With 'Messidependencia' at its peak, Barcelona are currently in a massive mess

Sooraj Kamath - Writer 07:00 28/05/2019
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  • Barcelona endured yet another disappointing end to a season after their dreams of claiming a third treble came crashing down in a matter of just 20 days.

    The Catalan giants sealed the league title – their eight in the last 11 years – but crashed out of the Champions League after being humiliated by Liverpool in the semi-finals and conceded the Copa del Rey title to Valencia after a shambolic display.

    Despite Lionel Messi delivering one of the best seasons of his career, Ernesto Valverde’s men managed to win just one major trophy. By their high standards and the statement they made with their signings, this season will be considered a failure for Barcelona.

    The Barcelona post-Pep Guardiola era has always been excessively reliant on Messi, but the degree of ‘Messidependencia’ always varied. This reliance has seemingly reached its maximum this season.

    We take a look at some of the indicators.

    The attack is all Mess(y)i

    The six-time Golden Boot winner has scored 36 goals and provided 13 assists in La Liga this term. Suarez is the only other player who has scored in double digits. That the Uruguayan has struck 21 goals serves as a smokescreen to the fact that he has been  dismal this season.

    Suarez has missed 31 big chances in the league alone, according to sofascoreand no other player in the league has missed more than 18. Clearly, any average striker could have churned up those numbers with Messi supplying from behind.

    Philippe Coutinho – given his hefty price tag – has turned out to be one of the worst signings of recent years. Quite often, the Brazilian has a negative influence in the attacking third and burdens the other players by providing them with additional defensive duties.

    Ousmane Dembele had a series of great games in November and December, but has been injured for the majority of the second half of the season. Malcom is sparingly used by Valverde and has hardly been provided with an opportunity to make a case for himself.

    Messi has been directly involved in 54.5 per cent of the goals the team has scored, despite sitting out for three weeks due to an injury. This says more about Barcelona’s incompetent attack than it does about the player.

    The midfield is all Mess(y)i

    Needless to say, Messi (13) is the top assist-provider in the league and the perhaps the only consistent creative outlet at Barcelona. On average, the Argentine registers 2.7 key-passes per game, while Suarez (1.4) and Dembele (1.6) are the only two players who even register more than half of what Messi does.

    Midfielders Ivan Rakitic, Arthur and Coutinho – who is tasked to contribute to the creativity despite playing on the wing – have collectively managed to produce approximately 1.9 key-passes per game. That all the midfielders put together have failed to produce the creativity of Messi is an unhealthy situation for the club.

    Furthermore, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner has created 34 big chances in La Liga this season. No other player in the league has managed more than half this number and no player from Barcelona’s midfield has managed even 23 per cent of this. Arturo Vidal (8) is the midfielder who has created most big chances, while undisputed starter Rakitic has managed just three.

    The seasonal heatmap of Messi further elucidates how he has been forced to carry the midfield by dropping deeper every season. Sergio Busquets – one of the game’s best defensive midfielders at his peak – produced a stinker of a season and this has forced the Argentine to drop even deeper to receive and carry the ball.

    The tactics are all Mess(y)i

    Stopping Messi is equivalent to stopping Barcelona.

    In the past, teams have tried several things to stop the Rosario man but none of them worked. Man-marking failed, because Messi is capable of coming out on top against any defender in a one-on-one situation. Cutting the supply lines has been futile as the 31-year-old is highly mobile in midfield and drops very deep to collect the ball.

    Jurgen Klopp successfully demonstrated how caging Messi with four other players could be the winning formula that the managers in La Liga have yearned for. The sad state of Barcelona’s midfield and attack allows the opposition to commit more than 2-3 players to Messi and still have the upper hand.

    Whether it has to do with Valverde’s tactical rigidity or plain incompetence of the rest of the players, this tactic has worked wonderfully when applied perfectly.

    While the number read spectacularly for Messi, it is a sign of deep-rooted problems for Barcelona that need to be prioritised.

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