Jamie Carragher tells England to ‘exploit’ Argentina star in World Cup semi-final

England need to have a ‘plan’ in place to stop Lionel Messi but the Argentina superstar’s defensive frailties can be ‘exploited’ in the World semi-final.

That’s according to former England international Jamie Carragher, who believes Messi’s tendency to ‘walk about’ can leave Argentina vulnerable when out of possession.

The holders have battled their way to the semi-finals once again, four years on from their famous victory in Qatar, and Messi has been instrumental for Lionel Scaoni’s side, racking up eight goals and two assists across an incredible campaign at the age of 39.

The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner will be looking to boost those extraordinary numbers further still in Atlanta, where a clash against one of Spain or France – the 2022 runners-up – is at stake.

In Argentina’s nervy quarter-final win over Switzerland last time out, Messi suffered a blow to the eye in a heavy collision with Granit Xhaka, but brushed off the knock and will no doubt be raring to go against the Three Lions.

Leandro Paredes and Cristian Romero have also been passed fit to feature versus Thomas Tuchel’s men after being forced off early in Sunday’s marathon meeting with the Swiss.

Previewing the heavyweight semi-final on Sky Sports, Carragher suggested Argentina’s quality in goal and at centre-back gives the defending champions a ‘slight advantage’ over England.

Asked to pick out the better team ‘man for man’, the ex-Liverpool defender replied: ‘I’d say Argentina just but there’s very, very, very little in it.

‘I think Argentina probably have the slight advantage in probably goalkeeper and centre-backs and the rest is much of a muchness really.

‘Argentina have obviously got world-class players in the attack and so have we, we have great midfield players and so have they. It’s almost like a Premier League battle in midfield. So probably Argentina just I would say.’

Much of the focus will of course be on Messi heading into Wednesday’s showdown – and Carragher hopes Tuchel has implemented a clear strategy with a view to minimising the ‘genius’ forward’s impact.

‘Listen, it’s nothing new with Messi. He’s been around for 20 years and no one has found the answer to stop him,’ he added.

‘You’re up against genius ut there has to be a plan. I don’t think it’ll be a man-marking job from the England squad but they will have to have a plan.

‘I think the players will be expecting that. It’s not admitting defeat in any way and the England players will be expecting something from Anthony Barry and Thomas Tuchel because you’re coming up against arguably the greatest player of all time. He’s shown that in this tournament as well.

‘England have to think about how they’re going to deal with him but also 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 just stand next to him for the whole game. You can exploit that.

‘Argentina only defend with nine outfield players whereas the majority of teams in world football now defend with ten outfield players, so that’s something England have got to look to exploit.’

In Jude Bellingham, Carragher believes England have a incredible attacking threat of their own, with the Real Madrid star scoring twice against Norway to drag his side into the final four.

‘It’s difficult to stop Jude Bellingham. He hasn’t been at the top of the game as long as Messi but he’s certainly been around a long time now and it is very difficult,’ Carragher said of the midfielder, who has notched six goals at this summer’s tournament.

‘I think he’s a completely different to Messi, who wants the ball to his feet, dribbling between the lines, whereas Bellingham is more powerful and making runs into the box and finishing.

‘He crashes the box constantly, his timing is fantastic and he always seems to finish so, again, that’s very difficult stop. No one can stop Jude Bellingham running into the box.

‘Whether they can pick him up, mark him a bit tighter within that box remains to be seen.

‘But listen, there’s great attacking players on both sides as there is in the other semi-final and that’s why these are the four best teams in the world.’

A pair of post-match interviews with Tuchel and Bellingham became a hot topic of conversation after England’s previous match, with the latter appearing unimpressed with his manager’s assessment of the performance.

Carragher saw nothing wrong with fiery back-and-forth, though, and believes Tuchel’s straight-talking is one of the German’s major ‘plus points’ as a head coach.

‘I didn’t think there was anything wrong at all with Thomas Tuchel’s comments. He’s probably a little bit emotional after the game, England didn’t play particularly well and could’ve easily lost that game against Norway,’ he explained.

‘There was a spell in extra-time where Martin Odegaard was starting to run the game, Norway hit the bar and you were thinking England were going to go out.

‘Again, it was a piece of magic from Jude Bellingham, so I totally understand Tuchel.

‘Also, we know Thomas Tuchel, he was like that at Chelsea. That’s one of his plus points. He tells you straight, we saw it with Djed Spence in this tournament.

‘A manager has to be decisive and make big decisions in a World Cup. You can’t wait, this only comes around every four years so things need to happen right away.

‘So I thought the interview from the manager was brilliant.’

Carragher feels much of the rivalry and history between the two nations will be lost on England’s current crop of players given the time that has passed since the Falklands War and Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal.

‘I always think international football is a bit different from club football in that we sort of know everybody’s rival in club football, everyone has three or four of them,’ he went on.

‘It’s a little bit different in international football and sometimes something sparks that rivalry.

‘Obviously we go back to the early 1980s, the Falklands War, Diego Maradona in 1986, but a lot of these players in the squad now… we’re talking 40 years ago or more so a lot of the players now, it’ll be difficult for them to remember what was going on in that day.

‘But when you think of England rivals then you naturally think of Scotland, Germany, for obvious reasons, and you also think of Argentina, so they’re our three rivals.

‘When you beat them it probably feels a bit sweeter and a little bit worse when you lose.’

For more stories like this, check our sport page.

Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.