Nico Paz was brilliant for Argentina during their first match since Lionel Messi's retirement, in a 4-0 win over Bolivia on Wednesday. He played in Messi's position and scored one goal and assisted another in a really good showing. There are not many players who can take on such a big responsibility of filling in for Messi for their country, but as far as first games go, Paz had a really good match.
Besides the goal and the assist, he created three big chances, and had a passing accuracy of 89% – all in just 56 minutes. He was dribbling past players fairly easily and also had some really good first touches for Argentina.
During the World Cup, Paz barely played any minutes. He started one meaningless group game, when everything was already decided. Because of that, whatever he did was also not going to be given too much importance, because everyone knew that when the difficult matches would start, Messi would take his place and Paz would rarely play.
Nico Paz is the perfect player to take Lionel Messi's position in the lineup
Now, despite the Bolivia match being a friendly, which also does not mean much, this was the first game since Messi's retirement, which holds a lot of value. Lionel Scaloni, Argentina's manager, would obviously be looking at players to put in that position on a regular basis. As far as first impressions go, Paz has made a pretty good one.
The former Real Madrid man was brilliant in that game, and hopefully he is able to start the next two games as well for his country, as Argentina play Burkina Faso and Benin in the coming days.
Even though Paz will probably not play the full 90 minutes, he would still want to have as many minutes as possible so that he can show the manager that he would not have to look any further for Messi's replacement.
It is very difficult to replace Messi, but the player who goes in for Messi has to be good enough to create and score a good amount of goals, and Paz is showing up in that aspect remarkably well. It is also worth noting that he has started the season with Como really well, as he's playing some brilliant football under Cesc Fabregas.
A part of me wanted Paz to return to Madrid this season because his quality is unmatched, and him being able to play so maturely for a player that young is really important. His physicality and defensive work rate are also really good, which is why he would have been a great player to have in the first team.
Be that as it may, he will keep performing well for Como, which is more important now. Hopefully, he becomes Argentina's new number 10 as soon as possible because there is no better player in that country to be put in that role than Nico Paz.
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