COMMENT: Alejandro Sabella switched back to 4-3-3 against Iran, but the
Albiceleste still needed inspiration from their star player. It was
hardly the stuff of champions...
By
Ben Hayward at the Estadio Mineirao
This was what they wanted.
Lionel Messi had called for a return to 4-3-3 after the much-maligned
5-3-2 experiment against Bosnia-Herzegovina last Sunday and the captain
was backed by team-mates, media and seemingly everyone else. Against
lowly Iran, it was expected to work wonders. Instead, it failed
miserably for 91 minutes.
Messi began in a three-man forward line with Sergio Aguero and
Gonzalo Higuain, with Angel Di Maria pushing on behind them. The
fantastic four. His favourites. "Messi prefers to play in a 4-3-3 with
Di Maria joining in the attack," Sabella said on Friday in the pre-match
press conference. And the coach added: "Against Iran we'll play 4-3-3."
Messi had got exactly what he had asked for. But
Argentina did not, at
least in terms of the performance.
Early indications suggested
they may struggle. Iran, ranked 43rd in the Fifa world rankings, were
defending deep - and with discipline. "We can't focus only on
Messi,"
coach Carlos Queiroz had said on Friday. "Because Argentina have so many
other great players. We will play against time and against space -
because that is what we can control."
Unlike Barcelona's 4-3-3 in
which
Messi is the shining star,
Argentina's system is more in tune
with Real Madrid's counter-attacking philosophy. But up against a back
line defending deep and handing the initiative to
Argentina, Sabella's
side struggled to find the spaces.
Despite
several good runs, Messi seemed restricted not only by Iran's tight
line, but by having two strikers ahead of him. On a couple of occasions
in the first half, the 26-year-old passed when at Barca he would have
surely gone alone - and the attacks came to nothing.
There were
chances. Messi fired a free-kick over the bar, Marcos Rojo headed wide
from a corner, Aguero saw a curled effort well saved by Alireza Haghighi
and Di Maria missed the target after a rare run down the left. But it
was far from the expected onslaught.
The second half saw
Argentina out quickly with a point to prove, but Iran grew in stature
and created two good chances of their own, the second a header from
Ashkan Dejagah which Sergio Romero tipped over the bar with a superb
save.
Messi fired past the post at the other end and also hit the side
netting from a tight angle, but as the minutes ticked away, Argentina
looked lost - and still Sabella refused to make a change.
In the
end, the 59-year-old brought on Ezequiel Lavezzi and Rodrigo Palacio to
liven up his faultering forward line, and after 91 minutes of remarkable
resistance from Iran, Messi curled home an exquisite left-footed drive
to save his side's blushes.
Just as he had against Bosnia, their
captain had stepped up when it mattered most, but a last-gasp 1-0 win
over a group of players who, according to Queiroz, turn out in "an
amateur league", is hardly the stuff of world champions.
So it's
back to the drawing board for Sabella, because the answer, it seems, is
not as simple as 4-3-3. And while few teams will defend in such numbers
like Iran, Argentina fill face superior sides in this competition and
they will need to do much, much better than this. Messi may have got
them out of jail again on Saturday - but it was nowhere near good
enough.
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