Messi Saves Argentina's Star Studded Blushes

Everyone is aware that despite the riches of talent available to Argentina coaches, consistent displays at the club level are not essential to make the cut. The presence of Sergio Romero and Marcos Rojo in Thursday's starting line-up demonstrated as much, as the intermittent Manchester United men took up positions at the back.

The man in the spotlight, however, belongs to the sky blue half of Manchester. Sergio Aguero put in another joyless, apathetic shift for his nation as they stumbled to a 1-0 win over Chile, and the most pertinent question is just what he was doing there in the first place.

Everyone is aware that despite the riches of talent available to Argentina coaches, consistent displays at the club level are not essential to make the cut. The presence of Sergio Romero and Marcos Rojo in Thursday's starting line-up demonstrated as much, as the intermittent Manchester United men took up positions at the back.

The man in the spotlight, however, belongs to the sky blue half of Manchester. Sergio Aguero put in another joyless, apathetic shift for his nation as they stumbled to a 1-0 win over Chile, and the most pertinent question is just what he was doing there in the first place.



Aguero has come in for criticism from Argentina fans in the past, sometimes harshly. But this time the questions that surrounded his inclusion were more than justified. It was a dreadful showing from El Kun, in line with the listless displays that saw him lose his place at Manchester City to the hungry Gabriel Jesus threw him back in the first team almost by default.

The player's future has been discussed over and over again this season: but anyone watching on Thursday certainly will not be making a long queue to take the striker off Pep Guardiola's hands.
To be fair to Aguero, he was simply the most prominent victim of a formation that even on paper looked ridiculous. Placing Aguero, Messi, Angel Di Maria and Gonzalo Higuain in the same team as a quartet may have made sense back in 2011, but each of those players has evolved since then. In 2017, and with absolutely no connection visible between defence and attack in a formation that at times looked most faithfully an unworkable 5-1-4, Argentina were left to eke out a result by any means necessary.

That they did, thanks to Messi and the kind eye of referee Sandro Ricci. It says something of Argentina's malaise that the game-winning moment hinged on a long ball pinged forward by Mascherano, with Di Maria - still an infurating presence in Albiceleste colours, so willing to waste promising positions - left to do what he does best and hare after it.

Ricci saw a pull on the Paris Saint-Germain man's jersey from Jose Fuenzalida that was all but imperceptible to the naked eye, and pointed to the spot. Up stepped Messi, and as he has done on so many occasions he got his nation out of jail by firing past Claudio Bravo, erasing memories of that all-too painful Copa America miss.