The existential crisis that is the Argentina national team
On the 21st of June, Argentina faced a heavy defeat to Croatia in Nizhny Novgorod, seeing their chances of qualifying for the knockout stages at serious risk. Following their heavy defeat, Nigeria did them a massive favour by dispatching Iceland through a brace by Ahmed Musa. Even though Argentina now have a slight chance to make the knockout stage, Argentina still need to hope for a positive result in Iceland’s game against group leaders Croatia. Following Croatia’s success in securing their spot in the knockout stages, Argentina are the most likely team to qualify, with a 48% chance according to FiveThirtyEight, but their issues run deep.
Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi is undoubtedly one of the greatest players of his generation and all time, but his tenure with the national team should not define his contributions to the sport and what he can do. Despite missing crucial penalties against Chile and Iceland in the past 2 years, Messi has continued to be the main focal point for Argentina.
When Argentina were in grave danger of missing out of the World Cup, he carried the team on his shoulders and made sure they secured automatic qualification, with a hat-trick against Ecuador in arguably one of the toughest stadiums to play in, due to it’s abnormally high altitude.
Argentina’s weakness in relying on Messi was exploited by Croatia. During the match, Marcelo Brozovic was assigned to shut down Messi and prevent him from getting on the ball as much as possible. And he did his job well, preventing Messi from shooting until the 64th minute and only made 15 passes in the opening hour. Furthermore, Messi’s touch map indicates just how deep he had to come to collect the ball, and due to the positional structure of the Croatian team, he failed to feed balls into pockets or create any chances that really troubled the keeper.
Against Croatia, Messi had only 49 touches, according to the Spanish newspaper Marca. This pales in comparison with how frequently he was on the ball throughout the 2017–2018 season with FC Barcelona, where he averaged 77.4 touches on the ball each game.
He also attempted only 32 passes — and of those passes, only 24 found a teammate. This, again, is woeful compared with his recent form. In the 2017–2018 season he attempted 52.7 passes a game, completing 43.12.
And the most damning statistic of all is that Messi, who scored 34 La Liga goals from 32 starts last season, attempted only a single shot on goal Thursday — and that lonely shot did not even test Croatia goalkeeper Danijel Subasic.
“To be honest, I wanted to get Messi’s jersey for my friend, who is a big fan of Leo,” the 24-year-old player told Goal. “But the Argentines made such a bad impression on me that I gave up on asking Messi for his jersey.- Ante Rebic
The manager
Argentina went through 3 managers throughout World Cup qualification, and when they appointed Jorge Sampaoli as the manager, many were optimistic. This is a manager that has found success with the Chilean national team and Sevilla in Spain, and with his emphasis on attacking football, it would seem that Sampaoli would be able to find the likes of Agüero, Higuain, Messi, Di Maria, and Dybala all in one team. At times, even Messi has been willing to change his position so other players could come into the team.
But that hasn’t been the case. Apart from Sergio Aguero’s goal against Iceland, The last time someone other than Messi scored in an official game for Argentina was almost 19 months (12 official matches) (569 days) ago. And they were assisted by Messi. All of those players rank among the best in the world in their positions at club level, but they have long seemed totally dependent on Messi for Argentina.
In Argentina’s crucial match against Croatia, Sampaoli played a back 3 with 2 fullbacks (Tagliafico and Mercado), a midfield 4 including playing Eduardo Salvio (an attacking right winger) at right wingback, and a 34 year old Javier Mascherano as a holding midfielder. Up top, Argentina played with a front 3 of Meza, Agüero, and Messi, with Di Maria being the notable omission and Independiente player Maximiliano Meza out of position on the left.
A country’s resources
Yet, this is also a team is extremely inbalanced. This is a team whose attack is comprised of Dybala, Higuaín, Agüero and Messi, let alone the likes of Mauro Icardi, the prolific Internazionale striker left out of the squad (purportedly to suit Messi), yet the best defender they can produce is Nicolas Otamendi, a defender who has been notorious for his incapabilities to defend against physical attackers. Nonetheless, while the back 3 continuously struggled against a menacing Mario Mandžukić, Ante Rebić and Ivan Perišić.
And of course along the way, the comparison between Messi and Ronaldo at the international level will always be brought up. However, the big difference between the two teams is that while Portugal have aging centre backs in Jose Fonte and Pepe, they still have defensive protection from William Carvalho and Joao Moutinho, whereas Argentina have none. Furthermore, while Sampaoli at times is all about gung-ho all-out attack, there is some structure to the Portuguese team, with a 442 holding that requires the wingers to continuously go up and down the pitch and a formation that doesn’t leave many loopholes. Because at the end of the day, Willy Caballero committing a costly mistake that lead to Croatia taking the lead IS NOT LIONEL MESSI’S FAULT.
Argentina’s inability to line up a strong defense has to do with the country’s resources. Nicolas Otamendi, Marcos Rojo, Gabriel Mercado, and Federico Fazio are not world class defenders. Even though Otamendi and Rojo both play for Manchester clubs, they’re rarely exposed due to the protection that they have from the defensive midfielder. Yet, with the style of play that Sampaoli imposes, there’s very little defensive protection that the back 3 gets.
Out of the players called up for the World Cup, only 3 players currently play in the domestic league, with none of the defenders playing in the domestic league. Despite the financial limitations that Argentine clubs have, selling players young to big European clubs has ultimately cost them a few years of success (Sergio Agüero, Angel Di Maria, etc…). And while it’s always good for clubs to sell big and than replace that player through small costs, many Argentine clubs simply do not have the resources to groom that replacement into the same player. Furthermore, most of the clubs in the domestic tend to focus on the attacking side of the game, and as a result, most of the Argentine players sold to the big clubs in Europe have mainly been attackers.
Argentina domestic football is currently in a state of financial crisis, as teams place more emphasis on selling young players for big fees rather than developing them hoping that they would stay for as long as possible. The clubs are running on a profit basis, and because of the lack of money flowing in from the TV income, Argentine clubs need to find other ways to keep their star players while still making a profit.
Argentina was once considered one of the best countries in the world of nurturing young players. It has won the Under-20 World Cup a record six times, most recently in 2007, with a squad that included Di María and Ever Banega, both in Russia this year with the senior team, yet there hasn’t been a young crop of players that have come into the senior side in more recent years.
While Argentina national team use to have the likes of Roberto Ayala, Mauricio Pochettino, Jose Chamot, Walter Samuel and Oscar Ruggeri spearhead the defense, Otamendi, Mercado, Rojo, and Fazio in comparison are hardly filling in their big boots.
The footballing federation certainly need to take a good hard look at themselves in the mirror and start to consider how to groom the young crop of players that will soon come into the national team. While in Germany, the Bundesliga clubs came together and decided to work in the best interests of the national team, the Argentine Football Association should consider doing the same.
This isn’t a process that can purely be done in a matter of months or be resolved immediately, but a process that requires rebuilding and taking time. Surely Javier Mascherano, a defender converted to a defensive midfielder for the national, cannot be the core of your midfield. Surely a team that contains the likes of Agüero, Higuain, Messi, Di Maria, and Dybala going forward still struggle to score goals.
“When I played and had a bad game… (Jorge) Valdano, (Jorge) Burruchaga showed up and had my back,” he said, according to journalist Juan Arango, as per GiveMeSport. Messi has no one. It’s all on his own.- Diego Maradona
And most importantly, surely a nation like Argentina, 2-time World Cup champions, cannot bow out of the group stage in humiliating fashion. Argentina soon face Nigeria in a crucial encounter that will determine their future in the tournament, and whether they win or not, their problems run deep and need to be addressed.
“Argentine soccer used to be defined by what they call pausa: a playmaker’s ability to wait for the exact moment to play a pass. There is no pausa in Argentine soccer any more. The game against Croatia was the perfect example: all running, no thinking, an advertisement for a country that has lost its way.” (New York Times)
