Football: Argentina run big risk with reliance on Messi

Vincent Kompany will find Messi hard to contain.

So it is developing into a World Cup about individuals. Lionel Messi and Neymar have put their countries a couple of games away from a final.

It will not be easy for the Belgium players who will be trying to deal with Messi in their quarter-final tomorrow because Axel Witsel, Marouane Fellaini, Vincent Kompany and Daniel van Buyten are tall players and it will be hard for them, with that physique, trying to halt him. Messi will not cope with their physicality but players built like that will find it difficult to stop him and all his mobility.

There is too much dependency by Argentina on Messi and it is very risky. When you are managing a player as good as that, of course you do things to get the best out of him. But you can never know he will always be able to do things.

If there was a player who we knew would be able to reach the level every time he walks on to the field then he would be very special. It's why we love football. Things are unpredictable. Problems and challenges are created for us to cope with.

Some of the other players in the Argentina team - who have not been playing with pace or continuity - must correct that and show the level.

The problem for Belgium is how to control Messi and contain him. When my Liverpool team played against him it was still early days for him.

Barcelona used him on the right wing when we played against them in the Champions League in 2007. He was depending on his natural left foot, dribbling and going inside against Alvaro Arbeloa. Alvaro is right-footed and he was able to do a good job.

But I remember Manchester United in the Champions League final against Barcelona in 2011 working to close Messi down in the central areas. The problem was Barcelona had Dani Alves working wide and David Villa going up with the United left-back.

Messi always looks to go away from the game and come back in. If you have one or two players on him all the time - like Switzerland did on Wednesday - there can be new spaces opening up. The opponents lose focus on those spaces.

And that's why they need the other players, with quick legs, to come in and work with Messi. He is at his best when other players are around him, working off him. It is not the best way to make him do it on his own.

- Independent