After a disappointing World Cup, Lionel Messi decided to unofficially retire or at least take a break from the national team. Over the last few years the whole game plan of Argentina has been based on getting Messi into a good position. The team heavily relied on the magic moments of their number ten despite having elite offensive players.
In 2014 their solid defence along with the individual class of their players up-front was enough to reach the World Cup final. After losing to Germany they also lost the next two finals in the Copa América. Then Lionel Messi retired the first time but came back to make a last run at the World Cup trophy.
After struggling heavily in the group stage, France were too strong to beat. Lionel Messi didnt perform well enough, and the weak defence was the key to their loss against the French team.
Who can replace Messi?
Now Argentina have to think about how to survive and create a strong team without their ex-captain. In the national team, Messi often had a free role behind one striker, Agüero or Higuain. He could drift around between the lines and his teammates tried to find him there. In this position, his dribbling could be extremely dangerous. However, Argentina were rarely capable of taking advantage of all of his strength’s while finding the right fit for him in the structure.
Over the last years, Argentina had another great talent who didnt receive any playing time because it seemed that he and Messi couldnt play together. His name, Paulo Dybala. Besides strong performances for Juventus Turin Dybala had to sit on the bench during the World Cup because of Messi. With Messis retirement, Paulo Dybala could finally show what he is capable of doing. Similar to Messi, Dybala likes to move between the lines. At Juventus, he usually plays behind one striker and helps his team to get into the dangerous scoring zones.
Furthermore, Argentina has another interesting talent. Exequiel Palacios started in both friendly matches against Guatemala and Colombia and showed strong performances. The young man from River Plate is only 19-years old but he can show his tremendous talent even at such a young age.
Actually, no one can replace Messi completely. Lionel Messi is probably the best player of that generation but without him, Argentina could focus more on the strength of the team than on the individual skill of Messi. With another disappointing tournament, Argentina now wants to build a new team with their young players. Players like Dybala, Lo Celso, Paredes, Pavon or Correa should step up to make the Argentine team successful again.
A new system
Against Guatemala and Colombia, the new coach Scaloni lined-up his team in a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3. Against Guatemala Lo Celso often moved higher while Paredes was the central point during the build-up. Argentina tried to move the ball and dominate the game. Especially Paredes showed his awareness of space and his qualities in terms of positioning.
During build-up, Argentina had a nice structure with a lot of triangles and good spacing. Most of the time the central midfielders Lo Celso and Palacios supported the build-up. They were rarely positioned too high to participate. Therefore, Argentina could easily advance into higher zones even if Guatemala pressed higher. However, they often focused heavily on the wing. Especially the triangles on the flanks were important. On the left side Tagliafico, Martinez and Palacios were the ones who initiated dangerous attacks.
Because most of the time Argentina overloaded the half-space and wanted to attack diagonally from the wing towards the centre. Inters Martinez stood out with his quick dribbling while he got supported by Palacios and Tagliafico. With Palacios and Lo Celso between the lines, Argentina constantly had passing options for the wingers when they tried to move diagonally towards the centre.
