Argentina's prob hasn't been one of creativity (they create enough goal-scoring opps amidst the chaos - courtesy messi) but of ball retention and poor finishing. Their midfield is erratic on the ball and just can't retain under pressure, constantly misplacing passes. And without timely delivery of the ball, messi is required to drop deep to bring the ball forward. (Though, sometimes he can be a passenger when he's deprived of the ball for long stretches. And i wish he was more pro-active on such occasions.) They certainly need a calming presence in midfield, and who can constantly feed him the ball (a gago, banega whoever). Once that is established, the rest won't be much of an issue. He does 've players in Di Maria, Higs, Aguero in attack, who understand his movement, and support him via off-ball runs, link-up, creating space or finishing.
This team needs a 3-man attack as emphasized by last few games (played in Di Maria's absence). El Flaco was deployed wrongly against Bolivia, hence ineffective. Whilst the incorporation of another attacker (Aguero-higs) in the sec half against colombia and the suisse, stretched the oppsn defence, and made them more threatening. Hopefully sabella abandons the 2 upfront when Di Maria is back (considering their fullbacks are slow and incompetent in attack, they need him all the more). I don't understand the hate for him. Yes, he's had some unflattering moments, but he's been alright (olympics, wc). He was poor at the CA but so was rest of the team. He only started one group match which they won (the rest he was a sub or not used), his performance against Uru was poor, however. I don't think he deserves to be mentioned alongside Lavezzi and Tevez. This season whilst he's raised his game for his club, he's either been played out of position(c.midfield) or out injured to feature for the national side in the meantime.
As for messi, he's best played as an enganche (if they can add another talented winger) or a RWF(if sabella makes room for an offensive midfielder). But sabella doesn't trust the young'uns in mf, so he'll continue to play on the counter, with over-dependance on Messi's playmaking, which would be fine as long their MF can do my above first point right.
