VAR consistency:
VAR confusion is nothing new, of course. It's been a source of controversy since day one. However, its application at this World Cup is going to be very, very interesting given what we've seen over the past three days, particularly in relation to pushing and pulling in the penalty area. Indeed, on Monday afternoon, Harry Maguire was essentially wrestled to the ground by Rouzbeh Cheshmi during the early stages of England's win over Iran, and yet VAR didn't intervene. However, less than 24 hours later, a penalty was awarded to Argentina after Saud Abdulhamid had grappled with Leandro Paredes in the area. It was technically a foul but, in the context of what we see in the box in every single game, it was soft, and certainly nowhere near as bad as Cheshmi's takedown on Maguire. One would hope that a mistake had simply been made in the England game. Consistency is, however, key now. It is imperative that every single incident of holding, shoving or shirt-pulling is also punished with a penalty. Otherwise, there is only going to be further uproar.
Cristian Romero:
By no means the only Argentine to underperform, but it came as no surprise to see the Tottenham centre-back replaced just before the hour mark having been made to look painfully slow by Al-Shehri for Saudi Arabia's equaliser. Before the game, it was thought that Nicolas Otamendi might be the weak link in the centre of the defence but it was Romero who was exposed. It would not be a surprise to see the 24-year-old dropped for the must-win meeting with Mexico on Saturday and replaced in the starting line-up by Lisandro Martinez.
Argentina's sense of timing:
This was a hell of a time for Argentina's 36-game unbeaten run to come to an end. But they only have themselves to blame. Of course, they had three goals disallowed in the first half and some of the offside calls were ridiculously close. For example, Lautaro's brilliant dinked finish was disallowed because his shoulder was ahead of the last man. However, there's no denying that Argentina struggled to get to grips with the Saudis' high line. They were caught offside seven times in the first half alone. Once it became clear that their opponents weren't going to ditch their high-risk/high-reward approach, the likes of Lautaro really should have started checking their runs a tad. As it was, they continued to fall into the Saudis' expertly-executed offside trap. The net result is that one of the tournament favourites are now facing an embarrassingly early exit, given this was supposed to be their easiest game in Group C. The threat of elimination will hang over them going into their two remaining fixtures, against Mexico and Poland. They are, as Lautaro admitted, "two finals". Lose either and Messi's last dance could turn into a damp squib.
