Take D105 away from thread title - lose 2 consecutive games with Messi not scoring. Well done mods, well done.
On a more serious note: he played like a boss. But one does not simply partner the world's best player with a 20 year old B player and a fucking fullback upfront. No movement in the final third, no one creating space, no positional interchanges. Tello was repeating the same old trick, trying to outpace Arbeloa, running the ball out of play numerous times. Alves wasn't any less predictable playing upfront. Taking on the fullback - searching a sideway pass to Messi - done. Pepe and Ramos had absolutely nothing to do and could fully concentrate on Messi's movements. Until Sanchez came on: bang, goal!
Furthermore I think the false 9 system is getting found out. When we started playing it, CBs didn't know wheter to track Messi or to leave him to the DM. He created confusion inbetween the lines. Now teams are prepared for it and know what Messi is going to do. They keep the lines tight, block the passing channels to him and simply crowd him out, keeping him away from goal. He's not dropping extremely deep lately because he wants to play in midfield but because he's forced to do so by the other team's formation, otherwise he won't see anything of the ball, being surrounded by like 4 - 6 players all the time who are paying very close attention to him.
Guardiola's trying to change things but a 3 man backline is not the way forward. Bielsa is the master of 3 man backlines and even he found out (by not winning any of his first 6 games with his 3-1-3-3 formation with Athletic) that it can only fail against the default 4-2-3-1 formation that is being played in Spain. Why? Because 3-4-3 vs. 4-2-3-1 automatically means 3 defenders vs. 4 attackers. Busquets playing 2 positions and slotting into CB doesn't help at all. It just creates more room for Özil. I bet Özil was the happiest person on the planet yesterday when time and time again he saw Busquets running away from him to help out in defense. You can play a 3 man backline against Granada, Real Sociedad, Osasuna and all the other La Liga teams. No big deal. Because Barcelona has a € 600 million squad and other La Liga teams have a € 50 million squad. We could even play 2-5-3 because individually we are just so much better. But we can't do it against Real Madrid, currently the world's finest and most dangerous 4-2-3-1 counterattacking formation. Nor is this the answer against any other big team in the Champions League. So just give it up and find another solution.
