Comparing the best Barcelona trios of this century

#2 Henry, Etoo and Messi

Eto'o, Henry and Messi gave Barcelona their first treble

In 2009, Pep Guardiola took over as Barcelona’s manager and one of the first decisions he took was to sell Ronaldinho. Guardiola switched to his famous 4-3-3 formation and his front three now comprised of Messi, Henry and Eto’o.

With Eto’o in the squad, Pep played Henry down the left wing – the position in which he started his career and Messi played down the right side. Pep’s use of inverted wingers was quite effective as it gave both players freedom to cut in and shoot with their favoured foot.

The trio played an important role in leading Barcelona to their first treble and that too in Guardiola’s first season as manager. They were also the first trio to score 100 goals before it became mainstream.

Messi led the scoring charts with 38 goals, closely followed by Eto’o with 36 and Henry’s 26 goals completed the century of goals. Messi also provided the most assists among these players with 16, followed by Henry with 11 and Eto’o with six.

The following season this trio was dismantled as Eto’o was sold to Internazionale and Henry’s game time was limited due to the emergence of Pedro.

Rating: 8/10 - Very successful, but wasn’t tested for a long period.