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FC Barcelona – Lionel Messi Wasn’t the Only One Who Didn’t Show Up
Given countless chances to salvage something from this season, Barcelona simply flat lined at the finish line. Criticism point at Lionel Messi for not scoring in their final two league games aren’t off the mark, but blaming him alone while neglecting the part of Tata Martino in his relative failure or how badly Andres Iniesta looked with the season on the line is simply telling half the truth and ignoring the full story.
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FC Barcelona – Lionel Messi Flexing His Clasico Muscles
As important as it might for Lionel Messi to notch up another goalscoring achievement for Barcelona, his hat trick won’t be very memorable if we’ll see nothing from this performance a few days from now, as the team play their second Clasico of the season, this time without a shadow of the doubt putting the title on the line.
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FC Barcelona – Lionel Messi Needs His Teammates to Score
Even through Barcelona did get the job done for the most part, it was impossible to shake the feeling of slight disappointment from the overall performance and especially upfront, where Lionel Messi set up his teammates numerous times with comfortable opportunities that should have been easily converted.
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FC Barcelona – Neymar Shines Through The Stifling Tactics
The call to prove that he can carry Barcelona on his back has been answered by Neymar, scoring five goals in two matches, and also showing he can make it happen despite some bad tactical decisions from Tata Martino, for some reason returning to the uber-possession concept that has proven more than once to be slightly outdated.
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FC Barcelona – The Problem Isn’t Neymar, It’s Cesc Fabregas
Everyone is looking to see if Barcelona are truly in a crisis now. Gerardo Martino has a world of pressure on his shoulders to find the answers after a very poor showing in the team’s most recent matches. While eyes are directed at Neymar, the answers to Barca’s problems can be found with Cesc Fabregas – his positioning on the pitch, rather than his actual presence.
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FC Barcelona – Fabregas Can’t Always Fill in For Messi
Some matches require more than just close to your best, even if the opponents don’t have the most impressive of names. Lionel Messi came on too late to change anything for Barcelona, who failed in their attempts to be led by Cesc Fabregas and Neymar as they failed to win for the first time this season, heading into one of the more difficult weeks they’ve had in quite a while.
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FC Barcelona – Neymar Gets The Spotlight Turned at Him
This is what Neymar was brought for. The moment Lionel Messi is either injured or marked too tightly, it should be the Brazilian’s turn to be the man for Barcelona, who have struggled anytime their best player was missing or taken out of them match by an opponent’s defending.
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Lionel Messi Doesn’t Need Much to Keep Barcelona Perfect
Only 29 minutes for Lionel Messi, but it’s enough for Barcelona to win their 7th consecutive match since the start of the season, something that the club has neve done before, although the circumstances of his substitution have to be somewhat of a worrying subject.
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FC Barcelona – Pedro Gives Lionel Messi a Break From Scoring
Hard to tell if the new Barcelona is really less about possession and simply more about being direct and finishing off matches later rather than sooner, but if it gives the chance for Pedro to steal the spotlight from Lionel Messi with an impressive hat trick, you won’t hear too many complaining about it.
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FC Barcelona – Lionel Messi Waiting for Cesc Fabregas & Alexis Sanchez to Help Him
One of the two big problems Barcelona need to take care of this offseason is their over-dependence on Lionel Messi. Neymar, even if it will take some time, should be good enough to become a suitable solution, but not on his own. For Barcelona to be completely free and deadly up front against all opponents, Cesc Fabregas and Alexis Sanchez need to do better than they have so far.