Shocking stats: Why was Lionel Messi so poor against Atletico Madrid?

Where is your focus, Leo? Barcelona forward Lionel Messi under the spotlight.

Almost a month back, a former employee of F.C. Barcelona, Ángel Cappa came forward and made a controversial observation on Barcelona forward Lionel Messi while speaking in an interview with Catalan radio station, La Xarxa.

“If we look at a game of his [Lionel Messi] from three or four years ago, there was that craziness, that passion that he had for playing. And I don’t know why or for what reason, but that is coming to an end.”

“He has extraordinary quality, he’s wonderful and at any moment he can come up with a wonderful play, but it’s as if he has been married for 15 years to football and got bored of it.”

You can find the whole transcript here: Lionel Messi is bored of football, says ex-Barcelona assistant manager Ángel Cappa

Cappa had previously worked as an assistant manager to César Luis Menotti in the 1980s, and maintains a close relationship with the club. And, if not completely true, Cappa’s statement may give rise to further questions on his commitment.

Lionel Messi’s Action Heat Map [Courtesy of Squawka]

In Barcelona’s defeat to Atletico Madrid in Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League encounter at the Vicente Del Calderon, he had run only 6.8 km (4.2 miles) in the match which lasted for around 95 minutes according to UEFA’s official website, just over 1.4 km more than Barcelona goalkeeper Jose Manuel Pinto who ran just about 5.4 km, and almost half that of Atletico Madrid midfielder Koke who ran just around 12.2 km.

He was left behind by many of his Barcelona team mates: Xavi (11.8 km), Jordi Alba (11.5 km), Dani Alves (10.8 km), Marc Bartra (10.7 km) and Neymar (9.5 km).

His poor work-rate throughout the match affected his passing too, as he was able to complete just 29 out of the total passes 39 attempted. This was the fifth match (341 minutes) in a row for Messi who was unable to find the net against Atletico Madrid, against the club he had earlier scored 20 times in his first 14 fixtures. Almost averaging 64 touches per Champions League game this season, Messi could manage to take possession just 39 times.

Lionel Messi’s Pass Completion [Courtesy of Squawka]

“Pressing from midfield is important,” former Atletico Madrid player and youth coach Quique Estebaranz told Goal. “They work extremely hard to close the spaces available to Messi. It’s not just the defence, but a team effort with help from the midfielders to drop into those spaces and crowd him out.”

Under Diego Simeone, Atletico Madrid has found stability and reliance in the team with defenders tracking back really deep with discipline in an organised manner, just what is needed to neutralize the defence-splitting passes Barcelona heavily rely on. With little space to roam around, Messi had to drop wide out on the right side of the pitch in order to win the ball, and even so, when he did find space, he was denied by Atletico Madrid’s goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.

Messi had just one shot on target throughout the match.

Barcelona manager Tata Martino had later revealed in a post match presser that he wanted Messi on the right without too much involvement so that he could get more one on ones.

Atletico might have won by their own merits, and you might get the idea that I am being critically harsh on a player who has been consistently netting goals on the basis of a single match. But, think of it like that: Messi is now one of the much experienced players at Barcelona, yet his influence other than with the ball at his feet was hardly noticeable when they needed it the most.

UPDATE | Atletico has turned into Messi’s most fearsome opponent pic.twitter.com/gVvLy6avdj

— MESSISTATS (@MessiStats) April 9, 2014