Messi suffers for Barça

Messi's years weigh on him and he lacks equipment to aspire to win the Champions League and possibly LaLiga.

He no longer scores goals that call for titles since he was captain of Barça.

He still has strength, however, to avoid cruel results with shots of rage like the one this Sunday against Levante.

On the 10th he resolved an unbearable match for the luck of Barcelona.

The Catalans are a misguided and disfigured team, without a game or footballers, blinded before the goal, only redeemed by Messi.

The game was a nightmare, before and after the goal on 10, because it took a long time to arrive and because it cost God and help to defend, the Catalans were subdued by Levante, expectant with the VAR for a Zamora from Umtiti - it was not a penalty - footballers shivering in the Ter Stegen area.

The victory, undoubtedly deserved, was not discussed, but there is no stopping to debate about the fear of the abyss of Barça.

BCN

1

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0

LEV

BarcelonaTer Stegen, Ronald Araújo, Alba, Sergiño Dest, Clement Lenglet, Coutinho (Trincão, min. 69), Busquets (Pedri, min. 57), Braithwaite, Griezmann (Umtiti, min. 88), Frenkie De Jong and MessiLevanteAitor, Coke (Miramón, min. 67), Clerc, Vezo, Postigo, Jorge De Frutos (Son, min. 81), Malsa, Gonzalo Melero (Sergio León, min. 81), Nikola Vukcevic (Radoja, min. 67), Dani Gómez and Roger (Morales, min. 67)

Goals1-0 min.

75: Messi.

Referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea Yellow cards Nikola Vukcevic (min. 41), Frenkie De Jong (min. 48) and Braithwaite (min. 86)

Faced with the doubt that such destabilizing and disconcerting defeats such as Cádiz and against Juve generate, Koeman qualified his idea of ​​4-2-3-1 to the point that it seemed a 4-3-3 and insisted on the list of figures from the Barça.

It was not about shaking the line-up but about the most famous players accommodating themselves on the attack front in a moment of trouble and maximum demand, expressed in Griezmann's lapidary phrase.

“We lack everything,” summed up the Frenchman after losing the Champions League lead.

The confusion was enlarged in the meeting against Levante.

Koeman moved the pieces, determined to show that the dysfunctions were individual and not collective or, if you like, of the system, and Braithwaite appeared on the far left while Griezmann occupied the right side and Messi dressed 9 ahead of Coutinho, starter before Pedri.

Although it was designed to defend and press better, the hieroglyph confused the attack of Barça more than that of Levante.

The two teams played to exchange occasions, both lacking in extremes and very permeable in the divide, especially Barcelona.

The Catalans lost their presence in the division, Busquets and De Jong off the hook, the Catalan closer to their centrals and the Dutchman to connect with Messi.

There is no way that Barcelona will bring together three midfielders, but after undoing the double pivot, he was left with one who is used to playing for the interior, such as Busquets.

In the absence of amplitude, the game was imposed on the inside and centrifugation, the plan awaited by Barça's rivals, also Levante, fast in their transitions towards Ter Stegen.

It was easier for Paco López's team to attack than to defend because the Barcelona players played little and shot a lot, obsessed with the 1-0 because they know that until now they have never come back from 0-1.

Koeman's idea was that the game had rhythm and speed rather than balance and harmony, reiterative in stating that his team is the one that "generates the most" and therefore it is about dominating the areas, being effective in the other's and expeditious in the by Ter Stegen.

Barça was repeatedly splitting, without the ability to squeeze the adversary or authority to impose their game, summarized in Coutinho.

Koeman, however, preferred to move to change his players, recover the 4-2-3-1 plan, convinced that the goal would fall from Braithwaite's movements as 9 although Messi and Griezmann overlap, well overlapped in addition because of the support behind Levante.

Faced with so much fiddling, the coach had no choice but to turn to Pedri, who came through Busquets.

There was only one midfielder left on the field: De Jong.

Messi, meanwhile, did not stop asking for the ball and there was no way for his shots to catch the goal when he came out of a dribble, lacking space and confidence, reduced by an opponent increasingly demanded and well assisted by Paco López.

Until Messi was enabled by De Jong after a run over play and crossed an unstoppable shot for Aitor.

The goal did not calm Barça but it ignited Levante to the point that Koeman removed Griezmann for Umtiti.

The 1-0 defense was numantine and decisive because it was not a question of defending the options of a depersonalized team but of putting Messi's honor to safety after a calamitous and tortuous night at the Camp Nou.

You no longer suffer for Barça but for Messi.