Banega is a number 10. Mascherano is the one midfielder better than Meireles. Lo Celso is an attacking midfielder and isn't actually better than Meireles. Riquelme was past it when he overlapped with Messi and was an attacking midfielder,
Lucho Gonzalez was never as good as Meireles, Cambiasso is a good shout and the one I forgot, Pablo Aimar was a 10, Fernando Gago was nowhere near as good as Meireles, Veron was past it when Messi came into the team, Pastore is a 10, Enzo Perez was nowhere close to Meireles. Di Maria isn't a central midfielder either.
All you've done is proven my point. Argentina have had an absurd number of attacking midfielders, strikers, and wingers and no one who can complete a functional midfield to the point where Raul Meireles would be the 3rd best midfielder Messi had ever played with in an Argentinian shirt.
Also, it's hilarious that you list 3 top class Argentinian attackers, 2 of whom play the same position. That's exactly the point. Messi, Tevez, Di Maria, Higuain, Dybala, Lisandro Lopez, etc. All these players play in the front 3. Then when you add in the ludicrous plethora of attacking mdifielders you can see how top heavy the Argentina squad has been for the past decade and a half. You listed 10 supposed central midfielders and 6 of them don't even qualify
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Obviously the Portuguese FA isn't made up of saints but the point is that arguing they're at all comparable to the Argentinian FA where half the players had to go on strike to force them to get their shit together is disingenuous at best. Stop strawmanning; no one is trying to say one FA is blameless.
Go ahead and list the top class Argentinian players from their back 5/6 who underachieved and were better than Meireles. I'll wait.
