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Lionel Messi is unarguably one of the greatest players in history - his performances for Barcelona guarantees that. However, a major anomaly throughout the 31-year-old's illustrious career has been that he has not quite matched his club form on the international scene.
Many might point to the fact that with 68 goals from 133 matches, the Rosario native is Argentina's all-time leading goalscorer as vindication for his national team form, however, this is just a surface evaluation and a deeper incursion shows just how poor (by his standards) he has been for Los Albiceleste.
For starters, his goal ratio of 0.51 means that he scores a goal for Argentina on average of one every two matches and this falls some way beneath 0.85 goals/match he has managed in his Barcelona career.
He has scored just six goals from 19 World Cup matches and is yet to win a major trophy with Argentina, losing four finals in his time with the national team and this goes in stark contrast to his trophy-laden stay at Barcelona which has seen him win 34 major trophies.
A common question among fans and pundits alike is why Lionel Messi has not been able to transfer his club form with Barcelona onto the international scene for Argentina and while there might not be a holistic reason as to why this is so, there are a number of plausible reasons why Messi underperforms in national colors.
In this piece, we shall be highlighting three reasons why Lionel Messi struggles with Argentina.
#3 Lower quality of players
A common rhetoric in football debates about why Messi struggles with the national team is that Argentina has been blessed with quality players throughout his time with Los Albiceleste and while this might not be entirely false, it is too generic and does not really portray the full picture.
A holistic look at the Argentine squads over the years that Messi has been involved in shows a lopsided abundance of quality in just one department - attack, at the detriment of every other position.
While the likes of Higuain, Aguero, Icardi, Tevez, Diego Milito, and Di Maria but to name a few can all claim to be among the best forwards of their generation, there was not much quality support elsewhere.
Argentina have not really been famed for producing top-notch goalkeepers overtime, but it says something that their first choice goaltender for the last decade finds himself playing second fiddle at Manchester United.
This goes in contrast with what is obtainable at other Grade A national teams such as England, Germany, France, Belgium and even Brazil (with two) who have their first choice goalkeepers as sure starters at the biggest clubs in the world.
In defense, apart from Walter Samuel and Javier Zanetti, Argentina have arguably not produced a world-class defender for the last 15 years, while they had only two midfielders of note in the same timeframe; Juan Roman Riquelme and Javier Mascherano (who spent most of his time at club level playing as a center-back).
Again when you look at the national teams of Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Brazil but to name a few, you find out that true talent and ability is spread out across the entire team and not just concentrated in one sector.
Lionel Messi has undoubtedly suffered from this lack of true quality across the board in the Argentine team and the current crop at the ongoing Copa America is probably the worst of the lot.
At Barcelona, Messi has able support across all departments so it serves as a no-brainer that he would do well at club level but seeing as the reverse is the case with Argentina, his underperformance is somewhat understandable.
#2 The lack of stability in Argentina affects his output
Lionel Messi made his official club debut in October 2004 and in the intervening 15 years at Barcelona, he has been managed by just six managers and with Ernesto Valverde set to remain in the dugout next season, it means that apart from the late Tito Vilanova (who was tragically diagnosed with cancer just a year into his managerial tenure), only Gerardo Martino failed to spend at least three seasons in charge of the club.
By contrast, in his 14 years with the national team, Messi has been managed by no less than nine different coaches starting from Jose Pekerman to Lionel Scaloni who currently occupies the manager's seat.
Tellingly, the nine men who have coached Messi with Argentina are as varied in temperament as they are in playing style from the wildly erratic and confrontational Diego Maradona to the mild-mannered Alejandro Sabella.
Each of these coaches brought about a different playing pattern and invited players who were best suited to these, with the result being that the Argentine team over the years has been an unrecognizable hogwash of individualistic players who were constantly chopped and changed according to the whims and caprices of the man in charge and had no discernible playing pattern or teamwork.
Just to give few examples, the last three World Cup winners: France, Germany, and Spain had workable systems in place due to the longevity of their coaches who spent some time building the team in their image and prioritizing teamwork.
While the three national teams mentioned had their own fair share of talented individuals, great players can only get you so far and without the requisite teamwork, any side is setting up a template for failure.
This stability and teamwork present in the aforementioned teams during their periods of dominance has been sorely lacking in Argentina for the entirety of Messi's time there and while they might have made it to three consecutive finals, there was never any point in time during those tournaments where Argentina truly played like champions or dominated proceedings with great teamwork much like Germany, France, and Spain did during their run-ins.
While Messi's talents and superior abilities means that he has what it takes to showcase his abilities regardless of the circumstances around him, his higher performance levels with Barcelona (where there is more stability than Argentina) shows that even the best of all time need affairs around them to be stable in order to perform at their optimum.
The constant chopping and changing of coaches, players and football association presidents in Argentina have hardly helped bring stability to the team and this has undoubtedly played a part in Messi's struggles with his national side.
#1 Too much is expected from him in Argentina
It is a well-known fact that football in Argentina is almost a religion, with support of the beautiful game so widespread and emotional that it borders on fanaticism.
It is also well known that the national team of Argentina have gone a whopping 28 years without a major international trophy and for a bonafide world class footballing nation, this is an embarrassing drought, to say the least.
Till this day, Diego Maradona is revered as a god in his country for his heroics in bringing the 1986 World Cup home and since then, fans of Argentina have been crying out for another savior to take them to the promised land.
The arrival of Messi on the scene in the middle of the last decade seemed to be the answer to his compatriot's prayers, as whereas many had come before him as the 'next Maradona', none came close to matching the Napoli great in terms of stature, close control, dribbling and playing pattern.
Suddenly Argentina were expected to win every tournament they contested simply because they had Messi and while his status as possibly the greatest player in history means he is more than capable of deciding tournaments on his own, there is only so much he can do as an individual.
The pressure to bring back a long-awaited major trophy and find justification in the eyes of his compatriots is always evident every time Messi steps out in an Argentine shirt as he lacks the freedom and relaxedness he oozes while representing Barcelona.
While there might also be pressure in a Barcelona shirt, it can in nowhere be compared to that of Argentina which was recently compared to fighting a war by current coach Lionel Scaloni.
Pressure sometimes helps bring out the best in players, but in the case of Messi and Argentina, the reverse seems to be the case and this might be a crucial factor in why he struggles to replicate his club form with his country.
