Lionel Messi has managed to up his game under Argentina national team manager Lionel Scaloni. Messi led the way for Argentina at the 2021 Copa America, and he put together multiple potent performances in La Albiceleste’s 2022 FIFA World Cup knockout stage run.
When Scaloni was named the manager of the Argentina national team in 2018, he had quite a difficult task ahead of him to get the best out of Messi. He sure has succeeded in this feat so far, and he credits this to the players around the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner who have made life easier for him on the pitch.
“I think is important, to realize what a player like him needs,” Scaloni said during the post-FIFA World Cup 2022 Coaches Forum.
“In the first few months with the national team, we tried to play a bit faster, a bit more direct, and noticed he wasn’t comfortable, and his teammates weren’t comfortable, so I think one of our merits, of all of us, the squad as a whole, was having found those players who could let him play his football.”
Argentina has put together quite a team around Messi over the past few years. The reigning World Cup winners can rely on the likes of Enzo Fernandez and Rodrigo De Paul to regularly win back possession, while Lautaro Martinez and Julian Alvarez have proven to be players who can relentlessly press over the course of a match.
Argentina is set to next be in action on June 19 when it will square off with Indonesia.
