JUNE 20 — Argentina headed into the Copa America as favourites to lift the trophy for the first time since 1993, but suffered a disappointing start by drawing 2-2 with unfancied Paraguay in their group opener last weekend.

Having conceded twice in the second half to squander a two-goal advantage, their next game — against holders Uruguay on Tuesday — was a pressure situation for the Albiceleste as they attempted to restore some lost credibility.

The big quandary for under-fire and unconvincing manager Tata Martino is how to get the most out of Lionel Messi, something he was notably unable to do during his sole season in charge of Barcelona in 2013/4, which resulted in the Nou Camp club failing to win a single trophy for the first time since 2008.

Having Messi in your team is obviously an enormous blessing for any manager because he is capable of winning games single-handedly.

But it is also something of a curse, in the nicest way, because his mere presence encourages a belief that he can relied upon to do too much. Messi is so good that the structure of the team can suffer, with the needs of the collective unit in danger of playing second fiddle to servicing Messi alone.

In that way, an ineffective, inefficient team can emerge, relying too heavily upon Messi to do everything by himself and failing to function properly on the occasions when his magic remains subdued, whilst also giving other players insufficient opportunity to make their mark — something which definitely happened when Martino managed Messi at club level.

Against Uruguay in midweek, Martino attempted to answer the riddle of exploiting Messi’s talents within a coherent team structure by lining him up in a three-man attacking midfield with Javier Pastore and Angel Di Maria.

On paper, it was a 4-2-3-1 formation with Sergio Aguero leading the forward line, but in the opening stages it was a very odd tactical shape indeed, with Messi, Di Maria and Pastore all operating in similar positions through the middle, leaving no width in midfield and few passing options for the man on the ball.

Messi, in particular, was barely involved at first and hardly touched the ball at all during the opening ten minutes, instead loitering rather aimlessly around the halfway line while Pastore and Di Maria carried the team’s attacking threat.

Before long, however, Argentine reverted to the shape that had been expected from the outset, with Di Maria on the left wing, Pastore in the middle and Messi in the right-sided position he has made his own with great success for Barcelona in the last six months.

And that more conventional line-up made an immediate difference. Argentine now looked far more coherent and started to put the Uruguay defence under sustained pressure, with passes from Messi, drifting inside from the right wing, creating chances for both Pastore and Aguero.

Although half-time arrived with the deadlock intact, Argentine were consistently dangerous and they went ahead in the second half as the influential Pastore found overlapping right-back Pablo Zabaleta whose near-post cross was neatly converted by Aguero for a Manchester City one-two punch.

Naturally, the game opened up from that moment with Uruguay forced to adopt a far more attacking approach and consequently leaving the kind of space in midfield which Argentina’s forward players were ideally suited to exploit.

Argentina‘s Lionel Messi stands during a training session in La Serena, Chile, June 19, 2015. — Reuters pic

Messi nearly scored on a couple of occasions and Di Maria’s running from midfield was a constant threat, but they couldn’t find their way past outstanding Uruguay keeper Fernando Muslera for a second time and had to settle for a valuable 1-0 win.

Although it was encouraging, Argentina were far from perfect and they need to significantly improve before they can be truly confident of lifting the trophy.

In particular, they are defensively vulnerable — partly because of Messi’s unwillingness to track back — and they were slightly lucky to overcome Uruguay after Diego Rolan missed a great chance from close range and Abel Hernandez had a powerful shot saved in the last minute.

There are also concerns over Martino, whose management of the group opener against Paraguay was heavily criticised and who then started his team in a very strange manner against Uruguay.

But it does appears they are slowly finding their feet, with the midfield trio of Messi, Di Maria and the excellent Pastore, who could prove to be their ace in the pack, starting to form a promising combination — especially with the brilliant finishing of Aguero available to poach any openings they create.

Their final group game comes against Jamaica tonight, providing another opportunity to develop more cohesiveness against lightweight opposition who should leave more space than Uruguay. If they can build upon Tuesday’s promising beginnings, don’t be surprised if they go all the way.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.