Happy Birthday Ernesto Valverde: 5 reasons why the current Barca coach deserves props for his role

#1 Bringing out the beast inside Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi has been a treat to watch under Valverde. Not that he wasn't before, but reduced pressure and a change in gameplan makes him even more aesthetically pleasing.

This is why I personally love Valverde the most. Lionel Messi has been literally everywhere since he took charge of the team. Messi's stats were insanely good last season. In comparison to 2016/17, where he scored 54 goals with 10 being penalties, he scored 44 in 2017/18 with only 2 of them being penalties. His assists also improved from 14 to 17. What else improved? His shots on goal went up from 91 in 2016/17 to 119 in 2017/18. Also, his number of passes went from about 2000 to 2300.

Let us come to 2018/19. He has already got 29 goals this season in 28 appearances. Won't he get 15 more in about 20 appearances? He will surely get that much, maybe even more. Also, he has already got 13 assists in 2018/19, only four short of last season's tally with more than 15 games to play. And when it comes to dominating stats, Lionel Messi bossed 2018. Even though France Football did not think so and neither did FIFA, it is very tough to argue that the winner of the annual awards deserved it over Messi.

Messi is 31 now but he still seems a beast on the pitch. When he has the intent, he can set the whole pitch on fire. So why are we crediting Valverde? Just due to the fact that there is something Valverde has done to the team which has made life a bit easy for Leo. He has done something whatever it is. Now whether you say that he has freed Alba which helps Leo or he has given license to Leo and Suarez to play their own game, there is something. Something which was missing in Enrique's final season.

Happy Birthday, Gaffer. Hope you win us some trophies this season too.

Note: Stats for Leo Messi via fctables.com