Lionel Messi was at his imperious best in the 2022 FIFA World Cup. With 5 Man of the Match awards in 7 games, the Argentine icon looked like a man on a mission. Strangely, his performances for his club PSG were not as influential. Looking back, this does not seem to be a coincidence. Recently, one of Argentina’s coaching staff opened up on ‘one of the secrets’ of how they gave their icon the optimum environment for success.

With 7 goals and 3 assists, the ex-Barcelona star was the biggest factor in Argentina’s triumph. With it possibly being his final edition of the tournament, Lionel Scaloni and Co. would be pleased with their contribution in helping the legend achieve the one trophy that eluded him.

A staff member of Lionel Scaloni was ‘obsessed’ to give Lionel Messi the best

Matias Manna, one of Lionel Scaloni’s staff revealed the secret of Lionel Messi’s spectacular World Cup form. He explained, “I was always obsessed with knowing what Messi needed in the team. Messi needs good midfielders. The best version of Messi we saw for me was in this World Cup when he was surrounded by good midfielders and that is one of the secrets of this team.” From the looks of it, Matias would have been watching a lot of vintage Barcelona clips. Back in the day, he was part of a devastating trio with the legendary Xavi Hernandez & Andres Iniesta.

This resulted in Lionel Messi enjoying the best form of his life and his 91 goals scored in 2012, highlight the point. Interestingly, the retirement of the fabled duo resulted in Barcelona and Lionel Messi having some of their worst seasons and defeats to date. Hence, it looks like the Argentina coaching staff wanted to pair their captain with some technical and creative midfielders to get the best out of him.

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Enter Enzo Fernandez & Alexis Mac Allister. Interestingly, neither player was even on the bench during the 2021 Copa America triumph. However, the duo was a key factor in Argentina & Messi’s victory with their selfless contributions.

The newest super-midfielder combination in the making

For the majority of the tournament, Argentina resorted to using a midfield 3 of Rodrigo De Paul, Mac Allister, and Enzo Fernandez. Although De Paul is an excellent player in his own right, it was Enzo and Alexis who freed up Lionel Messi to play his natural game. Both of them are great ball progressors and are comfortable playing deep. Hence, the Argentina captain could focus more on his creative abilities instead of dropping back to receive the ball.

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With 21 key passes in the tournament, second only to Antoine Griezmann, Lionel Messi flourished in his new role. No one recorded more shots (32) or made more assists (3) than the Argentine maestro. Furthermore, Argentina’s only defeat of the tournament came in the match where neither Enzo nor Mac Allister started. Such was the influence of the new midfielder combination.

What was in your opinion the biggest contributor to Argentina’s World Cup victory? Tell us in the comments below.

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