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JOHANNESBURG - It's unfashionable to give Diego Maradona any kind of credit because he is, as we've been told ad nauseam by the English press for the past 24 years, a dirty, no-good cheat.

Maradona's unsavoury reputation as a player has followed him into his coaching career, with critics still harping on about his lifestyle (he wasn't a choir boy, so what?) and the Hand of God (he did score that other brilliant goal against England, in case you missed it).

The public caricature that has emerged of El Diego since hanging up his boots is that of a buffoonish clown - a sleazy rogue who has neither the tactical acumen nor the basic intelligence to navigate through the muddy waters of management while at the helm of Argentina's national team.

It's a nice story, and in light of his side's 4-0 humbling at the hands of Germany Saturday in the World Cup quarter-finals, it's an easy one to believe.

If only it were true.

Maradona will never be mistaken for a genius, but he has plenty of street smarts, and he's used it to master the art of simplicity.

Maradona came under heavy criticism for his tactics and player selections during Argentina's laboured qualifying campaign after the Albicelestes only managed to book their plane ticket on the final day of the South American qualifiers.

But he understood the qualifiers meant very little and that the only thing that matters is what you do once the tournament actually starts - a lesson lost on the likes of England and Italy.

As Tim Vickery, a Rio-based journalist and South American soccer expert, recently told CBCSports.ca: "There are no prizes for coming first in qualification. The only thing that matters is to cross that finish line."

Uncovered gem

Maradona received widespread derision when he used over 100 players in the build-up to the World Cup. But that number was misleading, inflated by a handful of games in which Maradona used exclusively home-based stars.

In doing so, he uncovered a gem in Velez Sarsfield defender Nicolas Otamendi, who put in a man-of-the-match effort against Greece in the group stage, followed by another strong effort against Mexico in the second round.

Diego Milito came off a strong season for Inter Milan, scoring bags of goals in helping the Nerrazzurri win a historic treble.

But Maradona didn't use him as a regular starter in South Africa, instead putting his faith in Gonzalo Higuain, who had an almost equally impressive campaign at Real Madrid.

The thinking was the Higuain was more versatile than Milito, and would be more adept at linking up with the likes of Messi and Carlos Tevez. 

It proved a wise move by the manager: Higuain repaid Maradona with four goals in five games, finishing as Argentina's top scorer in the tournament.

Maradona also solved Argentina's goalkeeping problem by throwing Sergio Romero into the deep end of the pool and seeing if he would sink or swim.

A simple solution, but an effective one - the 23-year-old has firmly established himself as Argentina's No. 1 and several big European clubs are lining up at the door of Dutch outfit AZ Alkmaar to procure his services.

Is Maradona perfect? Hardly. He wasn't quick enough in making his substitutions on Saturday, throwing on Sergio Aguero with 15 minutes left in regulation when the situation called for the Atletico Madrid star to be on the field at the start of the second half.

Nor was Maradona able to coax the very best out of Messi and develop a system under which the world's top player could duplicate his Barcelona form for his country.

But he did show enough managerial know-how to guide a defensively-weak and unbalanced Argentina through to the quarter-finals.

Cleary, he's no dummy.