Messi forced to reinvent himself

Posted Wednesday, March 11, 2020 by Marca.com

Lionel Messi is Barcelona's greatest weapon in attack and opponents spend hours studying his moves and set-pieces.

The Argentine has to reinvent himself at the same pace as his opponents catch up, while also adapting to Quique Setien's style of play and the areas in which his new coach wants him to move on the pitch.

In Saturday's game, Real Sociedad changed their way of defending in dead balls, drawing most of their players in the box, instead of the wall, when Messi attempted a direct freekick.

"Ahead of [facing] a player with Messi's effectiveness in fouls, during the week we worked on defending [dead balls]," explained Mikel Merino after the game.

"I think he was surprised to see how we positioned ourselves."

When Messi was ready to strike a freekick in the 58th minute, two players were placed between the goalposts alongside the goalkeeper.

Four were inside the box and three in the wall, while one was next to the wall to prevent a short pass.

"Here you have to be [ready for] everything and we know Messi's potential," said Real Sociedad's coach Imanol Alguacil.

"We have [coaching] staff that deal with dead balls. We worked and talked about it.

"It is already known how effective he is. Luckily, today it went well."

It's not the first time that Barcelona's opponents have invented new strategies to prevent Messi from scoring freekicks.

Teams such as Villarreal, Girona, Tottenham Hotspur and Inter have placed players on the ground behind the wall to deny him the option of striking low under it.

Varied tactics

Back in 2018/19, Athletic Club coach Eduardo Berizzo ordered Oscar de Marcos to leave the wall and move towards the goal.

The Argentine launched the freekick and the Spanish midfielder managed to head the ball out.

Despite such tactics, Messi has managed 46 goals from dead balls with Barcelona in 12 seasons.

In the current campaign he has already netted four freekicks, two against Celta Vigo, one against Real Valladolid and another against Sevilla, while his record is eight goals from dead balls in one season.

His secret, according to those who know him, in addition to his natural talent, is a lot of practice and concentration, to which he must add creativity.

No room to relax

Meanwhile, Messi also has to adapt his game to Setien's footballing style, given the new Barcelona coach is asking him to drop to the midfield in order to create numerical superiority in the centre of the pitch.

Instead of focusing on creating danger in front of the opposition goal, he helps the team circulate the ball and has already registered 12 assists.