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#3 An ageing Messi cannot be the lone superstar of this team anymore
While Lionel Messi is arguably the best player of all time, he does have a knack to crumbled under pressure on many occasions. Although his ability is second to none, he simply lacks the mental strength at times to perform under crunch moments.
He might have delivered a lot of match winning performances in La Liga in pressure situations, but in the Champions League, he has been a mere shadow of himself in such circumstances, occasionally.
Taking games against oppositions like Chelsea (in 2011/12 season), Bayern Munich (in 2012/13 season), Atletico Madrid (in 2015/16 season), Juventus (in 2016/17 season), AS Roma (in 2017/18 season) and the recently concluded game against Liverpool into account, it is a clear indication that Messi turns off and loses motivation in tense moments in the Champions League, even though it should be considered that apart from the game against Chelsea, Messi was surrounded by either mediocre managers, teammates or sometimes even both.
Lionel Messi is probably not the best player to be relied upon to handle mental pressure all the time and the team needs other players to step up in crunch moments, especially at this stage of his career, and most importantly the dressing room in Barcelona needs a vocal leader figure in the form of either a manager or a player to take relieve Messi of some mental pressure.
To be precise, rather than always looking for Messi and hoping for him to create something, it is important that the players around him rely on collective brilliance rather than someone's individual brilliance.
Conclusion
It is fair enough to say that this season, Barcelona have been hit hard in one of their most crucial matches of the season due to poor management by their coach, a squad full of ageing players and their significant over reliance on Messi.
FC Barcelona should consider this match as an important lesson and look to build a new team with a core of younger players who would play more as a team rather than rely on someone's individual brilliance, under the leadership of a coach whose style of management suits the club.
