Argentine football legend Cesar Luis Menotti has warned that qualification for the 2018 World Cup will be no easy task for the nation without retired captain Lionel Messi.
The Barcelona star stepped down from the national team minutes after losing the 2016 Copa America final on penalties to Chile in June.
And Menotti, who took the Albiceleste to World Cup glory in 1978, said they would have to fight without their talisman to make Russia 2018.
"I don't think [Argentina will fail to qualify], five teams go through, but if Messi does not play, we do run the risk," 'El Flaco' explained to La Nacion.
"I would be already thinking about Qatar 2022 and bringing players through."
"Sometimes a World Cup can be won by accident. Argentina are going through something similar to Brazil, who play badly, but really badly, and have done since 1990. But they had great players, like Ronaldinho, Romario, Ronaldo, Bebeto, Rivaldo.
"Now those players aren't there and they have started to play with strategy, with fear, and when you play weighed down by obligations you cannot play at all. Now not even the players can save them.
"We have Messi... now without Messi the team are going to have to start really training."
Menotti also turned his eye on the two major international competitions of the summer, affirming that both the Copa and Euro 2016 left him disappointed.
"I didn't see players that wowed me in either tournament," he fired.
"I liked Ecuador at the Copa America, I don't know the Argentine who coaches them but he had the right idea. There is some recovery of Peru's historical football ideals, they have been reunited a little with what they used to be, but more individually than as a team.
"Brazil looked dreadful, just like England who lost with Iceland, I didn't even know it was a country, 330,000 inhabitants, it makes you wonder where they came from, I had never seen them play.
"I wasn't impressed with anything at the Euros, apart from the usual, the teams that always play well. The French play just f***ing around, the Belgians are like the Argentines - one Belgian will help you, two can save you, but three will get you sacked.
"They put a team of 11 brilliant players together, but as a unit they don't do anything. And those Portuguese fluked the win."
- Goal