QUARTER-FINAL Argentina v Germany:After a disappointing career at West Ham, Javier Mascherano has not looked back since his move to Liverpool

WHEN DIEGO Maradona took the job of his (admittedly demented) dreams he made one key decision. He built his side around Javier Mascherano and not Lionel Messi.

Mascherano is one of a line of great players to graduate from the junior ranks of River Plate, a club which has specialised in producing defensive midfielders down through the decades. Americo Ruben Gallego, Reinaldo Carlos Merlo, Leonardo Astrada and Matias Almeyda all came through the same school.

When Rafa Benitez’s time at Liverpool is assessed the extraordinary lengths he went to bring the then 22-year-old midfielder to Anfield will be marked down as one of his greatest successes. Benitez travelled to London and explained blow by blow exactly the roles he foresaw for a player whose confidence had been shattered at West Ham. He became a father figure to the player thereafter and it is little surprise he tops the list of Liverpool players whom Benitez wants to bring with him now to Inter Milan.

Strange days those were. Having arrived at Upton Park like two escapees in a raft with his compatriot Carlos Tevez, Mascherano found himself nailed to the bench at West Ham, ignored and under rated first by Alan Pardew and then by Alan Curbishley. As an indictment of the lack of imagination or understanding by English managers his plight at West Ham is a startling lesson.

Benitez saw his chance as the messy contract dealings headed toward the High Court and he brought the player to Anfield and inserted him into the first team four days later against Sheffield United. The player enthused and feeling valued at last improved his efforts to master English. Benitez indulged and defended him when his tackles were a little too much on the wilder side. He became the perfect Premiership midfielder.

Benitez himself thinks that a key difference between the environments at West Ham and Anfield was the amount of Spanish-speaking staff which he himself brought to Liverpool. In London Mascherano had felt isolated by language. Given that West Ham had virtually won the lottery with the arrival of Tevez and Mascherano, their failure to recognise the fact seems stunning in retrospect.

Mascherano’s tackling and distribution even in a troubled and underachieving Liverpool side have always been world class.

Maradona’s first significant announcement on becoming national manager was to make the Liverpool player his captain.

Mascherano must reflect happily these days on this unfolding World Cup and his enduring connection with Tevez. Having left Argentina as youngsters (Tevez was with Boca Juniors), both moved to Corinthians of Sao Paulo in Brazil. If that move was slightly unusual fetching up in England at West Ham was bizarre. Mascherano had been the best young midfielder at the 2006 World Cup and was being wooed by the grand names of the European game. As the details of their employment unravelled, they set new precedents in terms of agency and contracts but their careers survived and prospered.

Mascherano is not a city boy but comes from the provinces, a town named San Lorenzo. He arrived in England with an infant baby daughter and a girlfriend and looked more likely to settle initially than Tevez did.

Mascherano had been a prodigy back home on River Plate’s books since he was 15. His potential was such that even in his late teens, when he wasn’t being given a lot of game time, fans became as frustrated as the player himself. He moved to Brazil to prove a point and he and Tevez became cult figures at Corinthians.

At 5ft 7ins he should never have become the player he is in the position he is and he admits that early on in the Premiership he felt himself physically overwhelmed. He learned to improve his timing and survived.

Timing. That may be the secret to Argentina’s World Cup and a team built not around the obvious superstars but a solid tackler.