FIFA World Cup 2022: The tactical dynamics of Argentina’s menacing midfield – scout report

Argentina have made it to their second FIFA World Cup Final within the last decade after they secured their place in Sunday’s must-see game by cruising past Croatia 3-0 in their semi-final fixture this past Tuesday.

In 2014, they lost 1-0 to Germany after a 113th-minute Mario Götze strike broke Argentinian hearts and dashed then-Barcelona star Lionel Messi’s hopes of adding the most prestigious prize in international football to his illustrious list of honours.

However, PSG ace Messi has another chance to get his hands on the famous trophy this weekend as Argentina face France in the 2022 FIFA World Cup Final. One of the two teams will add a third World Cup trophy to their history, catapulting themselves above the other to an undisputed fourth-place ranking in the all-time World Cup winners list, which national side will manage that feat?

It’s quite possibly written in the stars for Messi to win a World Cup before he ultimately rides off into the sunset, with the 35-year-old arguably entering the last chance saloon with regard to winning a World Cup.

Manager Lionel Scaloni has pulled off some highly impressive tactical performances throughout the tournament and one of the most impressive areas in this Argentina team has been the midfield, especially the dynamic offered by the trio of Enzo Fernández, Alexis Mac Allister and Rodrigo De Paul — the three central midfielders who’ve played the most minutes for Argentina during the tournament thus far.

Scaloni’s use of the midfield will be both interesting to analyse and key for Argentina’s potential success in Sunday’s game. This tactical analysis and team-focused scout report aims to provide some insight into Scaloni’s midfield tactics and the dynamics La Albiceleste feature in the middle of the park, with a particular focus on the aforementioned trio of Fernández, Mac Allister and De Paul.

Enzo Fernández

We’ll provide some analysis of these three players’ key roles and responsibilities within Scaloni’s setup, with our first section of the analysis focusing on Benfica’s Enzo Fernández.

Fernández has generally featured as Argentina’s deepest-lying midfielder during this tournament. A lot of his passes occur just inside his own half of the pitch, as figure 1 displays.

It’s common to see Fernández dropping between his team’s centre-backs as they split wide during the build-up allowing the full-backs to push on and thus, requiring a midfielder (often Rodrigo De Paul) to drop into the line just in front of the centre-backs to complete a 3-1 build-up shape.