Nobody to blame but himself. It was a piss poor penalty.
I watched the match from the tactical cam and he had zero assistance. Aguero, Biglia and Mascherano were the main culprits. Against that parked bus, which was great in its execution, Aguero should have helped him more by coming off the front into deeper areas but he stayed upfront and made these little diagonal runs to the left. Neither Mascherano or Biglia took up a more advanced position in the centre either leaving Messi completely isolated which meant every attack was initiated by getting the ball to Messi having to drive at the defense looking for a 1-2 in the final third.
After what I saw on the tactical cam I would be tempted to go 3-3-1-3 with Dybala in the hole and Messi at RW and Higuain as striker but the problem with that is neither (Messi/Dybala) are tactically disciplined enough to pull it off and would just get in each other’s way like against Venezuela and Uruguay in the qualifiers. The other option is 4-3-3 with Messi on the wing but the problem here is that there is no longer any Lanzini to do the cover work when Messi goes inside or drops deep but it’s clear that this 4-2-3-1 is not going to work because it isolates Messi and there is no attacking impetus in the centre.
People laugh at Benzema, whom I think is criminally underrated, but he does to perfection what Aguero should have done against that deep block. Higuain is a better option for Argentina at this stage than Aguero for the team dynamic they have going but he is wasteful.
None of Meza, Di Maria, Acuna and Pavon are a solution because neither cut in.
That’s how Sampaoli plays unfortunately and Argentina are not a good counter attacking side.
In the grand scheme of things it’s just a lack of a midfield. Losing Lanzini didn’t help and replacing him with Enzo Pérez, another defense minded player, was a mistake of epic proportions. The only attack minded central midfielder they have is Éver “Fucking” Benega.
Though to be fair it might be best if someone else had the next one.