Messi gets a lot of criticism for Argentina's misfortunes in big tournaments. The reality is that without him, they probably wouldn't have even qualified for the world cup. A crazy thought. They were diabolical without him before he made a come back. And even after he came back, they are trash whenever he doesn't play for them. Nigeria beat them 4-2, now Spain 6-1. Yet, people blame Messi every time they fail.
This is why I say that even the greatest player in the history won't save a team, if the said team is really not a team but a collection of misfit individuals. I wrote here before during the Maradona vs Messi debate that if Maradona's 86 team was shipping 4-6 goals a match, they wouldn't have won anything either. Maradona cannot play both in attack, in midfield, defense and goal. Same applies to Messi. His team of the past 8 years could easily ship 3+ goals during all this time. They had some clown defenders and goalies. And since Riquelme, they didn't have a proper midfielder either.
Then all these people bring up Messi's scoring stats to "prove" he is crap for Argies and that is why they are failing. That's just BS. Even when Messi plays for them, he essentially has been a midfielder for them, has to drop all the way down to his half to pick up the ball and carry it to attack. If you look at his stats as that of a midfielder, it is still great for such a dysfunctional team.
