Argentina vs Bosnia: Group F Games off to an Uneasy Start

The first game is always the hardest. Argentina’s manager Alejandro Sabella and star player Lionel Messi said as much after Argentina completed an uneasy 2-1 win over Bosnia-Herzegovina last night. Both spoke of “anxiety and nerves” and the pressure to get off to a good start. Certainly Argentina made it look difficult—but the sense was that it made it hard for itself.

Having played a 4-3-3 for much of qualifying, Argentina switched to 5-3-2, a change that had been signaled 24 hours in advance but the purpose of which remained obscure. It may simply be that because Gonzalo Higuain wasn’t fully fit, Sabella opted to replace him with a more conservative option, but he was somewhat shifty in his pre-match press conference, dropping strange hints as to the reasons for a change of shape. Asked if his selection was a compliment to Bosnia’s attacking prowess, he commented that it was “more with other things, but I can’t say what publicly”.

Argentina had beaten Bosnia 2-0 in a friendly in the USA last November using a back five, but that was when Bosnia were using a 4-4-2. In the circumstances, that made sense: three center-backs gave him two markers plus a spare man. But Bosnia have changed since then to use a 4-2-3-1, with Vedad Ibisevic dropping out for an additional midfielder as manager Safet Susic has sought more control. Three center-backs against a lone central striker, even one as awkward as Edin Dzeko, leaves a marker, a spare man and a redundant figure. That can be useful if the team playing three at the back is intent on defending and not much else–something the Argentinian club Estudiantes did fairly regularly in their period —but it seemed bewildering for Argentina against a Bosnia team they surely expected to beat.

Having got the early goal, Lionel Messi’s free kick being flicked on by Marcos Rojo and then cannoning in off Sead Kolasinac, the game settled into a pattern familiar to anybody used to watching Sabella’s Estudiantes. Bosnia had a lot of the ball, in large part because of the numerical superiority they had in the center of the pitch, but struggled to penetrate the massed ranks of Argentina’s deep-lying defence.

There was one instance, after 14 minutes, when Zvjezdan Misimovic’s flick over the top found the run of Miralem Pjanic, but the space was so tight that ball and run had to be perfect: a fraction off, Pjanic was forced to stretch to bring it down, allowing Sergio Romero off his line to smother. For the most part, though, Argentina held Bosnia at arm’s length. Senad Lulic drew a fine low save from Romero with a header from a right-wing corner and might have had a better chance had Dzeko opted to pass to him rather than attempting an ambitious shot on the turn just after the half hour. But for the most part their threat was notional rather than actual.

Still, it was enough for Sabella to perform an about-face at half time, taking off Campagnaro and Maxi Rodriguez to introduce Higuain and Fernando Gago. Argentina immediately looked more comfortable, but such things are relative. Bosnia still had the momentum and until they began to tire after the hour, they remained the better side.

Messi had had a frustrating night. He is too talented ever to be anonymous, but his involvement for much of that opening hour was fleeting. So out of sorts had he seemed that when he fired a free kick over the bar 20 minutes into the second half there was booing from the Argentinian fans who formed the majority in the stadium. There is a sense of danger whenever he gets the ball but Bosnia closed him down superbly, Muhamed Besic in particular having a fine game. “It’s difficult to play against Messi or a player like him,” said the Bosnia coach Safet Susic. “Initially I thought of man-marking him for 90 minutes but it’s impossible for anybody and I didn’t want to force a player to be booked once or twice. I gave him some freedom but instructed my team that the closest player to him should approach him, press the ball and not foul him. If he can dribble through he’ll set up his teammates with precision passes so you must stop that.”

Susic had courted criticism with his switch away from 4-4-2, but he insisted he didn’t regret the change, even after Ibisevic scored a late goal to bring Bosnia back to 2-1. “We played two friendlies starting with that formation and everything worked perfectly.  I discussed the tactics with Ibisevic before the match and told him against Argentina we must not play two attackers because in midfield we have more attack-minded midfielders. These are players who go forward all the time. Playing two strikers would have been very risky. Maybe if we’d played him the margin of victory for Argentina would have been bigger, but we will depend on him for the other two games in the group.”

The change of shape after half-time suited Messi. With Higuain and Aguero pulling wide, the theory is that there should be space for him to run through central areas, and that was precisely what happened 20 minutes into the second half: Messi picked up the ball on the right, cut infield, leaving defenders trailing, and clipped a precise shot on off the post.

“We like [the 4-3-3] better because when you go forward you have more possibilities of passing the ball and scoring,” Messi said. “In the first half we gave up possession to Bosnia and so I was too deep: I was alone and Kun [Aguero] was alone. It was very difficult.” That rather scuppered the theory that Messi had demanded the change of shape and it’s safe to assume that Argentina will return to a 4-3-3 for the remainder of the group stage.

“The changes produced an improvement for the team,” said Sabella. “There was more support around Messi. Messi is the best player in the world. It’s not that he needs a lot, but beyond that there’s always a context and it can empower him a bit more. When he receives a push from his colleagues that no doubt empowers him even more.”

Assuming Argentina do line up with a 4-3-3 against Iran, the key for Iran's manager Carlos Queiroz going into the team's game against Argentina on June 21 will be to prevent Lionel Messi getting space. Bosnia did the job well, but one moment of weakness was enough to undo them. It's essential that defenders and holding midfielders don't get drawn too wide when tracking Aguero and Higuain: leave a chasm down the middle of the pitch and, as Messi showed, he will exploit it. Susic isprobably right in saying that to man-mark Messi is to invite a red card: rather it's essential that at least one of the deep-lyingcentral midfielders holds his position in front of the center-backs at all times.