Argentina a MESS without Messi

The Albiceleste once again failed to fire in the absence of their star, while Tite’s Brazil continue in red-hot form and Enner Valencia redeemed himself after a farcical getaway

Having leaned so heavily on Lionel Messi’s talents for the best part of a decade, Argentina were always going to find it hard without the Barcelona player in the starting XI. But the sheer lack of collective play in October’s World Cup qualifiers proved that the nation are more dependent than ever on their wizardly captain.

Messi has played three qualifiers out of 10 so far on the road to Russia 2018, and all three have ended in victory. Without him, however, the side have picked up just one win in seven, and if his fitness does not pick up they could be in serious danger of missing out on automatic qualification.

This last double-header showed beyond a doubt how far La Pulga‘s individual magnificence papers over the cracks in the Albiceleste’s attacking play. Those deficiencies were exacerbated against Peru and Paraguay by inexplicable tactical errors from coach Edgardo Bauza.

Despite it being crystal clear that Gonzalo Higuain and Sergio Aguero nullified each other’s poaching talents and added little as a unit in the first match, Bauza persisted with the idea and paid the price with a punishing 1-0 home defeat against Paraguay that means Argentina have failed to win any of their last three qualifiers.

Aguero utterly failed to provide any creative spark as a clueless ‘false 10’, and compounded his overall below-par performances with a penalty miss that would have pulled Argentina level. Of the two truly inventive presences in the team, meanwhile, Ever Banega started as a substitute against Peru and then played far too deep in the second clash, while Paulo Dybala spent most of a frustrating series either kicking his heels on the bench or marooned on the right wing.

Bauza won his first big battle as Argentina coach by ensuring that Messi would continue in the team. But his stubborn unwillingness to clear out a side that has not changed in essence since 2011, or adapt his rigid 4-2-3-1 formation to at least get the best out of them, had disastrous consequences. Aguero, Higuain and Angel Di Maria are currently playing on reputation alone in the national team, and sooner or later something must change to revitalise what is a painfully stagnant first XI.

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