Hard to score when you never get a pass in a decent position
people want him to set it up, and then run on to the end of it and score 
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Seems to be a very passive attitude for a player who is meant to be the talisman.
Maradona did it.
Brazilian Ronaldo did.
Messi has failed 4 times now.
Heās as well pack it in. Heās not up to the job.
Maradona did it at a time where there was basically no such thing as tactics or organised defences. Ronaldo was a striker
Football is a team game and ultimately Messiās teammates werenāt good enough this time. Unfortunately in 2014 Messi was just off the back of his worst season for Barca and wasnāt at his best while still being very good
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And where players could target an opponent and kick him off the pitch with impunity.
Thereās a common denominator with Messi and Argentina and thatās him disappearing as Argentina fail.
Itās much easier to have a positive impact when lads are running around the place haphazardly trying to hurt you than when 11 men in a very organised system sit behind the ball and donāt allow you any space in a good position
Messi got two assists yesterday. No disappearing there
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One was an accident and the other was when the game was up.
Di Maria as usual was at the heart of everything good about Argentina, hitting a worldie when they looked in bother.
The game wasnāt up. They were very close to equalising at the end
Di Maria was absolutely shit up until yesterday in this tournament
You are ignoring my first point which is the main reason why itās impossible for one player to have such an impact these days
If you concede 9 goals in 4 games, youāre not going to win the World Cup. Youād want to be pretty dense or biased not to decipher where the main problem area was for Argentina.
No such thing as tactics in the 80s ???
Did you ever hear of Helenio Herrera ?? He operated in the 60s .
Given he missed Argentinaās worst and most humiliating performance of the tournament was no fluke.
He didnāt have a great tournament but he was the only one trying in Saturday. He certainly wasnāt as bad as Messi.
Itās another excuse rolled out for another massive failure from Messi on the international stage.
Whereās their European Cup Medals?
Who cares about that? The World Cup is the one that really matters.
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Some English lad wrote a book on Italia 90 a while ago and talked to loads of people from all the different teams, managers and players and the only two teams with any kind of actual tactics were Argentina and Ireland
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so by your logic Miroslav Klose is the best striker in the history of the game?
Most world cup goals, winners medal. Are you agreed?
Thatās not my logic.
Ronaldo is the greatest striker to play at the World Cup. Greats donāt flop routinely like Messi has on the biggest stage.
Mbappe did more in a half of football on Saturday than Messi has in the business end in 4 World Cups. Heās not the player some claim him to be.
Ronaldo who utterly flopped in the 1998 final?
Not so . Costs Rice under Bora were tactical . Scotland under Andy Roxburgh ! Holland were fabulous but there were problems . Bobby Robson was a deep thinker of the game . Jo Venglos was another real technical thinker . Italy were Italy . Cameroon were physical and well drilled . I can go on .
One thing you forget was that in WC s from 1982 to 1990 Maradona was subject to attempted GBH at least twice in every game and often wore reverse shin pads .
He also drove an average Napoli team to 2 scudettos in the worlds most tactical league against one of the greatest club sides ever assembled .