Barcelona are one of if not the biggest club in Europe and the world but in the seasons gone by Barcelona have changed from a team to a one man show.That has also concluded in failing in Europe even though they are termed as favorites in champions league. Barcelona also has to consider life after Leo messi. Barcelona have invested heavily in their attack for the past couple of seasons bringing in the likes of Coutinho, Dembele,Griezmann. But the majority of the goals are still coming from their two forwards Messi and Suarez. Suarez has been in decline for the past two seasons and has lost in touch in Europe.
He has scored only one goal in the 2018-19 champions league which is poor for a player of his caliber while messi scored 12 goals and had 3 assists far more than any other Barcelona players. New signings dembele and coutinho also did not enjoy the season where dembele had an injury hampered season,coutinho on the other hand had a disaster class as he was nowhere to be found the only games in which he was noticeable were the games against Man utd and Tottenham but these matches were dominated by Barcelona and he wasn't the reason of their domination. Coutinho was given a lot of chances by Barcelona's coach who preferred to play him on the left wing but Barcelona fans argued as to what his preferred position and role was in this team. Some argued he was brought in to replace to Iniesta where some argued he was brought in to fill Neymar's void but in the end he could do neither and the end of the season was so bad that he was having problems completing easy passes and was nervous each time he had the ball it would not be too harsh to say that both Valverde and coutinho were responsible for this debacle. Valverde should have taken him out of firing line and given him some time in the bench to recuperate but he instead preferred to play him time and time again which made him a target for the fans. Leo messi asked the fans to not boo their own player in the camp nou it was too hard for the Barcelona faithful to watch their clubs most expensive transfer not being able to complete a pass. At the start of the season 2019-2020 coutinho has been loaned out to Bayern with an option to buy permanently.This deal seams to be benefiting both Barcelona and coutinho.
So will their be any change in Leo messi's role i.e will his role reduce?
Frankly its very hard to see that but with the addition of griezmann in the squad it does look like he can share some of messi's burden in scoring in each and every important game.But seeing their performance vs Athletic Bilbao it is clearer than ever that they need Messi because even if he isn't scoring he is bringing players into the game and demanding much more from them.for example Jordi Alba was not productive in the final third in the game against Bilbao but when messi is in the team he has a brilliant link up play with him and also makes creative passes which are astonishing.The midfield starts to gel well because they now have a reliable player who will not loose the ball and contribute in attack currently there is no other player in Barcelona who can do that.
For the future Barcelona have to rely on La masia as their plan to buy galacticos is seeming to fail and they should go back to their roots with players like Puig, Alena ,Carles Perez and Abel ruiz waiting to break through it would be foolish to buy galcticos as that was never their identity and never how they played. They are forgetting that the biggest names in their clubs history have come from their academy.Players like Xavi,Iniesta, Pique,Puyol,Valdes, Abidal,Pedro and most importantly Messi were all La masia graduates and made the Barcelona dna.
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