Javier Mascherano is emerging as an integral figure in Liverpool’s powerful start to the campaign but the midfielder admits that events in his international career currently provide him with equal excitement.
The appointment of Diego Maradona as Argentina's national team manager will allow Mascherano to work with a figure he describes reverently as "God." The stir created by Maradona's return to football prominence has even had an impact on the Anfield dressing room with Mascherano now attempting to bring his idol to the club's training ground to meet his club team-mates.
More relevantly, Maradona has also stated in interviews that he plans to hand the Argentina captaincy to Mascherano as the 24-year-old becomes an increasingly significant player for club and country.
"It's great to have him as our manager," said Mascherano who could lead his country in Maradona's 'debut' against Scotland in two weeks.
"We all know Diego gave us so much as a player and now we hope maybe he can give us many things as a manager as well.
"It's great to have such a legend as manager of Argentina. To us he is like God. He's the best player we've had in our history, the best player football's ever had.
"I don't know if he's going to come to Liverpool, he was talking about this, saying he will come and other players are excited, wanting to see him. We will try and bring him to Melwood so all the players can meet him.
"I can't talk about if he will succeed because I don't know him, the only thing I can say is he has a lot of experience in the international team, many years, so maybe he can give us all the experience he had as a player and we can use this. Scotland will be a good test for us, we'll see."
Maradona's first difficult decision may be whether to appoint Mascherano as his captain, a position currently held by the legendary Inter defender Javier Zanetti.
After an unbeaten start to the campaign, a defeat for Liverpool at Tottenham on Saturday was followed by an unconvincing home Champions League draw against Atletico Madrid.
Liverpool required a controversial penalty award deep in injury-time to finally equalise, having squandered a catalogue of chances, but Mascherano believes that his team's habit of scoring late in games can be viewed in a positive light.
"It was very important because the team continues to show character and determination," said Mascherano of Steven Gerrard's late penalty heroics against Atletico. "Teams know Liverpool will continue playing and trying to score in the same way until the end of the game.
"We were very sad after the Spurs game because I think we deserved to win but I'm not worried, sometimes football's like this.
"Sometimes you have many chances and you can't score. Maybe we need to work a little bit more on finishing. The most important thing is that we had the chances, the team can create."
The appointment of Diego Maradona as Argentina's national team manager will allow Mascherano to work with a figure he describes reverently as "God." The stir created by Maradona's return to football prominence has even had an impact on the Anfield dressing room with Mascherano now attempting to bring his idol to the club's training ground to meet his club team-mates.
More relevantly, Maradona has also stated in interviews that he plans to hand the Argentina captaincy to Mascherano as the 24-year-old becomes an increasingly significant player for club and country.
"It's great to have him as our manager," said Mascherano who could lead his country in Maradona's 'debut' against Scotland in two weeks.
"We all know Diego gave us so much as a player and now we hope maybe he can give us many things as a manager as well.
"It's great to have such a legend as manager of Argentina. To us he is like God. He's the best player we've had in our history, the best player football's ever had.
"I don't know if he's going to come to Liverpool, he was talking about this, saying he will come and other players are excited, wanting to see him. We will try and bring him to Melwood so all the players can meet him.
"I can't talk about if he will succeed because I don't know him, the only thing I can say is he has a lot of experience in the international team, many years, so maybe he can give us all the experience he had as a player and we can use this. Scotland will be a good test for us, we'll see."
Maradona's first difficult decision may be whether to appoint Mascherano as his captain, a position currently held by the legendary Inter defender Javier Zanetti.
After an unbeaten start to the campaign, a defeat for Liverpool at Tottenham on Saturday was followed by an unconvincing home Champions League draw against Atletico Madrid.
Liverpool required a controversial penalty award deep in injury-time to finally equalise, having squandered a catalogue of chances, but Mascherano believes that his team's habit of scoring late in games can be viewed in a positive light.
"It was very important because the team continues to show character and determination," said Mascherano of Steven Gerrard's late penalty heroics against Atletico. "Teams know Liverpool will continue playing and trying to score in the same way until the end of the game.
"We were very sad after the Spurs game because I think we deserved to win but I'm not worried, sometimes football's like this.
"Sometimes you have many chances and you can't score. Maybe we need to work a little bit more on finishing. The most important thing is that we had the chances, the team can create."
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