Lionel Messi – 9/10
Barcelona finished the season only 3 points behind title winners Real Madrid but the gap could have been 20 points, if not more, had Lionel Messi not been with the Catalan giants. With the arrival of Neymar and subsequently Luis Suarez, it was expected that the burden on Messi’s shoulder will be reduced, however, in all honesty, no Barcelona team has been as dependent on the diminutive Argentine as this one.
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2013/14 is often termed as the period of Messidependencia but having witnessed this season, it can safely be said that the team has never relied so much on the brilliance of Messi. Yes, he is one of the greatest to have ever touched a football but to be so reliant on one player can only lead to the downfall of any team.
He is capable of the surreal, the extraordinary, the magical and he more often than not is up for the challenge. But at the end of the day, Messi is also human and as such his influence on the game can be restricted by a combination of brute force and intelligence, as was witnessed in the 4-0 and 3-0 humiliations at the hand of PSG and Juventus respectively.
Whenever Barcelona were in a spot of bother, whenever they ran out of ideas, they would pass the ball to Messi, or look to find him, hoping that the 5-time Ballon d’Or can bail them out. It would still be acceptable if he was the only superstar at the club, however, with the likes of Iniesta, Neymar and Suarez in their ranks, such level of dependence is foolish and alarming at the same time.
The season could have been much worse for Barcelona if not for Messi, and the club’s hierarchy should move hell and earth to provide him with a team to get the best out of him, for at 29, he is slowly but surely edging towards the end and once he does hang up his boots, there will never be another one like him.
Luis Enrique – 6/10
Luis Enrique has often been criticized for lacking the tactical nous to take a team to the next level, and these allegations, to a certain extent, are correct. The brilliance of MSN papered over the flaws of their manager last season but the sudden decline of Suarez and the erratic form of Neymar ensured that such was not the case this season.
His poor recruitment in the summer was one of the major factors behind this debacle, coupled with his inability to rotate his players to keep them fresh for crunch games. He did, however, shift to a rather bizarre 3-3-1-3 formation towards the end of the season to eliminate the need of full-backs and it resulted in some memorable results.
The Spaniard brought an end to his 3-year reign with the Copa del Rey triumph, which was his 9th trophy as the manager of Barcelona and it remains to be seen if he will enjoy similar success at another club, if and when he does return to management. The decision to leave the club was probably in the best interest of both the manager and the club.
