Can Barcelona Be Merciless without Messi

Being arguably the greatest player to ever hit the football scene according to others, Lionel Messi founds himself on the side lines due to a knee injury and it has been dark in city of the Catalonians, after suffering their 2^nd defeat of the season, so it seems like the absence of Lionel Messi is felt.

As the four time Ballon D’or winner continues his recovery from the knee injury he suffered last month it seems like Barcelona will join him in doing as they look to recovery from a disappointing result against Seville. The men from Catalan were unfortunate to see themselves fall short and flat on a second loss in the 2015/2016 season, which too many rivals it raised a sense of relieve and if heartless, probably joy.

The result against Sevilla sent out a rather unconvincing message to their rivals, as they proved to be less of a threat without Lionel Mess. Messi having been the best Barcelona player over the last 6 years or more may see his unfortunate absence from the squad being a burden for Barcelona in maintaining that fiercely strike force; the MSN.

Messi vs Celta Vigo

When Barcelona lost 4-1 to Celta Vigo, Barcelona had the presence of Messi for the full 90 minutes, he delivered 1 cross, a 75% pass rate with 35% being complete passes, he had 7 shots in that game from the 18 of Barca of which 4 were on target and 3 of those shots were actually saved, 1 shot off target, two of his shot we blocked and 1 got off the woodwork.
Messi created 6 of the Barcelona’s 16 chances as 5 were key passes and 1 came as an assist. He further on in trying his luck by having 7 take ons in which 5 were well executed and he failed on two occasions. Aerially he was in thick off things with a rate of 33% and also one defence interception. As a quality player he felt the need to up his perform to his peak to salvage a positive result in the dying moments of the match as it was becoming too much of a realty to lose 4-1 to Celta Vigo.

The stats above can suggest that if Messi is not in the game, the results are bound not to favour Barcelona. With that being mentioned, the question that will need answering is that is Messi even more influential to the likes of Iniesta, Neymar and Suarez? We are yet to find out.

Barcelona vs Sevilla

Sevilla was the team responsible for handing Barcelona their second, and it was a Messi-less Barcelona which on that night they were merciful.  Barça created a total of 20 chances on that evening and expectedly maintained a rather satisfying passing percentage of 86%, with Sevilla trailing behind with 73%. On the wings Barcelona were more adventurous delivering a whipping tally of 28 crosses and with 14 take-ons. The result itself doesn’t reflect the entire performance stats of both teams. The defence stats also prove that Seville were at receiving end of the pressure applied by Barcelona.

This was a Barcelona team which was without the great Lionel Messi. It was Neymar and Suarez who were responsible of making things happen, they were joined upfront by 20 year old Munir El Haddadi Mohamed and he only had one shot at goal and setting up two chances.

Messi vs Atletico

Against one of their huge rivals in the Spanish La Liga, Coach Luis Enrique chose to start the big clash against Atletico Madrid with Lionel Messi on the bench, until the 60^th minute where the Argentinian forward was desperately introduced as they were looking to bag the full 3 points against Atletico. It was no surprise that it would become a worthy move, as Messi clinched the 2^nd goal in the 77^th minute and it was in great style as it seemed to be the goal needed to close the show. With the less time on the pitch Messi had 10 take-ons, created 2 chances and having a passing rate of 93%. Much can be said about his introduction against the Madrid based team.

In conclusion, what can be said is that the complete excellence of either MSN or Barcelona  is alive in Messi’s presence, not taking anything away from Neymar and El’ Pistore, the MSN strike-force is deadly with Messiah part of it.

And with the El Classic edging nearer and nearer, it seems like Real Madrid might face a Merciful Barcelona and yet a Messi-less one if he is fully fit by then, and this could count much to their desire as they are also willing to maintain a rather positive start to the 2015/2016 campaign. But the 22^nd of November might prove to be still far for Messi to hopefully make a return. But the question remains can Barcelona be merciless when they are without Messi?

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Statistics source : http://www.squawka.com/

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