Tactical talk: Argentina architects of own downfall in 3-0 loss to Croatia

Argentina collapsed in the second half in Volgograd after a calamitous error by Wily Caballero and are on the brink of a World Cup Group Stage exit.

Lineups
After an opening round 2-0 win against Nigeria, Croatia elected to alter their formation to sure up the middle of the field. Zlatko Dalic shifted from a 4-4-2 to a 4-2-3-1. Marcelo Brozovic slotted in as a deep lying playmaker pushing Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic forward as Andrej Kramaric went to the bench.

This change in tactics was for one reason perfectly stated after the match by Luka Modric,

“We wanted to cut out Messi receiving the ball because he is the most dangerous player.”

Seen below, this worked to near perfection as Messi had to either drop deep or shuttle out wide to find any time on the ball.

After drawing with Iceland and seeming short of attacking ideas, Jorge Sampaoli elected to change systems for this match. He went to three at the back, slotting in Gabriel Mercado next to Nicolas Otamendi and Tagliafico. Enzo Perez entered as a shuttling midfielder alongside destroyer Javier Mascherano. Carlos Acuna was in charge of the left flank while Eduardo Salvio was the man on the right.

This system seemed to try and get the best out of their least technical players. Messi and Aguero were isolated high up the pitch with the midfield unable to link play from the back. Croatia set up a middle block to cut off Messi from the passing buildup and allowed time and space to the less technical savvy Argentine defenders.

Surely, Sampaoli erred by not starting Ever Banega or Lucas Biglia to help solve this issue. Summing up the first half was this stat – Goalkeeper Wily Caballero had 22 touches while Messi had only 20.

Half Chances in the First Half
Croatia largely seemed content to sit back and allow Argentina to dictate tempo in the opening half. They were successful at breaking forward in behind the wing backs. Sampaoli wanted a more energetic performance, instructing his players to press Croatia.

This worked on Goalkeeper Danjel Subasic, but against a midfield of Modric and Rakitic it was unwise. Four minutes in, Rakitic flicked on a punt downfield into the path of Ivan Perisic on the left wing. He was behind the wing back and forced a good low save to the left of Caballero.

In the video above, Croatia were able to work the ball through the middle with the help of Mandzukic’s excellent back to goal play. On the right wing, Vrsaljko crossed to the back post for an unmarked Mandzukic who could only head wide.

Argentina on the other end were mostly static in possession and in general did not look confident in their system. Instead of building his team’s shape around Messi, Sampaoli seemed to emphasize the roles of Perez and Meza to become providers, and their quality fell short of their Croatian midfield counter parts. This was best seen in the 12th minute when a dink over the top from Meza was behind and too far in front of the toe of Messi.

A half hour into the match, a poor pass back by Vrsaljko was deflected off of Vyda and felt to Perez who missed an open target from 13 yards.

Finally, Messi and Aguero got involved. First, it was Messi who dropped deep, found a sliver of space with a pass from Mascherano and slipped in Aguero who was tackled back by Vrsaljko.

Then, Aguero finally had the ball in behind the lines early in the second half after Messi drew three defenders, laid a pass across to Tagliafico who then slipped in Aguero for his only shot on target.

Howler Changes the Game
However, a minute later, the match spun on its head. Caballero tried to chip a pass back from Mercado over the head of Ante Rebic in his own penalty box. The pass was short and Rebic volleyed home a shot with flawless technique. This seemed to take the life out of Argentina and Sampaoli went into desperation mode only down one goal.

Argentina Hunting
Immediately, Sampaoli withdrew Aguero for Higuain and two minutes later he threw on Pavon for Salvio. The formation at this point seemed to take a back seat for desperation. Perhaps he was acting too emotionally and should have went 4-2-4 and withdrawn Mercado for Higuain, shifting Pavon and Messi wide with Higuain and Aguero up front.

Pablo Zabaleta on the BBC said;

“I have no idea why we didn’t play with two strikers – with Gonzalo Higuain and Sergio Aguero – we needed men in the box. It would have made it so hard for the defenders with both strikers on – because someone goes deep and someone goes on the shoulder – it was easy for them.”

After the match he added:

“The reality of the Argentina squad clouds Lionel Messi’s brillance. The team doesn’t gel as well as it should.”

It is hard to fathom a manager saying this about his team since it is ultimately his job to get the best out of his squad and it is clear he is aimlessly throwing darts on a board.

Down 1-0, Argentina crafted one final chance in the 64th minute. Perez slipped in Higuain behind the back of Lovren whose pull back found Meza. However, the shot was blocked and the follow up by Messi was put out for a corner by Rakitic.

Two minutes later, Dybala came in for Perez and the tactics went completely out the window. In the final twenty minutes, Argentina were rudderless and basically had no midfield. The imperious Modric finished them off in the 80th minute with a curling strike around Otamendi and Caballero into the side netting. In stoppage time, the Croatians countered again, first Rakitic had a shot saved and the rebound was squared back to him by Kovacic and the Barcelona man did not miss his follow up.

Conclusions
Argentina were well beaten and out coached. Croatia, like Iceland, came in with a clear and concise game plan on how they were going to play. In both cases, Argentina were ill prepared and poorly drilled into how they wanted to approach the tournament. The first signs were shown with Sampaoli shuffling the lineups and formation after the draw with Iceland. Ultimately, it was a panic move and the team responded by a panicked performance.

Watching the World Cup? Tweet me @kpngacleansheet where I will be all tournament long.