Even a great team like Barcelona sometimes find themselves relying on Messi to bail them out of some matches. This actually increased a lot after the departure of Xavi and the decline of Iniesta.
When a player like Messi – who is head and shoulders above the rest – plays for your team, it is only natural for you to depend on him. The calibre that he oozes on the pitch often makes his team-mate take him for granted and not give their best.
This feels like a concurrent theme with Argentina as apart from a selected few, it feels as though no-one gives their 100% because they have this “Messi is here to save us” sort of temperament.
While this is not Messi’s fault – he is just too damn good – this is something that should not be there in any team as a unit that relies on one person is bound to fail more often than not.
With the departure of Messi, the dependency on him will cease to exist. The system – which is so often tampered with in order to ‘suit Messi’ – will change and Argentina might finally start to play as a team instead of Messi-plus-ten.
Sampaoli’s constant talk about the rest of the players failing to support Messi shows that his main target was to build a team for Messi and not for actually building a team. The conception that building a team for Messi – or anyone for that matter – will gift you titles is absurd and should go away once the great man retires.
There will always be a scope for regret to not see Messi lift the title for Argentina – oh, the view of the number 10 lifting a major trophy for his country… surreal – but the truth is that once Argentina start building a team instead of a support staff to assist a single player, they might actually start winning.
Because the truth is, even the support staff ends up failing to assist the said player – which is Messi in this case – and causes heartbreaks for everyone involved.
Long live, King Messi. You tried all you could but some things are just not meant to be.