I would have probably bought Passarella in that role had they been facing an inside forward who's cut in but against a proper complete winger like Jairzinho who can draw him out to the wing and isolate him with his pace and power I'm not that confident.
Still not sure why he started when they had not one but two left backs in the squad?
I called it the moment they picked Scirea: they would mess up the defence.
In fairness, the idea came up in the previous game discussing Breitner. Passarella has the attributes to do a similar free-roaming LB job.
Two problems with that:
1) He is too disciplined to reproduce Breitner's anarchic style
2) Breitner had Gentile doing the LB job in that game. Jairzinho isn't someone to experiment with, as you say.
The upshot is, given he is so disciplined he will stick to defending and will do a decent job. No contribution going forward though and Cole would have been better.
That's the only weak point I see though (and that daft double-sweeper start). Ruggeri is a good match for Kocsis. I fancy Edwards giving Platini a torrid time and Scirea picking up Henry, no problem. Irwin vs. Facchetti is where it's at. If Giacinto gets to cross consistently Kocsis will bag one sooner or later. Will he having to mind Garrincha? Occasionally, but not consistently.
So it all boils down to how much joy Jairzinho can get vs. Passarella. Not as much as MJJs front four can produce IMO.