With the news that Carlos Tevez’s knee injury picked up playing for Boca Juniors will rule him out of Argentina’s crucial World Cup qualifiers against Brazil and Colombia, Gerardo Martino has had to rethink his plans. Javier Pastore is also yet to train with the group in Ezeiza due to a muscular problem and so it would appear Argentina will opt for a narrow three-man midfield of Javier Mascherano, Lucas Biglia and Éver Banega behind a very familiar and experienced front three of Ángel Di María, Ezequiel Lavezzi and the returning Gonzalo Higuaín.

Argentina probable starting XI: Sergio Romero; Facundo Roncaglia, Nicolás Otamendi, Ramiro Funes Mori, Marcos Rojo; Lucas Biglia, Javier Mascherano, Éver Banega; Ángel Di María, Gonzalo Higuaín, Ezequiel Lavezzi

In spite of Lionel Messi’s absence, the Barcelona forward has still dominated the headlines with Martino having to find an alternative to the usual Messi-dependent attack and Brazilian defender David Luiz proclaiming: “Without Messi they are not the best.”

Luiz’s statement is not particularly controversial; no team would be the same without the best player on the planet but in his absence against Ecuador, Argentina looked worryingly rudderless. Martino described that performance as the worst in his time with the selección and speaking in his press conference today said: “It’s difficult to score when you don’t create like in the match against Ecuador.”

The balance between committing players forward without leaving the defence hopelessly exposed is something that has eluded Martino so far. The rumoured line-up for Brazil appears to have sufficient steel to combat Dunga’s rather physical approach but the question remains whether Higuaín will get enough support. Centrally that will look to fall on Banega and certainly he will find it impossible to have a more anonymous match than Pastore produced against Ecuador but it is a tall order, particularly when Dunga will almost certainly have two defensive midfield players protecting his defence.

Di María and Lavezzi will have a two-fold function, one which they have both done in the past under Alejandro Sabella. Get forward at pace on the break and support the striker, stretch the opposition defence keeping the full-backs occupied but remaining aware of their defensive duties. Martino has Marcos Rojo available again at left-back which is a boost after Emanuel Más’ poor showing but Facundo Roncaglia remains a source of worry. Argentina will need to protect their full-backs far better than they did in the defeat to Ecuador.

Martino summation that, “Brazil will wait for us and Colombia will attack us” is probably accurate but Argentina have shown on countless occasions that against teams that are willing to sit back and then break at speed, they are vulberable.