Iniesta messi and maybe xavi probably could have made that pass, not discounting your point about not selling him because he should be here but he's not the only person that could've made that pass.
How many times in this season have you seen this kind of unconventional passing though?
He clearly didn't show a brilliant performance yesterday, but that pass was one of the key moments in the game. Did anyone expect some direct passing instead of just passing the ball around the box without having an actual clue what to do? No. No one did. As you mentioned, Cesc is not the only one in the team who's capable of those skills, but it's mostly him who
at least tries to offer a direct play.
We need to find some tactics and strategies to make him more useful. Same with Messi. If he prefers playing behind a striker then let's give this a try. Every big team has at least one striker with some efficient scoring skills. Ibra, Benzema, Mandzukic, Mueller, Lewandowski,etc. We have Messi, but Messi will struggle when he needs to dribble against four or five players and you have to keep in mind that all the others named are taller and have a stronger physical constitution. Why don't we try and get Mandzukic or Gomez for example? Pep doesn't want Mandzukic, but according to rumors they'll trade him for Chelsea's David Luiz. Gomez might leave Fiorentina as well, wouldn't be as expensive as Suarez and will sure come back to his old level. A taller player up front would also make Dani Alves' crossings more useful. Who the hell does he want to reach when everybode is literally ~170cm tall while every CB of the opponent is significantly taller. The only tall players we have are the CBs, Sergio and Cesc and the CBs and Sergio most likely won't take part in any offense actions (standars excluded of course).