Lionel Messi lifts the spirit of Di Maria and Argentina for the 4th consecutive time in FIFA World Cup after a overall dire performance by Argentina. Messi is living upto the expectations set by the fans by carrying the mediocre team on his shoulders. Now, Argentina are one among 8 elite teams in the world of football, thanks to Lionel Messi. Much has been talked about 1986 world cup and Maradona. There is common notion among football fraternity that Maradona single handedly won the world cup and often try to overlook the contribution of other teammates. In this post I will try to debunk some of the myths.

Here are some stats of 1986 worldcup
1) Argentina had conceded just 4 goals in the whole tournament, 2 of those goals were conceded in the final(Rock Solid defense)
2) Jorge Valdano had scored 4 goals in the tournament. (Currently Messi has 4 goals, Di Maria 1 goal)

Argentina then(1986 version) had a rock solid defense and a strong Sergi Batista just ahead of them acting as a destroyer(much like Claude Makelele).On the contrary, the 2014 version of Argentina are quite opposite. They have the worst defense at the moment. The biggest conundrum Sabella(Argentina's manager) is facing nowadays is, whether to bolster the defense or try to maximize the efficiency of Lionel Messi. The back 4 of Argentina( 2014 version ) will never match the rock solid defense of 1986 worldcup. There is a popular saying,"Offense wins you tickets, defense wins you championships". In the last couple of matches, Sabella has insisted on using 5 defenders in order to bolster the defense. The problem with this tactics is that, Argentina practically have no control over the match and this in turn affects the performance of Messi. Because the team isn't cohesive anymore.Irrespective of number of defenders at the back, they are always vulnerable to quick counter attacks. So, to sum it up, although Argentina are in Quarters, they cannot win World cup with this defense.

Nowadays there is too much detail in football unlike 2 decades ago. A professional team has nutritionist, tactical experts, statistician and video analysts. Most of the matches are won on the paper. For ex: A central defender will be knowing before hand as, whether the striker drifts towards right or left. The defender will train accordingly. Squawka.com(Football stats website) will tell you which flank Messi prefers and based on the stats, the manager will assign 3 or 4 players to nullify them.

A team which has two or more goal scoring forwards has more probability to win any piece of silverware. For ex: Messi scored 91 goals during 11-12, but Barcelona failed to win a major piece of silverware. Because the point of attack becomes one dimensional. The task becomes easy for the opposition. If the opposition nullify Messi, they win. Simple. Argentina's tactics nowadays is to just look for Messi, pass to Messi. This condition is called as Messidependencia(It works until Messi shows the signs of human being).  Even if we try to condone the problems faced by Argentina in defense, you cannot overlook the fact that the forwards apart from Lionel Messi are below par(Front three is their plus point). Higuain, Lavezzi and Aguero are totally anonymous in the final third. Messi dribbles past 2 or 3 players and looks for Higuain and Aguero, but either they will be out of position or they will be poor infront of the goal. Since Aguero is out, Higuain and Lavezzi should step up now more than ever for Argentina.

Even the great Diego Maradona needed support from his teammates to reach the holy grail. So, in the modern era it is highly impossible for a single player to win the matches on his own let alone the FIFA World Cup. But Lionel Messi has done a stupendous job of carrying his team to the quarter finals, that too in a modern era speaks volumes about the greatness of Lionel Messi.

Lionel Messi may fall short in achieving his dream, after all it's a team game(Arg, as a team aren't really upto that level), but for me, Messi remains the GREATEST FOOTBALLER EVER.