Numbers behind Barcelona forward Lionel Messi's extraordinary season

If words can’t describe the little man, there’s not much that numbers can do. Nevertheless, here we attempt to graph his genius, comparing him to the best playmakers and goal-scorers in the world.

Arguably the most complete player of this generation, it comes as no surprise that Messi fares well, although the margin is phenomenal and just not normal.

Data is collected from understat.com and whoscored.com and updated to all league games until March 18. Champions League numbers are not considered, given some of the players in the comparison don’t play in the competition. However, it’s worth noting that Messi’s Champions League stats are superior to his league stats.

The first graphic graphs the playmaking abilities of some of the best in the top five leagues this season. The x-axis displays the number of key passes per 90 minutes and hence compares the players’ creativity quantitatively.

The y-axis shows the xA (expected assists) per 90 minutes and hence signifies the quality of chances produced by the player. A higher xA points to the fact that the player has played more passes which is likely to earn him an assist.

James Rodriguez has been a crucial element in Bayern Munich’s chase of Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga this season. Apart from the Colombian, no player is even close to Messi in terms of quality and quantity of decisive passes.

It’s not surprising that Manchester City duo Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva, and Chelsea’s Eden Hazard are among those who are leading the cluster that has been left behind by the Argentine. Paul Pogba has had a good stretch under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, but his disastrous record under Jose Mourinho leaves him in the third quadrant here.

Clearly, Messi is the best playmaker in the world and by a huge margin. The five-time Ballon d’Or winner has blown the best schemers in the world out of the water at a time when his position – as recorded on the score-sheet – suggests he is a forward.

Next, we compare his prolificacy in front of goal with some of the forwards who find themselves near the top of the goal-scoring and assist charts.

The x-axis displays the G/xG (goals/expected goals) ratio of the players. A high value here means that player has done justice to the chances he has been provided with, given the quality of those. A ratio of more than one means that the player has over-performed and vice versa.

Clearly, among the top attackers Messi has been the most prolific. Edinson Cavani and Fabio Quagliarella are close, but still way off from threatening Messi’s position as the best.

The likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Luis Suarez have managed to net 19 and 18 goals respectively, but they have also been serviced luxuriously and should have had more goals, going by the quality of chances they have been presented with.

It’s not surprising that the Uruguayan’s numbers don’t read well. Messi has been extremely generous with his playmaking and Suarez has clearly not capitalised on it.

The y-axis simply contains the information of direct goal involvements (goals+assists) for every 90 minutes. Yet again, the Argentine remains unrivaled. At the age of 31, the La Masia graduate is leading the charts for most goals and most assists.

He has had to share the honours for the latter with Jadon Sancho, who has 12 assists. But his numbers of 41 direct involvements this season is unlikely to be overshadowed by any player. Kylian Mbappe – who comes close – is off by a massive margin of nine goals.

At this point, it’s almost objective that the Argentine is arguably the best playmaker, the best goal-scorer and hence the most complete player in the world.

It’s incredible that he is doing this at the age of 31. It’s an incredible achievement to stay on top of your game at the age of 33-34, like Luka Modric and Cristiano Ronaldo have. But to come off as arguably the most complete player in the world at 31 is plain impressive.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to claim that this could probably be considered Messi’s best season ever. The Argentine has at least 38 goal involvements in every season in the last decade. Statistically, his worst season could pass off as a career highlight for an average player.

His goal-scoring abilities peaked in 2012 when he scored 91 goals in a year across all competitions. It’s not surprising that the 2011/12 and 2012/13 seasons stand out on the far end of our x-axis which represents the forward’s goal involvements in the last decade.

It was only in the post-Guardiola era that he started dropping deep and creating chances. So, you can find that the latter seasons are perched higher in the y-axis which measure the amount of key-passes he has delivered every season.

The 2014/15 campaign was one of his best seasons in recent times. He was able to score and provide, hence playing a crucial role in Barcelona’s second treble.

But this season, he has outdone himself. Statistically, this is the best season for Messi – the play-maker. The Argentine is now delivering 3.1 key-passes every 90 minutes, to compensate for the lack of creativity in the team.

Also, he’s the leading goal-scorer in the top five leagues, scoring at the rate superior to any of his past seasons bar the two during which he went completely berserk.

Overall, this has to be Messi’s best season and should Barcelona claim a treble, it could go down as arguably the best individual season in history of the sport.

The stats have done their job, but it still falls short off explaining some of the things the eyes have witnessed the Argentine perform in the past year or even the past decade.

While the little man continues to awe the fans of the beautiful game by pulling out something new from his magic hat every week and discovering dimensions of the sport that we didn’t know existed, all we can do is bow down, applaud and thank the gods for placing us in the same era as Messi.