If anyone lost sight of still how much work Gerardo Martino has to do with the national side after the ease of victory against Bolivia, Tuesday night’s draw with México served as a reminder. For much of the match, Argentina were lacklustre and disjointed in attack and were continually exposed in defence by a Mexican side, well drilled in counter-attacking football. With five minutes remaining and México leading 2-0 few could argue with the scoreline but the second half substitutions proved key in turning around the result as Sergio Agüero came off the bench to pull a goal back before chipping the ball onto the chest of Lionel Messi in the 89th minute for the Argentina captain to volley home an exquisite equaliser. La Albiceleste avoided defeat but Martino and his squad did little to ease the concerns of critical supporters.

Despite the over 80,000 strong crowd in Dallas being able to enjoy watching Lionel Messi from kickoff and Ángel Correa being given his full debut, there was little else from Martino’s starting eleven to excite Argentina supporters. The midfield three of Javier Mascherano, Fernando Gago and Éver Banega looked stagnant on paper and did little to contradict that view for three-quarters of the match. Unable to link with the attack quick enough and worringly also ill-equipped to stem wave after wave of brisk Mexican attacks, Mascherano’s place as Argentina’s number five has never looked under such scrutiny and Fernando Gago produced a performance that should signal the end of his international career.

Mexico had already threatened when Nicolás Otamendi brought down Raúl Jiménez and allowed Javier Hernández to put El Tri in front from the penalty spot and although Argentina had created chances of their own, it was sporadic and reliant on individual skill rather than fluid team movement.

The half-time break brought no change and so when Héctor Herrera smashed México two in front it was no surprise. Martino then opted to make changes and Matías Kranevitter, Sergio Agüero, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Roberto Pereyra were all introduced.

Almost immediately the substitutions made a difference aided by Mexico dropping deeper but more than anything, a goalkeeping howler by Moisés Muñoz. The keeper badly misjudged a harmless ball into the box and allowed Ezequiel Lavezzi to square the ball for Agüero to reduce the deficit.

Agüero proved against Bolivia how much he also assists the team and in the 89th minute, the Manchester City striker provived the pass for Lionel Messi to volley Argentina level. Messi’s 49th goal moved the Barcelona striker ever closer to Gabriel Batistuta’s goal scoring record and saved La Albiceleste’s blushes but did nothing to mask what was a very poor performance.

Martino may point to the awful pitch at the AT & T stadium or that it was not his strongest line-up but there are bigger questions to answer ahead of the World Cup qualifiers beginning next month. When several of those players that had to withdraw from his this squad through injury are back available, it will be very interesting to see who Martino selects for the opening two fixtures against Ecuador and Paraguay.

Argentina  2 – 2  México

Apologies for how long it has taken to get this up – was at a family funeral so have been offline