the deeper he goes the more i miss his false 9 days .. the idea of playing messi in midfield cause trouble to our midfield once we loose the ball .. and when messi plays as a false 9 he can rest all he wants and still be dangerous , all of that is just talk now that we have bought suarez sice he ll always occupy the 9
false 9 = dropping in midfield , or moving to right or left, back and forth. Basically surprising opponents, especially as a counter tactic to messi man markings. It was indeed mourinho, if i remember it right, i think who created a solution, which might have worked on couple of occasion but in majority that was a failure too.
instead of Central defenders marking messi in his tradition 9 role, when he started to drop deep, Defenders followed with him on occasions, hence creating space for others. But most importantly it meant messi himself was receiving at lot more of the ball. Leading to much more plays created by messi for himself to end, we all saw those.
At that time mourinho played pep (central defender) in the defensive mid position, only to man mark messi, that meant 1. Central defenders don't have to move from their positions, 2. Messi has a comapany, someone sticking like a shadow to make things difficult. And then team started to follow this trend by playing 1 or two players doing just that. It surely didn't work all the time but what it meant that teams then knew what was happening.
I think messi dropping deeper in the midfield isn't particularly a bad idea. 1. he can see a lot more ball, 2. create his own plays, for his teammates and himself. 3. he is free to move forward, right, left. But basically deeper means player man marking him has to come off a lot out of position, creating a big whole between opposition's midfield players and defense line (on left,, right ,center).
This space is there to be exploited. Its not lucho fault if suares didn't score a simple tap in or neymar missed simple opportunities which ballon de or wanna bees shouldn't miss.
Had we taken those opportunities in first leg against athletico , things would have been different.