This week’s international friendlies provided a glimpse of an Argentina side without Lionel Messi and on this evidence, with or without him, they will have to take huge strides forward in the coming months if they are to seriously compete for World Cup honours this summer.
While Argentina produced a fairly competent team performance in their 2-0 win over Italy in Manchester last Friday, they were easily bettered by Spain in Madrid on Tuesday. The eventual 6-1 scoreline represented the joint-worst defeat in national team history.
The difference between Spain and Argentina certainly wasn’t just the absence of the injured Messi. The two teams sought to employ a similar game-plan, based around playing out short from the back into midfield and pressing high to win the ball back quickly when lost. Spain’s better organisation and superior midfield talent gave them a 2-1 lead at the interval; in the second half, Argentina collapsed, conceding four more times to fall to a humbling defeat.
The ease with which Spain were able to get in behind the Argentina defence was particularly concerning. The fifth goal, scored by Iago Aspas, came from a simple, straight ball upfield from goalkeeper David de Gea. Just a couple of matches removed from a 4-2 friendly defeat to Nigeria, it was another clear example of Argentina’s defensive frailties.
Indeed, there were very few positives to be taken from a performance that made it clear that Jorge Sampaoli and his staff still have a huge amount of work to do. There were some neat moves, mostly involving debutant Maximiliano Meza, the one bright light on an otherwise bleak night, but individually and collectively, they were very much found wanting when faced with high-quality opposition.
Sampaoli’s squad selection for these friendlies gave the impression that he is still seeking solutions to various issues less than three months out from the World Cup. Willy Caballero and Fabian Bustos made their debuts against Italy, while on Tuesday, Meza started and Lautaro Martinez came off the bench to make his. Seven further players in the squad had played four or less times for the national team prior to this international break.
West Ham’s Manuel Lanzini probably did enough in a display of incisive dribbling and neat combination play, capped by a well-taken goal, against Italy to earn himself a World Cup place. Meza, too, is now in the conversation. Bustos and Nicolas Tagliafico showed themselves to be solid, if far from flawless, options in the full-back positions. But elsewhere, the two fixtures raised more questions than answers.
Sampaoli made it clear prior to the Italy match that his primary goal is to ensure that his side function in a way that allows Messi to perform at his best - although he slightly backtracked before the Spain game, stressing the need to find “a collective functionality... and not only depend on one player” - and he was certainly unfortunate that the absence of the Barcelona forward robbed him of the chance to test new combinations around him.
But at this moment in time, Sampaoli’s scattergun approach to constructing a squad capable of matching an ideal in his head that may not exist, captivating though it is, may be doing more harm than good. Perhaps there is reason behind it, perhaps all will become clear once he gets some concentrated time with his final selection in Russia, but for now uncertainty prevails.
Messi is such a wonderfully decisive player that it can often be enough to simply form a solid base behind him and ensure there are sufficient runners around him to give him options in possession. Barcelona have mostly done just that this season, as did Argentina during their run to the World Cup final four years ago. Sampaoli is aiming for something a bit more ambitious, but time is now getting very tight for him to turn his ideas into reality.
