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#3 Arthur Melo
Arthur Melo's move to Juventus was ill-advised on all fronts. It definitely made sense in a financial sense for Barcelona but that's just about it. They packed off one of the best young players on their payroll to bring in another veteran, Miralem Pjanic, to an already ageing squad.
Arthur has struggled to settle down at Juventus so far and after falling out with Barcelona at the end of last season and being up to no good on the disciplinary front. He has started only two games for the Bianconeri so far and hasn't really impressed Andrea Pirlo.
Pirlo thinks that Arthur has too much of Barcelona in him in that he loves to keep playing short which is quite a departure from the plan that the manager has for Juventus. Pirlo criticized Arthur recently for not being in the best shape and choosing to play more horizontally than vertically.
Arthur was dubbed the next Xavi and we haven't seen a whole lot of evidence to back that up over the course of the past few months. He needs to get his act right as Pirlo already prefers Adrien Rabiot, Aaron Ramsey and Rodrigo Bentancur to him.
#2 Kevin de Bruyne
Has Kevin De Bruyne been poor this season? No. Has Kevin De Bruyne performed to the standards expected of him? Rarely. And therein, lies the problem. KDB is widely touted as the best midfielder in the game right now.
However, he hasn't exactly been at his imperious best so far and his dip in form have been quite telling for Manchester City who are languishing at 13th on the Premier League table after five games. They do have a game in hand.
Kevin De Bruyne is Manchester City's creator in chief and last season, he scored 13 goals and racked up 20 assists from 35 appearances in the Premier League. That's direct involvement in a goal almost every game.
However, De Bruyne has just scored one goal and provided one assist from four appearances so far. He has not exactly been poor but he has underperformed by his own standards. But given the quality he has, it won't stay that way for long.
#1 Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi has been off-colour so far and as such it's no surprise that Barcelona have struggled in the league this season. Messi and Ronaldo have consistently clocked absolutely ridiculous numbers that couldn't be matched by anyone other than the likes of Lewandowski on occasion.
After threatening to leave the club owing to differences with the board, it has looked like Messi's head is somewhere else. He underperformed in almost every game except the two Champions League matches against Ferencvaros and then Juventus.
Messi actually covered a lot of grass and put a shift in against Juventus and that was perhaps helped by the fact that Josep Maria Bartomeu and the rest of the board had tendered their resignations.
But as it stands, Lionel Messi has just a single goal across five appearances in the La Liga and is yet to provide an assist to his teammates.
