There's an easy trap every manager must avoid: Don't give your idea of play more importance than the players at your disposal. In other words, work with what you've got, don't work around it.

This trap explains the thoroughly predictable disaster of Argentina's World Cup campaign last year. Jorge Sampaoli is one of the most interesting coaches around, but his bold, high-press tactic requires quick defenders and a goalkeeper who is good with his feet. Argentina have neither, and the result was chaos.

Sampaoli was on a fat, long-term contract. To get rid of him, the Argentine football association were forced into making a big-money pay-off. The inexperienced Lionel Scaloni replaced Sampaoli on a long-term-caretaker basis because he had an attractive record in qualification. He was also relatively cheap.

Scaloni promptly fell into a similar trap to Sampaoli. He announced his bold strategy for Argentina: to build a team that was quick on the transitions, using two wingers and playing the ball swiftly into wide spaces. But there was a huge problem, which became apparent when Argentina's best player returned to international duty.

This idea does not fit Lionel Messi.

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One of the wingers would have to be sacrificed, destroying the overall plan. Scaloni was aware of this. When Messi came back to the fold for a friendly against Venezuela in March, the coach tweaked his system. He played three centre-backs, allowing him to have two attacking wing-backs who would supply the width. The problem was that Argentina's three centre-backs were unable to defend against the strength of Salomon Rondon and the pace of the Venezuelan wingers.

Scaloni returned to his original idea, one he knew would not work with Messi, and the outcome was the opening-day defeat against Colombia. Since then, under the pressure of a major tournament, he has been trying to dig himself out of a hole.

Messi & Co. are far from a polished, coherent outfit, but they're in the final eight of the Copa America and could yet come together and win it all. Lucas Uebel/Getty Images

The parts started to fit when Sergio Aguero replaced Roberto Pereyra at half-time in the second game against Paraguay. Argentina started to inch toward something more coherent, and this was repeated in the shape of the side that beat Qatar 2-0 and secured a place in the quarterfinals where they'll take on Venezuela (Friday, June 28, 3 p.m. ET, live on ESPN+).

Aguero plays up front with the young lion Lautaro Martinez, which means they have to put in a defensive shift. Leandro Paredes anchors the midfield, with the right-footed Rodrigo De Paul to his right and left-footed Giovani Lo Celso to his left, leaving Messi free to wander and combine with them. Instead of quick transitions to the flanks, Argentina are aiming to pass their way through the middle instead. There could be a lack of width -- either Messi or one of the strikers needs to move out wide at times -- but crucially, there is now a circuitry of passing. Messi has partners with whom to dialogue.

Of course, all of these changes are much easier to implement when the opponent is as obliging, as Qatar proved at the start of Sunday's match in Porto Alegre. The pressure on Argentina was instantly lifted when they were handed a bizarre early goal, with Martinez latching on to an appalling ball across his own penalty area by Al Rawi.