Yes, there is a definite assumption that if a player is good enough he can make any team into the best in the world but it still needs the rest of the team to give him a platform to do it on. I think Argentina's problem is that their squad had the best set of attackers in the World Cup but almost no one behind it.



Well he could have picked Gago, Cambiasso or Banega. Even Zanetti can do a pretty good job there or playing at fullback and linking the defense up more than anyone there did.
He made the choice to leave all of them behind and anyone of them would have gone someway to bringing balance to the team that was completely missing.
After all of that though, even with the squad he picked, he could have done more than he seemed to, which was pick 5 players to defend and 5 to attack without worrying about who would link them up.



I think the thing with Germany is that though Friedrich and Mertesacker are pretty cumbersome Mertesacker seems to read the game really, really well and Lahm, like you say, is just top class and helps cover for them. Loew looks to have really worked out how he needs his team to play to cover up their weak spot and has got the players who are willing to work at it. Khedira in particular is exactly the type of player Argentina needed, I think he does a really good job of linking up play - keeps it simple but is always supporting.



I do favour Spain in it but I think they lack a Messi type player who can do something different against a defensive team - all their threat pretty much, apart from Ramos making glory runs from full back, is passing their way through teams and if a team keeps enough players back they can almost completely just fill all the gaps they'd pass through. I think a lot in that game will depend on how Germany play - if they play as the have been, I think they will leave themselves with gaps at the back that a good enough side can exploit... but they're pretty handy going forwards currently.