Lionel Messi defends Neymar over Leganes game criticism

Messi always has his back!

Neymar always seems to have the backing of Lionel Messi no matter what happens at Barcelona. The Brazilian superstar has made a great start to his season in La Liga and the Champions League but is still facing flak from critics and the public.

The Brazilian has been questioned by many over his recent antics on the pitch and also his showboating which some deem to be excessive or not the Barca way of doing things. But Messi has come out to defend the star.

According to Marca, the Argentine spoke to a Brazilian Documentary team about the player saying, “ [Neymar] is a very cheerful guy, he has no evil, he adapted very quickly to [Barcelona] for the kind of person he is, coming very young but he's an amazing person.”

Neymar had a small scuffle with Rafinha in the game against Leganes on Saturday. The trickster argued with the referee over a decision and could have been sent off before his Brazilian teammate intervened.

Neymar though decided to turn a blind eye to what he was trying to say to him after pulling him away.This matter as reported by Sport was a small one and had no backlash or consequence in the dressing room.

Neymar has a very flamboyant style of play and likes to perform several tricks and flicks on the pitch which some have deemed unnecessary and too elaborate. Some of these Samba skills don’t come off and that can frustrate the fans when the team are on the attack.

Barcelona will face their toughest test yet on Wednesday night against Atletico Madrid in La Liga. The Catalans have a had a slight wobble in their opening few games of the campaign with the loss against newly promoted Alaves at Camp Nou coming as a shock to many.

But since then, they have scored 12 goals in two games with Messi Neymar and Suarez all getting on the scoresheet. The three are set to start in the big match on Wednesday night and will have to bring their A game to get past a tough Atleti defence.

Real Madrid are currently the league leaders after their perfect start to the campaign. Even without the likes of Ronaldo and Bale they were able to efficiently defeat an Espanyol side that put up a much better fight when compared to last season.

This year’s La Liga race could be the closest one yet!