The Menotti column: Lionel Messi's job is to make Argentina play well, goals are a team concern

By César Luis Menotti

When you lose a final like Argentina lost to Chile at the Copa America Centenario, there is plenty of tough, ruthless analysis, all of which has nothing to do with football. Allow me to say that Argentina can return home with their pride unscathed. They fought hard and gave it everything, there is no doubt about that. And yet I still need to say a couple of things very clearly: Chile deserved to win the Copa America and right now, as a group, they play better than Argentina. They have clearer concepts, although the final was indeed a tight game.

I think there are a few misconceptions in Argentina about the things that prevent Lionel Messi from performing as well as he could. Every player has obligations within a team, and I have the feeling that no one has explained to Messi that his responsibility with Argentina is not to score goals. Let’s not get confused. His responsibility, as with Barcelona, is to make the team play well, which is a different thing.

This confusion means that, whenever he gets the ball, Messi runs and dribbles over 20 metres to try to score a goal. He struggles a lot and feels the obligation to win the game, but his responsibility should be different: to help the team play better. In order to do that, however, he needs to have other players ahead of the ball. With three defensive midfielders and two wing backs who hardly generate play at all, the full responsibility for goals rests with him and Gonzalo Higuain. And by this I do not mean to say it is all manager Gerardo Martino’s fault, because I do not know what he tells players or how they train.

I say this with a view to helping, because I had a similar problem when I coached Diego Maradona at Barcelona. He wanted to do everything he could to help me with his fantastic quality as a footballer. But one day I got him and Bernd Schuster together, and I told them that the only thing I needed was for them to help me get the team to play better, that goals would eventually come on their own. In this spirit, I think what we need to do is make Messi aware of the fact that he does not play with the national team to score the winning goal. Reaching so many finals and not winning any of them generates a very special atmosphere, that much is true. But he has to make the effort to have a little more fun and be a bit happier on the pitch.

I guess his decision to leave the national team appears to pre-empt this analysis, but in my opinion his announcement is not worth much right now. I do not think Messi will stop playing with the national team. At a time of so much sadness and loneliness, we should not take his comments seriously. He expressed his feelings, but I think it is just a momentary thing and will pass.

It would be unfair for me not to mention what Chile are doing. You do not get where they are by chance, and they are definitely one of the best teams in international football. There is a long period of work, training, conviction and team-building that is really worth highlighting. They are a role model for solidarity, a very good side that defends an idea in each and every instance of play. And, while they may not have Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, they have Arturo Vidal, who has grown more than most players in world football. Whenever Chile need to solve a problem, Vidal is always there, wherever it happens to be on the pitch. We need to say this clearly: Chile deserve everything they have won.