I think everyone here (no one in particular) is looking for a scapegoat and attacking Messi is sad because he was one of our best players during the Milan match. I don't see people criticizing the pathetic playmaking from our CMs or the lack of support from our other forwards nearly as much as Messi.
The reason Barca has been suffering above all else is a lack of quality in defense (specifically, the CB position) along with poor selection of forwards. Messi was MOTM against Granada but really didn't put on a better performance workrate wise than he did against Milan. It just shows up that people are using Messi for a scapegoat for much larger problems with the team. For almost two years now, it's been incessant HARMLESS tiki taka from Xavi and Busquets until Messi picks up the ball, runs at the defense, and creates something off a 1-2. Iniesta also does this sometimes, but understandably not as successfully as Messi.
We have problems with our management. Messi doesn't need to do anything better. He can draw a crowd of defenders by walking, but our other players don't take advantage of that space. Also, the other players have not been making themselves as available as they have in the past. This wasn't Messi's best performance in the blaugrana, but it was certainly not a bad performance.
Messi's job is not to make runs into open space all match long. His job is to touch the ball as much as possible, generally play centrally, and create opportunities for his team and himself. His job is to stalk that area between the opposing defense and the midfield. He can score with half a yard of space and would have so many more assists if his teammates were more clinical.
, they don't put in the effort until they realize they're knee-deep in shit. Then, sometimes they start kicking ass and manage to turn it around, and sometimes they fail. Because you can't gamble like that, a lot of the times it'll be too late to start putting in the effort only when you're losing. Especially against big teams. And that's no way to approach knockout games. Someone may need to inform them that the real games are no longer around the corner, they've started.
