Messi is less Messi this season away from Camp Nou. The Argentine does not score away from home in the League since December 1 of last year, just the day before the Golden Ball gala in which he received his sixth award. It was at Wanda, where he crowned a great game with a spectacular goal against Atlético (0-1).
Since then, Messi only scored a goal in the Spanish Super Cup played in Arabia, but that game is considered played in neutral field, so that the streak without scoring away from home extends already in the last three months. In fact, of the 23 goals he has scored this season, only four have been away from home. One in Eibar, one in the house of the Levant, that of the Wanda and another in the Sinobo Stadium in Prague.
The last month is being tough for Messi. In the last six days of the League he could only mark the day he scored four goals against Eibar. He did not score against Valencia, Levante, Betis, Getafe and Real Madrid. Nor did he do it in Naples and where he missed his goal the most was in San Mamés. With 0-0, Arthur put a gold ball that the Argentine could not embocar since he met Unai Simón.
In part, Messi greatly misses the presence of a killer. Specifically, from his friend Luis Suárez. The Uruguayan was the footballer who cleaned the landscape of centrals and the one that allowed him to play more liberated and with more options ahead of the ball. He is the one who misses his absence the most and the numbers certify it.
Messi left crestfallen from the Bernabéu. He feels that he should be collaborating more with the team away from home. The defeats against Granada, Valencia, Levante and Madrid, or the same draws in Anoeta or against Espanyol have the team in a compromised situation. And he wants to improve his numbers.