Leo Messi is not in his best moment. It is evident that, since the confinement was resumed, the Argentine is not the decisive player he has always been. Koeman himself, after the defeat against Getafe and before making his debut in the Champions League, was asked about it and his answer was clear: “Leo can perform more.” And it is not a question of desire, because the Argentine, in the words of his coach, “is happy and wants to play.”
Does Koeman have reason to say this? Well, taking into account the statistics of the Argentine star, yes. After the pandemic that had football stopped for more than 3 months, Barcelona has seen how Messi's scoring participation has decreased. Since they visited Mallorca on June 13 at the resumption of football, the culé team has played 17 games, of which they have only managed to win 10, falling defeated to Osasuna, Bayern Munich and, more recently, Getafe.
In other times, a downturn as marked by Barcelona at the collective level as that of recent months He used to be accompanied by a Messi who threw the team on his back and shone like never before to lift his team off the canvas. But, since the coronavirus arrived to disrupt the life of the entire planet, the Argentine has become more deadly than ever.
In those 17 games, in which he has played every minute, Rosario has only scored 8 goals and has only achieved a double. The most alarming thing about this data is that only half, four, have been played. A devastating and unthinkable fact in other times. Since confinement, Messi has averaged a goal every four games. The performance of the team does not accompany and the Argentine is not being able to overcome it. Adding the 9 assists he has given in this time, participate in one goal per game. Along the way, the loss of the league title and the humiliation against Bayern have taken place.
Comparing with the 17 meetings prior to the football break, Messi was able to score 13 goals in the same number of games. And only one of them was not played, before the Royal Society, precisely the last one that was played before the state of alarm. Further, got a hattrick against Mallorca and endorsed 4 goals to Eibar. His number of assists was practically the same, with 8.
With Koeman, even worse
Of course, only four of those games have been with Ronald Koeman at the controls of the Barça ship. But With the Dutchman, Messi's data is just as hopeless. In the four games he has played in this league start, the attacker has only scored one goal. Penalty, against Villarreal on the first day. Y has not given any assistance yet. In the first four league matches that the Argentine played in full last season (he started the league injured) he scored 5 goals and distributed 3 assists.
It could be thought that his downturn has only been at the level of scoring participation. Nothing could be further from the truth. At this start of the season, Messi has worsened in practically all records. The Argentine shoots less (3.5 shots per game last season compared to 3 at this start, according to data from Sofascore), makes less contact with the ball (87.4 touches per game versus 80.3) and give fewer key passes (2.7 per game vs. 1.5).
In these first 4 encounters, Messi has only been able to generate a great opportunity. Extrapolating this data to an entire league, the championship would end with 9 great opportunities created. Last season he finished it with 36 in 33 games, taking into account only their participation in the League. By last, the ‘Flea’ is getting far fewer dribbles (5.5 dribbles completed per match versus 2.8) and lose more individual duels (8.6 duels won per game versus 6.3).
FC Barcelona needs its star to meet his best version. After managing to abort his departure from the Blaugrana club, now he urges the team to help the Argentine star to shine again. With the duels against Real Madrid and Juventus just around the corner, Koeman needs to wake up the 'beast'. After a worrying start, it is not too late to see its best version again.