MSN is no more. The 'N' has gone and the 'S' is out of action for a while. Lionel Messi is on his own as Barcelona’s leading attacking talent, with Neymar now with Paris Saint-Germain and Luis Suarez sidelined for a month with a knee injury.
These losses may even work in Barcelona’s favour in the long-term. In recent times, even when the MSN forward line was firing on all cylinders, the old idea of the team - of collective pressing and passing - was being undermined. Without so much individual talent to paper over the cracks, new coach Enrique Valverde will be forced to focus on the blend of his side.
But from a Uruguayan point of view, there is no positive spin to be placed on the Suarez injury. It is an unmitigated disaster. He will miss two crunch rounds of World Cup qualifiers – the 15th and 16th in a total of 18 – which will do much to determine who goes to Russia next year, and who has to watch the tournament on television.
True, Uruguay have been without Suarez before in this marathon campaign. Biting Giorgio Chiellini in Brazil 2014 meant he was still suspended for the first four rounds, back in 2015. Uruguay got off to an excellent start, with three wins and a narrow 2-1 defeat away to Ecuador at the altitude of Quito.
But that was then – when Uruguay were defending well. An essentially cautious game plan – Uruguay are usually resigned to the reality of the opponent having more possession – requires a solid defensive unit. But the wheels are coming off. In the last five rounds (a draw and a win followed by three defeats) Uruguay have conceded 12 goals. And they added two more defeats, and six more goals conceded, in friendlies played in Europe last June. Suarez missed both of those matches and was suspended for the World Cup qualifier at home to Brazil last March, where Uruguay took the lead only to be thrashed 4-1.
Once looking comfortable in the qualification table, Uruguay are now anxiously looking over their shoulders. They lie third – the top four go through automatically, with the side finishing fifth entering a play-off. Worryingly, Uruguay are only three points ahead of the team in sixth place. The field is bunching up as the finish line approaches. On 5 September Uruguay travel to Paraguay, down in eighth place but only four points off the play-off spot. It is a game, then, that the Paraguayans must win. And before that, on 31 August, comes the undoubted big one: the visit of Argentina.
Down in fifth place, Argentina are also in dire straits. A total of 15 goals scored in 14 rounds tells its own story – even bottom-of-the-table Venezuela have scored more. Argentina have not looked anything like a team, but there is hope that their third coach of the campaign will put that right. Little Jorge Sampaoli has an excellent track record, taking the Chilean national team to unprecedented heights before enjoying a fine season with Sevilla. He has now been seduced to take charge of the land of his birth, and there were plenty of promising signs in his first matches back in June, friendlies that brought victories over Brazil and Singapore.
His teams love playing on the front foot, taking the initiative and squeezing the opposition back into their own half of the field. Applied to Argentina, though, this leaves one giant question mark – how will they defend?
Argentina are blessed in terms of attacking resources. Gonzalo Higuain has been left out of a squad that has Sergio Aguero and Mauro Icardi vying for the centre-forward position, and Paulo Dybala and Angel Di Maria anxious to line up alongside Messi.
But at the other end of the field, it is a different story. Sergio Romero is Argentina’s most-capped goalkeeper. But he has been a reserve at most of the clubs he has played for. And the centre-back resources are so depleted that there is a place in the squad for Federico Fazio, who looked out of his depth with Tottenham in the Premier League. It would seem that Javier Mascherano is going to be used in defence – which has never happened before for Argentina.
Sampaoli, of course, had great success using little Gary Medel as a centre back for Chile. But his problem now is that he has so little time on the training ground to drill his new defence – and even with time at his disposal, the high line he favours has an element of risk bearing in mind Argentina’s lack of defensive pace. It leaves a lot of space behind them.
It is a situation that would be tailor-made for Suarez. The Uruguayan No.9 is probably the best striker in the world at hanging on the shoulder of the last defender, and his presence on the field in Montevideo next week would surely have given Sampaoli nightmares.
But now he has been ruled out. Edinson Cavani – no slouch himself – will lead the Uruguay attack in his place. Cristhian Stuani, off to a fine start with Girona, may be the man chosen to support him, and his ability to time his runs in behind the defensive line could be important. But Uruguay would much rather have their all-time top scorer, Suarez, out there on the pitch for what promises to be an explosive 90 minutes in Montevideo.
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