want to say anything yet because I didn’t talk with the manager.”

Mascherano insists, however, that working with a man regarded as possibly the greatest player in football history will be a major thrill not only for him but for all the Argentina team, who play Scotland in a friendly at Hampden on November 19.He said: “He was a hero for me of course and for all Argentina. All the country loves him. For us Maradona is like God because he gave to the country a lot of things.

“It’s good now he has a chance to manage the team and we’ll see what happens. I cannot talk about what kind of manager he will be because I haven’t worked under him before but he has a lot of experience with the national team.

“It is going to be very exciting and I hope we can give him a good start by beating Scotland. I’m sure he will get a good reception there.”

For now, however, Mascherano has his mind set firmly on the Premier League as Liverpool face West Brom at Anfield on Saturday and is encouraged that a controversial penalty in the fifth minute of injury time against Atletico has saved his team from two defeats in-a-row.

Having lost at Tottenham last weekend it was crucial Liverpool avoided defeat in the Champions League but after going behind to a fine goal from Maxi Rodriguez it took what looked very much like a dive from Gerrard to earn them a late, late reprieve.

“I don’t know if it was a penalty or not because I was on the bench by that time and I couldn’t see,” said Mascherano.

“But getting that equaliser was very important for us. We had so many chances and couldn’t score and that can be difficult. But we never give up. Now we’re top of the group and we can go through.

“It was really, really important not to lose after the way we were beaten at Tottenham last weekend. The team continued to show character and determination.

“We weren’t angry after Spurs, we were very sad because I think we deserved to win that match. We had so many clear chances to score and yet at the end they finished as winners. It’s difficult when you do all the work and don’t win, very disappointing. So we had to come back.”

Liverpool played the game without fit-again striker Fernando Torres, who wasn’t even included on the bench. But the Spanish striker is expected to play some part against West Brom this weekend and Mascherano is unfazed by his team’s inability to convert chances in recent matches.

Mascherano said: “I’m not worried we are missing chances, sometimes football is like this. We need to keep working and we have Fernando Torres coming back now which is very good for us.

“Maybe we need to work a little bit more on our finishing as well. But we are creating the chances, that’s the most important thing – it shows we are playing well and the other teams know that.”