The angry question – The angry question before #ElClasico: Should we be worried about Lionel #Messi?

He might have been the hero. Again. Always. Wednesday, dealing with the Juventus, Lionel Messi shot seven occasions on objective. One of his strikes was framed. Only one. Yet the good Argentine quantity 10 has created enormous alternatives for himself, those he at all times sends to the again of the online. But Wednesday, Lionel messi embodied the present limitations of FC Barcelona, unable to deceive as soon as Gianluigi Buffon throughout this quarter-remaining of the Champions League (0-3, 0-0). Extinguished by Turin’s protection and effectivity on the primary leg, Luis Enrique’s males had been sorely missing in realism on the return. Like their robust hyperlink.

Already very borrowed from Paris within the spherical of 16 first leg (0-4), before registering a penalty with out actually weighing on the efficiency of Barça on the return (6-1), Lionel Messi subsequently left C1 with a bitter feeling. If he’s nonetheless the highest scorer of the 2016-2017 version with eleven objectives, the Catalan vice-captain has subsequently scored just one, from the penalty spot, in 4 knockout matches. Last yr, FCB had already fallen by the wayside within the quarters, in opposition to Atlético (2-1, 0-2) and with out Messi discovering the opening.

However, subsequently, firstly of February, Lionel Messi was advancing in the direction of the weeks that rely with a capital of confidence (and objectives) on the highest. His thirty-one objectives and twelve assists in thirty-two matches before the vacationer getaway to the Parc des Princes spoke for him, as a lot as his best settlement with Neymar and Luis Suarez. If as we speak, his common within the reality zone has not dropped, removed from it (forty-5 objectives and seventeen assists in forty-5 matches), his low-impact in C1 essentially raises questions.

Does Messi dub or endure the rise of Neymar, who has embodied Barça’s offensive management in current weeks? What psychological impression had his inconvenience with Argentina on the finish of March (qualification for the subsequent World Cup in question, suspension of 4 worldwide matches for insulting a referee)? What if this spring 2017 marked the start of a decline, definitely very relative in La Liga, however clearly seen in Champions League matches? An early response will undoubtedly be supplied by La Pulga this Sunday, on the event of a Clasico within the type of a final likelihood for Barça within the title race. Lionel Messi could take the chance to deliver everybody again to the fact of his indecent expertise. This is what champions do, and the 5-time Ballon d’Or is considered one of them, indisputably.