Barça, without Messi this season: 7-0 in favor

Despite having his head elsewhere at the beginning of the season, according to himself, Messi has played almost everything. So much so that the match against Eibar will be the first in the League in which he does not appear. It will not be due to rest, always according to the club and Koeman, but because of some ankle discomfort that accompanied him after the game against Valladolid and that make it recommended that the Argentine does not appear on the field in the last game of a year that ends with very discreet figures if one takes into account his extraterrestrial career. Able to score 91 goals in a calendar year (2012), the 2020 Messi says goodbye with just 27 goals (26 with Barça and one with Argentina). As a Barça player, he played 44 games, of which he won 25, drew eight and lost 25. For Messi, 2020 will be the year of 2-8 and the burofax, it would almost be said that the only one next to 2014 that had no winning moment.

Messi has only missed two games this season. The two of the Champions League and not due to injury but due to rest granted by Koeman. Barça played two great games in Kiev and Budapest against Dynamo Kiev (0-4) and Ferencvaros (0-3). Dest, Braithwaite (2) and Griezmann scored all four goals in Ukraine; and Griezmann, Braithwaite and Dembélé, in Hungary. The French and the Danish took stripes in those games in which Koeman did not invent tactically and started with the 4-2-3-1 that has been normal from the beginning of the season until the fall against Juventus and the draw against Valencia that invited the Dutch to change the system in Valladolid.

The partial without Messi, then, is positive for Barça. 7-0. Some sectors took advantage of it to open the debate on the suitability of the Argentine playing away games. Koeman ended that debate early. If he is fit, Messi will always play. The Dutchman continues to consider him the best in the world.