3. Midfield Problems: Age, Speed and Accuracy
Ángel Di María has now created 23 goalscoring chances for Argentina over three different World Cup tournaments, but none of those have assisted a goal.
PSG winger is a shadow of his Real Madrid days alongside Biglia-Mascherano pair who cannot maintain the intensity of maintaining box to box midfield role or provide enough quality in the attacking third to create chances as the directions and ideas for constructing an attack leading up to the goal seems predictably built around Lionel Messi.
Putting Dybala coming off another wonderful season with Juventus, instead of Di Maria could be an interesting change with Dybala and Pavon running the channels and Messi playing his usual playmaker role behind Kun Aguero could spark off magic for Argentina in the attacking third.
Fact: Lionel Messi (11) attempted seven shots more than Cristiano Ronaldo (4) on the opening matchday of the 2018 World Cup, but the Portuguese forward scored three goals compared to Messi’s none.