Do Barcelona have to win the Champions League for Lionel Messi to stay at the Camp Nou?
Barcelona look like a spent force, and nothing much can be changed in the short-term. Amidst unrest between players and management, and with a spineless board unable to put a lid on the unsavoury proceedings of the past few days, it seems unlikely that they will win any silverware this season.
In a club like Barcelona, where to win just the league is not considered to be a success, going without a trophy all season is akin to a tragedy. The coach knows that he will be fired sooner rather than later, and so do the players.
Perhaps even more worryingly, Messi’s club career is taking a similar trajectory to his national career. In both these stars-studded outfits, Messi’s other illustrious colleagues have failed, and continue to fail, to perform adequately.
But against Villarreal, Barcelona looked like their former self, with the forward players finally beginning to combine well. Overall, the team looked happier, as if a weight had been lifted off their shoulders. Perhaps the stark realisation that Real Madrid would now become the league champions has forced the players rethink their approach to matches.
It seems now that the focus is not to win the league, or regain top spot, but to find the right combinations and prepare for the UEFA Champions league in August. The Camp Nou outfit has not won the continental prize for five years now, and failure to do so again this season could really mean the departure of the club's best-ever player.
However, Barcelona’s entertaining performance against Villarreal should not distract us from the fact that this current team is becoming more and more reliant on the Argentine genius. Of course, ever since Ernesto Valverde took charge in 2017, and the departure of Neymar the same year, Messi has been the focal point of all attacking moves. But during the team’s last few performances, Barcelona has eerily resembled the Argentina national team.
The common theme in Argentina, until the arrival of manger Lionel Scaloni, was that Messi had to be the creator and often even the finisher. Every time the others ran out of ideas, the onus fell on Messi. In fact, managers before Scaloni, such as Jorge Sampaoli, could not even decide Argentina's most suitable formation.
The strategy seemed simple enough – pass the ball to Messi and expect him to conjure some magic. There was hardly any movement from his other teammates. For the last seven games since the return of football, much the same has been seen at Barcelona.
Messi’s La Liga contribution since the restart
Barcelona have actually resembled the Argentina national team for the last seven games. They have been over-dependent on Messi to create chances for them, and have even leaked goals at the back.
The Blaugrana have conceded five goals in the last seven games, and consecutive draws against Celta Vigo and Atletico Madrid have evaporated their title hopes for the season.
Irrespective of the facts that Antoine Griezmann looked much sharper against Villarreal and even scored an astonishing chipped goal, that was only his first goal since the post-pandemic restart and the first since 15 February 2020.
Messi has been the only difference for Barcelona in recent matches. Let us now look at his statistics in the last seven matches since the restart of Spanish football. Although looking at statistics is an obnoxious way to quantify the genius of Messi, one has to do it to justify his contribution from an objective, rational perspective.
Since the restart, Messi has provided an astonishing seven assists in seven matches. This includes the two assists in the last game against Villareal, two against Celta Vigo in which Barcelona dropped points, and one against Athletic Bilbao to Ivan Rakitic.
Against Sevilla, Messi could neither score or assist, and his teammates could not either. It seems that if Messi cannot find a solution, everything is doomed.
What is surprising, however, is that he has only scored on three occasions, a goal each against Atletico Madrid, Leganes, and RCD Mallorca. This tells us something very important.
Messi has to undertake the responsibility of creating chances for his teammates and goalscoring has to take a backseat. His assist stats since the restart would make even the greatest creative midfielders proud.
He also provided two assists in the game against Villarreal, leading to goals from Luis Suarez and Antoine Griezmann. He has now provided 319 assists throughout his career.
Messi’s La Liga contribution before the stoppage of football
The upcoming stats are more interesting.
Before the season was paused for the global pandemic outbreak, Lionel Messi had provided just twelve assists in twenty-two La Liga matches. But he did score nineteen times in the twenty-two games during the time.
This shows us that his goalscoring output has massively decreased because he focuses on creating chances much more than he did before. It is only thanks to his prolific goalscoring exploits before the hiatus in the footballing season that he still leads at the top for the Pichichi.
Messi’s Champions League dilemma
At 33 now, the Argentine legend has seen five years slip by him without the biggest prize in European club football – the UEFA Champions League. In spite of his resolved proclamations to the Blaugrana faithful to deliver the Champions League, his beloved Barcelona has fallen short. Recently, he has fallen out with the club’s hierarchy and has decided to put his contract talks in hold, prompting some to speculate about his potential departure from the club.
Some are even suggesting fantasy football lineups in which Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo could potentially play together at Juventus. For now, much of it is sensationalism and speculation, but we have seen unlikelier things happen in football.
Ronaldo’s move to Juventus itself created shockwaves throughout the world, and nobody envisaged that Arthur would one day play for Juventus.
With the chance to win La Liga almost gone, Messi has to win the Champions League this season, or else he could be tempted to seek the elusive blue-riband silverware of club football. In short, Barcelona could lose the greatest player in the club's history.
For that to happen though, Barcelona must shed their resemblance to the Argentina national team and start to play as a cohesive unit, like they did at the Cerámica against Villarreal.