The Football Thread - 17/18 Season

[Wyrdness]

Ka-pi96 said:

The Fury said:
I do wonder why people expect Argentina to do great things just because they have Messi. At Barcelona it's a team setup for him. Argentina isn't, these players are good in their own right, it's not Messi's team. Chile on the other hand play as a team, while is why they are better.

Well then the obvious question is... why isn't the team set up for Messi? Or even if not specifically for him then at least to get the most out of the players they do have? On paper they have a fantastic team even without Messi, so it seems fair to expect a lot from them.

That's an extreme double edge sword at international level, if Messi has bad form or the opponents shut him down the team is effectively beaten Portugal are an example of this with Ronaldo although the latter is a lot more consistent at international level than Messi. Also at WCs and such people are more aware of the big names and rally together to contain them and a lot of the time succeed which is also a key reason many players who are lesser known emerge at tournaments to become stars setting up a team for one player lessens that happening.