Jamie Carragher Says England Can Exploit Lionel Messi’s Defensive Frailties in World Cup Semi-Final

Jamie Carragher believes England can turn the tables on Lionel Messi in Wednesday’s World Cup semi-final, arguing that Thomas Tuchel’s side should think as much about exploiting the Argentina captain as they do about stopping him.

Messi, 39, has been the outstanding individual performer of the tournament, scoring eight goals and adding two assists as he chases a second consecutive World Cup with Argentina. He tops the tournament’s rankings for chances created and big chances created, sits joint-top for chances created from set plays, leads for through-balls, and has attempted 16 shots from outside the penalty box, five more than any other player at the tournament.

“It’s Nothing New With Messi”

Carragher, speaking to Sky Sports, said stopping a player of that quality requires acceptance rather than panic. “It’s nothing new with Messi. He’s been around for 20 years and no one has found the answer,” he said. “There has to be a plan. I don’t think it will be a man-marking job, but they need a plan. The players will be expecting that. It’s not admitting defeat in any way. You’re coming up against arguably the greatest player of all time. He’s shown that in this tournament too.”

But Carragher’s central point was about opportunity rather than containment. “They should be thinking about how they can exploit Lionel Messi as well. He walks about when the opposition have got the ball, so that doesn’t mean England’s left-back should stand next to him for the whole of the game,” he said. “They can exploit the fact that Argentina only defend with nine outfield players.”

He extended that logic to Argentina’s full-backs. “Their full-backs like to go high and wide, but they don’t really play with wingers, so maybe that’s something we can exploit,” Carragher said. “I’m hoping that it’s a different type of game than what we’ve seen from the majority of England games throughout this competition. I still don’t think England have been anywhere near the best performance-wise.”

Carragher pointed to England’s opening match as a template for how the semi-final might unfold. “I don’t think there’s too much between the teams. I’m hoping that this game has got elements of the Croatia game in it, where you’re playing against a side who fancy themselves as a good team,” he said. “I certainly don’t think they’ll be getting everybody behind the ball. They’ll try to tackle us, and will that leave space for ourselves to attack?”

England beat Croatia 4-2 in their opening group game at Dallas Stadium in June, with Harry Kane scoring twice and further goals from Bellingham and Marcus Rashford. Carragher’s comparison suggests he expects Argentina to take an equally open approach in Atlanta rather than sitting everyone behind the ball for the full 90 minutes.

Messi’s Own Words

For Messi, Wednesday will be a first. In more than two decades of senior football, spanning 206 caps for Argentina, he has never played against England. “It has never happened to me against England,” he said. “It is the first time so it is going to be a special match.”

His scoring record at this World Cup follows a clear pattern. A hat-trick in the opening group game against Algeria set the tone, and he found the net in each of the next four matches too. The one exception came against Switzerland in the quarter-final, when he went without a goal for the first time in the tournament, a blank that Julian Alvarez’s late strike covered for.

Reflecting on Argentina’s route through the knockout stages, which has demanded extra time against Cape Verde, Egypt and Switzerland, Messi acknowledged the toll the tournament has taken. “We have come here through a lot of effort, playing a long game again,” he said after the win over Switzerland. “And, well, sometimes it shows.”

That quarter-final against Switzerland needed a moment of individual brilliance to settle it. Julian Alvarez struck a 25-yard effort into the top corner in extra time to complete a 3-1 win over 10-man Switzerland and send Argentina through to face England. It followed an even more dramatic last-16 win over Egypt, in which Lautaro Martinez set up Enzo Fernandez for a 93rd-minute winner as Argentina came from two goals down to win 3-2. Messi’s own numbers lead the tournament, but Argentina’s run to Atlanta has been built on contributions from across the squad, not on one man alone.

England have their own scoring threat to lean on. Harry Kane’s brace against DR Congo in the last 32 took his career World Cup goal tally above Pele’s total of 13, and his six goals so far this summer sit level with Bellingham for the tournament’s England scoring lead, one behind Messi and Mbappe’s shared mark of eight.

Messi is no longer the player who controls every phase of a match by himself. He has found space by drifting to the right wing when Argentina’s build-up gets crowded through the middle, a pattern he showed against both Egypt and Switzerland, and one England’s left side is expected to be tested against on Wednesday.

Carragher Defends Tuchel Amid Bellingham Comments

Carragher also used his Sky Sports appearance to address the mood inside the England camp after Tuchel’s pointed post-match assessment of the Norway win, in which the manager said his side had made “life very, very difficult” for themselves. Jude Bellingham’s response to the criticism, a curt “Whatever, whatever,” led to suggestions of tension between player and manager.

Carragher dismissed that reading. “I didn’t think there was anything wrong at all with Tuchel’s comments,” he said. “He’s probably a little bit emotional after the game. England didn’t play particularly well and could have easily lost that game against Norway. I totally understand Tuchel. We know what he was like at Chelsea. That’s one of his plus points. He tells you straight.”

He extended the same understanding to Bellingham. “Jude, again, he’s emotional after the game. He’s just scored a couple of goals, and then he’s realised how hard it was on the pitch, and the conditions as well. I could understand that, but Thomas Tuchel will be absolutely fine with that.”

Carragher cast Tuchel’s bluntness as an asset rather than a liability heading into the biggest match of the tournament. “In a World Cup, a manager’s got to be decisive. He’s got to make big decisions, he’s got to tell people straight. You can’t wait. Things need to happen right away. I thought the interview from the manager was brilliant.”

The Saka Question

With Declan Rice fit again and Reece James available after coming on against Norway, Carragher believes Tuchel’s remaining selection dilemma centres on the right flank, where Noni Madueke has started four times this summer against three appearances for his Arsenal teammate Bukayo Saka.

Saka’s struggle has centred on an Achilles injury that affected him for the closing two months of Arsenal’s Premier League-winning season and carried into the World Cup. Tuchel said Saka was unlikely to start until the final group game against Panama, and it was only in that match that Saka made his first start of the tournament. Tuchel more recently described him as increasingly free in his movements and pain-free, but Carragher wants him picked regardless of the caution around his recovery.

“I think Madueke’s had a lot of chances in this tournament,” he said. “It hasn’t quite happened for him. Saka certainly hasn’t been at his best, but as we know, he’s not 100 per cent fit. I’m just hoping with each minute or longer he’s on the pitch and other appearances, we start to see a little bit of what we know of Bukayo Saka.”

Carragher’s argument was that a semi-final is exactly the moment to gamble on quality returning to form. “These are the games you take a chance in. If he’s right, or you think you can get something from him, you’ve got to pick him. There’s no worrying about what comes after that. I know it’s a World Cup final after that, but this game is too important.”

Both semi-finalists arrive in Atlanta having needed extra time to get there. England required 120 minutes to beat Norway, and Argentina needed the same against Switzerland in their quarter-final, a 3-1 win completed only after Julian Alvarez’s late strike settled a tie that had been level with 10 men on the pitch for Switzerland. Neither side, in other words, is walking into the semi-final fresh, and both camps have spent the two days that followed managing recovery as much as preparing tactics.

Whether Tuchel follows Carragher’s advice will become clear when England name their team to face Argentina at Atlanta Stadium. Kickoff is set for 8pm BST on Wednesday, with the winner advancing to Sunday’s final. What is not in doubt, on Carragher’s reading at least, is that a team built around stopping the best player of the tournament also has openings of its own to attack, and that England go into Atlanta with more than one route to a first World Cup final in six decades.

WRITTEN BY

Jarrod

Jarrod Partridge is the Founder of Futbol Chronicle and an accredited journalist with over 30 years of experience following international football. A member of the AIPS International Sports Press Association, Jarrod has covered matches at stadiums around the world, bringing first-hand insight to every match report, player profile, and tactical analysis he writes.

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