Messi returns to the starting point

The soap opera of Luis Suárez with Barça ended, finally sold to Atlético at no fixed cost but with the imposition of paying two million euros each time the team reaches the quarterfinals of the Champions League with the Uruguayan in the squad - " The Madrid team will pay FC Barcelona 6 million euros in variables "- said the statement from the Barça club.

A tense negotiation that ended up conforming everyone.

Although for Barça it means being lame in attack, without a pure battering ram, without a center forward who is the reference, even if Koeman - with his 4-2-3-1 - makes a nod to the past.

And a revolution, because when looking back, with Johan Cruyff as the starting point when defining the style and the everlasting 4-3-3 Barça, it has not happened more than twice.

One was with El Flaco on the bench, reluctant to the figure of the fixed 9;

the other with Pep Guardiola, who for the last two and a half seasons placed Messi as a false

.

Agreement with FC Barcelona for the transfer of @ LuisSuarez9.

ℹ️ https://t.co/9JeoSD7Omw pic.twitter.com/U2FB8ZSKdX

- Atlético de Madrid (@Atleti) September 23, 2020

Cruyff always had it very transparent, because he did not want to have an area player because he preferred that the centrals feel uncomfortable without a clear reference to which to set.

This is how the book

, written by journalist Joan Valls and in reference to the arrival of Gary Lineker —just after the goodbye of striker Mark Hughes—, a devourer of the area who was initially confined to the band.

It was not the only occasion in which Johan corset the tips, as the same happened with Julio Salinas, who on many occasions left the band.

An idea that was ignored with the arrival of Romario and that marked the beginning of the end of the

choral game

, punished in Athens by Milan (4-0).

Even before he left, he signed striker Kodro, but replaced him with the band.

Because for Johan the

was Laudrup, who frequently exchanged positions with Bakero, as many of his goals with arrivals from the second row explain.

Since Cruyff's departure, however, there has always been a center-forward in the starting team, regardless of the manager: Ronaldo, Anderson, Kluivert and Saviola, as well as Eto'o and Ibrahimovic.

But the Swede did not quite fit in with Messi and Guardiola, who discovered the patent in the remembered 2-6 against Madrid in 2009, and decided to seat Zlatan to give

Leo

the false

and locate Bojan on the side.

Years of good football, possession and choir, which ended when Luis Suárez arrived and with Luis Enrique as coach.

It was not the beginning, as Leo was still anchored in the center of the attack.

To the point that the first move that is remembered by the Uruguayan is a measured center against Madrid that was Neymar's goal in the Barça defeat (3-1).

"Until Messi asked him to put Suárez on the edge because that way they would do more damage," says a player from the Barça dressing room.

The bet came out round, with Barça's second triplet in its history, a milestone never equaled by anyone.

Ansu, with a first team card and a clause of 400 million

After a year in the first team with a subsidiary file, Barcelona has confirmed to 17-year-old Ansu Fati that he remains under the command of Ronald Koeman. The young Guinean-Spanish winger signed the federation card yesterday and wore your new bib.

This was explained by the club's accounts on social networks, with a video in which the player appears with the training shirt and then with the team's shirt to turn around and point to 22, his new number on his back.

In addition to the number, Ansu, automatically when settling into the first team, increases his termination clause to 400 million - previously it was estimated at 170 - and maintains the contract until 2022, so he will soon have to go through the Camp offices again Nou his agent, Jorge Mendes, who forged the transfer of Semedo to Wolverhampton. Ansu Fati played 33 games during the previous year - 14 as a starter;

1,375 minutes in total— summarized in eight goals and one assist.

With Suárez in the team, there has always been a reference, a striker who rubs shoulders with the centrals to express himself in the area.

But he is gone and Koeman seems determined to relocate Messi, who already as a child, shaggy and with acne, first attended

in 2003 at the age of 16.

"I like to play more as a midfielder, but I do it anywhere."

Now you can.

"Let's say there will be another type of nine", they expose from the Barcelona club.

Although it is strange that Lautaro was pretended first and Lukaku (battering rams) were groped and now they come close and negotiate for Depay, who plays on the inside - not so in his principles, which was extreme - and who comes down countless times to receive to the center of the field, both with Lyon and Holland, far from being a

of the area.

Koeman, an

technician

, knows it well, predisposed to use the figure of the false

as Cruyff did when he was the Barça center-back.

Less defensive demands

A transfer policy that could be erratic, but which is conditioned by the club's precarious economy and also by the presence of Messi, who will feel less demanded in the defensive facet of the team by not having to come down, freed to express himself near the area .

Today it is difficult to recognize the most classic Barça, the midfielder and the wingers, deployed from 4-3-3, after the coach opts for the double pivot and for finishing band players.

The evolution of the game and the critical economy of the Barça club, which makes it impossible to make an investment of an entity that presumed to earn a billion, restrict the movements of Barça.

The only nod to the past, the return to the starting point, is precisely that of the false 9.