Ageing Argentina must trust in youth to ensure Lionel Messi gets perfect World Cup send-off

Argentina touched down at their training base in Kansas City with largely the same group of players who produced the goods in Qatar three-and-a-half years ago. Seventeen members of their 26-man squad were in the 2022 squad, while only Angel Di Maria, who retired from international duty after being named Player of the Match in the 2024 Copa America final, is missing from the 11 players who started against France in Lusail.

That speaks to the remarkable consistency of selection that has underpinned Scaloni’s era of success. Sixteen players in his current squad were part of the group that won his first tournament in charge, the 2021 Copa America. By contrast, only 11 players from Brazil’s squad five years ago are in North America, and that includes three goalkeepers, while England have maintained only nine players since their run to the final of the Euros during the same summer.

And while that familiarity with one another has succeeded in Argentina’s squad building a brother-like bond over the past half-decade, the concern is now that age could be about to catch up with them at the worst possible moment.

Nine members of the squad are the ‘wrong’ side of 30, including key starters such as Emiliano Martinez, Rodrigo De Paul and, of course, Lionel Messi, who will turn 39 during his record-setting sixth World Cup.

At the other end of the spectrum, only three players - Giuliano Simeone, Valentin Barco and Nico Paz - are under the age of 25 after the likes of Franco Mastantuono and Alejandro Garnacho were overlooked.

As well as an average age of over 29, there are also worries about just how much gas some of Scaloni’s key players have in the tank after a relentless few years. As well as the Copa America in 2024, 11 of his players then took part in last summer’s Club World Cup, meaning for some, the last three seasons have been non-stop.

Since the start of the 2024-25 season, key midfielder Enzo Fernandez and star striker Julian Alvarez have played 121 games each for club and country. Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that Alvarez had to be nursed through the final weeks of Atletico Madrid’s season while he dealt with an ankle problem, and it would be a shock if the miles Fernandez has covered didn’t catch up with him at some stage, despite him being in prime physical shape at 25.

Certainly the amount of miles in Alexis Mac Allister’s legs seem to have played a part in his dramatic drop in form. Despite not being at the Club World Cup, the Liverpool midfielder has still managed to rack up 119 appearances for club and country over the past two seasons, and is expected to start Argentina’s opening match against Algeria on Tuesday. But if his performances in the Premier League over the past nine months are anything to go by, he will surely be on a short leash before Scaloni will be forced to act.

Speaking to TalkSport after he criticised Mac Allister on social media during Liverpool’s loss to Manchester City in February, ex-Reds winger Jermaine Pennant said: "I was watching the game and I was frustrated and I tweeted… I was angry. It was constructive angry… I touched on that, ‘after your injury in pre-season, you’ve come back a shadow of what you are; it seems like your legs have gone’. In that [City] game, he was literally a bystander, he didn’t really get into it at all and that’s what I touched on, it was an observation."

Unfettered, Scaloni is once again set to put his faith in the core group that has yet to fail on the tournament stage under his tutelage. Seven of the players who started the 2022 final are set to be in the line-up again at Arrowhead Stadium against Algeria - and that total might have been as many as 10 had Alvarez, Nicolas Tagliafico and Nahuel Molina not come into the tournament nursing minor injuries.

The likes of Cristian Romero, Nicolas Otamendi, Fernandez, De Paul, Mac Allister and Messi are set to reprise their roles, with 2024 Copa America Golden Boot winner Lautaro Martinez to deputise for Alvarez up front. This is a team that knows how to win - but does Scaloni need to take some risks and trust the younger members of his squad if Argentina are to go deep once more?

Scaloni’s aversion to risk is evident in who he is set to select at left-back against Algeria. With Tagliafico ruled out, the expectation would be that Barco would come into the line-up following some impressive performances in recent friendlies.

The left-sided Strasbourg player, who is widely expected to join Chelsea this summer, has scored in two of Argentina’s last three matches, albeit while playing slightly further forward. Barco is by trade, however, a left-back, and the 21-year-old’s energy would give this ageing Argentina side an added dynamism down one of their flanks.

Instead, Scaloni is set to entrust Manchester United’s Lisandro Martinez with the job of marking Algeria’s veteran talisman Riyad Mahrez. Martinez is certainly more defensively sound than Barco, but his centre-back roots mean he is unlikely to be as adventurous going the other way.

Simeone, meanwhile, is set to start the opening game, but in an unfamiliar role at right-back. Both Molina and Gonzalo Montiel are stepping up their recoveries from recent injuries, and thus Simeone is set to deputise until one or both are ready to play more than a few minutes from the bench.

The biggest debate when it comes to Argentina’s changing of the guard, however, centres on Paz, the 21-year-old who has lit up Italian football over the past two seasons with his performances for Como.

Learning under the coaching of Cesc Fabregas, Paz scored 13 goals and provided seven assists this past season to help secure a fourth-placed finish and Champions League qualification for a team that only earned promotion in 2024. He was named Best Midfielder at Serie A's end-of-season awards, and there is a belief that Real Madrid will activate the buy-back clause in the youngster's contract this summer.

Paz’s eye for a pass, willingness to take risks in possession and youthful exuberance stands in stark contrast to the kind of performances Mac Allister, for example, has been producing of late, and while it seems he will have to make do with a place on the bench to begin with - in part due to a minor knee injury that he has been working through - Scaloni must be open-minded to introducing some new blood if things aren’t quite clicking.

Scaloni has done it before, with his decision to bring the then-21-year-old Fernandez into the line-up midway through the group stage in Qatar a tournament-altering call. And while his loyalty to those who have produced the goods for him before is admirable, if he is to make it four from four, tough calls will likely need to be made, especially with Argentina’s route to the final potentially treacherous.

Should they win Group J ahead of Algeria, Austria and Jordan, then the Albiceleste will face the runners-up from Group H - potentially Spain, although more likely Uruguay - in the round of 32. Win that, and a manageable last-16 game against the runners-up from either Group D (currently Australia) or Group G (likely potentially Belgium, Egypt or Iran) would follow.

Things would go up several notches in the quarter-finals, however, with Portugal the current favourites to meet Argentina in the last eight if seedings hold, setting up a dramatic face-off between Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo at what is almost certainly their final World Cup.

By that point, you would hope Scaloni knows his best team so that he can try and give Messi the best possible send-off. There’s a good chance it includes one or two of the younger members of his squad.