Lionel Messi needs no introduction anywhere in the world. The 31-year-old has raised the bar high throughout his career, and he alongside Ronaldo dominated the footballing landscape, setting numerous goalscoring records along the way.
With 5 European Golden Boots to his name, the Argentine leads the way for most numbers won in the history of the game. He also holds the record for highest number of goals scored in a single calendar year, with his 91 goals in 2012 breaking Gerd Muller’s long-standing record.
The Barcelona forward also holds the record for most goals in a single league campaign, with 50 goals in 2012. Messi was the pichichi winner with his 34 goals last season, and that was enough to guide Barcelona to the league title and win him LaLiga’s Golden Boot for the fifth time in his career.
His withdrawn role
Lionel Messi is undoubtedly one of the greatest goalscorers in history. His supreme passing abilities also means he can function as a premier playmaker, with his uncanny ability to pick out teammates with pinpoint passes proving crucial to most of Barcelona’s goals.
Messi’s evolution in his game has seen him deployed in a deep position to influence proceedings from midfield. His proficiency in wriggling out of tight spaces to create opportunities for himself and teammates means he excels in this position, as he can hurt oppositions with his defence-splitting passes or by running into space himself.
His quest for European redemption
While Barcelona have undoubtedly been the most dominant team in LaLiga in recent years, they have foundered on the continent. They have been eliminated at the quarter-final stage of the UCL in each of the last three seasons.
What makes their European woes more disheartening for the Blaugrana is the fact that each of those Champions League campaigns were won by their arch-rivals Real Madrid, with the Spanish capital club becoming the first team to retain the UCL in its current format in 2017, and going one further by making it three in a row after their 3-1 victory over Liverpool in Kyiv in May.
Barcelona’s pragmatic midfield
Once upon a time, the Barcelona midfield was the envy of all other clubs, boasting some of the finest midfielders to ever grace a football pitch. The Blaugrana had within its ranks players such as Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, Deco and Thiago Alcantara, which made sure Barcelona was not short on quality in the middle of the park.
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However, after the departure of those golden midfielders, the acquisitions by the club in recent seasons has seen a departure from the prior focus on creative technique to a more direct approach, with the signings of Paulinho and later Arturo Vidal indicators of that.