Messi out of excuses, but not time

The 3-0 dismantling by Croatia now leaves Argentina on the brink of elimination from the World Cup, but unlike the previous two World Cups when Lionel Messi was a shining light, the five-time Ballon d'Or winner must shoulder most of the blame for this debacle.

In South Africa in 2010, the Ballon d'Or holder performed admirably but was let down by his team. The same story repeated itself in a heartbreak in the final of the 2014 World Cup. However, the underwhelming campaign this time around is largely down to Messi.

When his country needed him the most, Messi turned in a passive and largely disengaged performance in which he was often left looking at the ground after having the ball snatched off his feet by a swarm of hungry Croats.

In fact, it was he who put Argentina in such a perilous position by missing a penalty against Iceland in an eventual 1-1 draw.

Still, a win against Croatia would have flipped the script and made Argentina's passage to the next round that much easier. Messi was the one who could, and most will say should, have made that happen.

Instead he registered a solitary shot on goal, that too in the 64th minute of the match.

As Messi walked off the pitch at half time, he wiped an undeserved bead of sweat from his forehead -- undeserved because he had less touches (20) than Argentina goalkeeper William Caballero (22) up to that point.

The most creative force in the world looked to have become devoid of ideas. Having mustered 10 shots on target against Iceland from in and around the box, Messi continuously parked himself outside Croatia's penalty area hoping to get off a strike, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Croatia's midfield and defence would not allow him the chances Iceland had. When he tired of that he went to the middle of the pitch and attempted to pick up the ball, trying to muster some magic and dribble past the entire Croatian team.

And his attitude was not much better.

Although he has never been a vocal leader, Messi tends to lead by example on the pitch instead of rallying the team and lifting their spirit with words. However, there was not much inspiration to be had from the way he trudged his body around the field listlessly, almost disinterestedly.

Of course there is no way to blame a single person for a collective failure. The coach and the rest of the team have to figure out where things are going wrong and rectify them fast ahead of their crunch encounter against Nigeria.

But if a player does not perform in a system built completely around him, then he needs to either take a look at himself or speak to the coach and adjust the system. From what we have seen of Argentina in their qualifying campaign and since, there is no indication that the 'pass to Messi and pray' system has changed.

The one silver lining for the 30-year-old is that there is still time for redemption. Argentina can still make it out of the group provided results go their way and, with one game remaining in the group stage, Messi must take the reins as he did when he scored a hattrick in the final match of Argentina's qualifying campaign to seal their berth.