Lionel Messi eased Barcelona to victory over Alaves as the Argentine grabbed two goals, and missed a penalty, to continue the Catalan club’s 100% start to the La Liga season.
Sport360’s James Piercy analyses the key talking points from Barca’s Saturday afternoon success in northern Spain.
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AS EXPECTED, EVERYTHING FLOWS THROUGH MESSI
Short of sidekicks Neymar and Luis Suarez, for vastly differing reasons, for the umtenth time in his career, Lionel Messi is expected to carry not just the vast majority but all of the attacking burden for Barcelona. The Argentine is obviously good enough to do so, especially against a side as limited as Alaves, but Messi’s involvement goes beyond just merely providing a constant presence in attack.
Andres Iniesta did offer some impetus in midfield but faded in the final 30 minutes and as a False Nine, Messi was often in catch and ferry mode as he’d drop into midfield – sometimes even alongside Sergio Busquets – and then turn and run at the Alaves defence or look to split a pass inside the full-backs. More often than not it was the former with Messi having 101 touches – most on the pitch – and an attempted seven dribbles – two more than the next most prolific, Iniesta.
Ultimately, what else is Ernesto Valverde supposed to do? Gerard Deulofeu and Aleix Vidal just aren’t of the required quality and operate mainly to stretch the field and allow extra space for Messi (more on that in a minute). Ousmane Dembele will need time to settle and who knows if Philippe Coutinho will arrive. For now, at least in the early days of this new era, fans will have to get used to a revisiting of the maligned Tata Martino model: give it to Messi and hope for the best.
Messi is part-director, lead actor and creative muse, but Barca will only go so far with this approach.
Who else but the Argentine with the goals for Barca.
MAYBE IT’S TIME MESSI STOPPED TAKING PENALTIES
Every superhero has their weakness and for a footballer of such otherworldly talents, it’s fitting in a way that the straightforward act of kicking the ball 12 yards past a static goalkeeper has proved Messi’s Kryptonite.
It was a fine save by Fernando Pacheco in denying the Barcelona forward in the 39th minute, flinging himself to his right and maintaining a strong pair of wrists to parry it around the post. The former Real Madrid keeper now has saved six of 16 La Liga penalties faced in La Liga, including denying both Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo and is giving Valencia’s Diego Alves some competition in terms of who penalty-takers least want to see when they’re standing over the ball.
But that’s getting away from the fact that Messi should still be scoring. Almost every time. At least significantly better than his strike rate of 74 per cent (76 scored from 96 taken for club and country) which, if it were any other player not called Cristiano Ronaldo, would almost certainly see them demoted from spot-kicking duties. Maybe Barca don’t have a better option, especially without Suarez there, but this isn’t a blip or a temporary glitch in the Matrix, Messi is just quite bad at taking penalties.
It didn’t prove decisive at Alaves, but at some stage, maybe in a game of greater magnitude in a more crucial part of the season, or even in a penalty shootout, his and/or Valverde’s stubbornness that he should continue in this role may come back to bite them.
That was Messi’s 20th penalty miss of his senior career.
MAKING ROOM FOR DEMBELE
In fairness to Valverde, there are some signs of development in how he wants his team to play which differ from Luis Enrique. One suspicion is his preference to stationing and keeping his wide forwards, well, wide which theoretically opens up the pitch for Messi to weave his magic and, to a lesser extent, Iniesta.
For the first 57 minutes – until Paco Alcacer was introduced as a defined central striker – Deulofeu and Vidal, supported by Jordi Alba and Sergi Roberto, stuck primarily to the channels when Barca were in possession. Stretching the play and also preventing Alaves from fully clogging the passing lanes into Messi and/or the space for him to dribble into.
It certainly ensured the Argentine received a lot of the ball and dictated the game as he saw fit. When Deulofeu and Vidal did get on the ball they didn’t dwell on it too long, either attempting to whip in crosses or shift it onto a team-mate. With Neymar in the team that was a different story altogether with the Brazilian given a license to use his own box of tricks.
But either Valverde doesn’t quite have the faith the aforementioned duo can do the same or they themselves are trying to grow their own confidence. But Alaves are one of the poorer teams in the division and if they cannot be offensively effective against them, who can they be?
One encouraging aspect of this approach, however, is that it should play to Dembele’s strengths once he earns his place in the team which, based on the form of his new attacking team-mates, shouldn’t be long. The Frenchman is a pure winger who will enjoy having the ball to feet and being able to look up and attack. There will be an element of having to be subservient to Messi, something even Neymar was comfortable with to a point, but it’s a set-up that certainly suits the 20-year-old.
Where does Dembele fit into the equation?