Heart of the Blaugrana

As is the trend in football, we love heroes.

We love to take young, earnest players with lots of flair, hype them up and when they score, assign them a label like “the new Maradona”.

Everybody cheers! We give the young player his moment in the limelight, advise him to start an underwear line and shower him with praise for every step-over or rabona.

But dare that young, hard-working player make a mistake. Dare he score an own goal, dare he miss a sitter.

Suddenly, he is a pariah! Calls for him to be dropped from the team, for the “new new Maradona” to be found increase, and he becomes a contract-squeezing money-hungry villain overnight.
Unfortunately for Lionel Messi, that is not the case. 34 goals and 13 assists from 35 appearances is a remarkable statistic. Despite his injuries, despite his loss of form, Lionel Messi continues to deliver the crucial statistics.

It is true that he has failed to light up games this with life-defining moments such as his magnificent 4-goal haul against Arsenal in the Champions League. It is true that with him, Barcelona have lost 6 matches this season. It is true that at times, the team has looked better with him on the bench.

But is that down to him? After carrying the team for so long, masking over their deficiencies with fantastic after fantastic performance, Barcelona have finally been exposed for what they are; a team with an awful defence. As a striker, how can he be blamed?
He has missed sitters, like any striker would. He has also scored a hat-trick against Madrid, like few strikers do. By his own high standards, his performances this season have been meagre. His injuries have clearly taken a toll on him, and the impending World Cup is clearly enacting its psychological strain on almost every international player in the world.

But Lionel Messi isn’t just any international. He is a 4-time consecutive Ballon D’Or winner. He has smashed all of Barcelona’s records, and he is only 26. One poor season cannot possibly overshadow what this man has done, and will still do for the club.
The 21 trophies he has won have largely been down to the delightful work of his teammates and his exquisite brilliance. At his worst, he is a threat that can hit you when you least expect it. At his best, he is a sandstorm that can’t be stopped.

Lionel Messi has struggled this season, but so have his teammates. In fact, one could go as far as saying that they’ve let him down. So often this season, he’s had to be Neymar’s mentor, Barcelona’s leader, and a match-winner. There’s no way one man could be expected to carry that mantle on forever. He most definitely needs his teammates to step up to the plate, and performances like the 7-0 aggregate loss to Bayern Munich simply because he was injured are disgustingly unacceptable.

In short, Barcelona may have 99 problems this season, but Lionel Messi is NOT one of them.

He is the solution.