The dilemma of Los Pumas: Lucas Borges and the alternatives to replace Juan Cruz Mallía

Felipe Contepomi, head coach of The Pumaswill have to face the start of the 2026 season with a tough loss: that of Juan Cruz Mallíadue to injury. In this way, in Scrum team, Lucas Borges, former player of the Argentine national team, spoke about the options in the background.

The winger, who achieved the historic third place in the 2007 World Cup in France, spoke about the absence of the Cordoban: “Emi Boffelli for me was a player who was the most natural replacement, due to his amount of experience. Fullback is a position that implies more order than wing, because you have to have more experience or more established. He will probably be surprised,” Indian.

Meanwhile, Borges He expressed himself about the different options for the position: “Juanchi is going to return and it is always good to give players opportunities to see the context, like Prisciantelli was. You can also talk about younger players like Elizalde, who is not playing as much in Bristol, but he is a player who showed his abilities when he played in Los Pumitas. “Wade himself in Pampas is having a good tournament: he has the skills, he is fast, he has an aerial game.”he indicated.

In addition, the one who emerged in Pucará referred to the conditions to be a fullback today: “Today the basic conditions to play as a fullback are the aerial game. And also the opening game: if you don’t have an aerial game, you have to change the game system because the opening game is always behind many times having to compete for a ball and the other teams read that,” dhe clarified.

“Then you have to see what Felipe decides: I have Albornoz who is playing, Prisciantelli when he played as a 10 did well. Maybe if I don’t have Mallía, maybe you can orient Santi Carreras more to that fullback sector, which can also give you the role of driver,” he added.

Finally, the exwing of The Pumas concluded: “It also seems like a year to see players, the World Cup is in 2027. Some doubts must be cleared up. Maybe there are players you try and they raise their hand. “It’s time to be able to see and clear up some doubts with players you haven’t seen as much,” ended.