it Was a discussion informally between journalists covering the Betis, a discussion on the alignments of the club and the best position for Messi on the mat, there in 2017. “Well, I'd put a false 9, as did Guardiola, because it is limited”, resolved Quique Setién, also present in the discussion, then a technical in the Benito Villamarín. His second, Éder Sarabia, already in the Camp Nou and with the tracksuit barca because, he wanted to play the mouse and the cat when challenged by the absence of Luis Suarez—injured four months— and his possible successor in the face of attack. “We have several alternatives, and what it is is that the ball gets into those positions in the best conditions,” agreed. No one better than Messi to do this, a whole declaration of intentions of Setién in his debut barca. “One is comforted by having Leo. It takes a decade desatascando these parties and when it falls the ball at his feet, you already know that the success rate is very high,” reflected the coach.

The occurrence was of Guardiola, before a classic 2009 against Madrid. “Pep called me a day before the party and made me come to the sports city to tell that we were going to change the position. Had been looking at matches with Tito Vilanova and had decided to do something new,” sums up Messi in the documentary Take the Ball, Pass the Ball. Metamorphosis, which he accepted because when he was a child he already had his preference, as pointed out in an interview that he did in Barça TV. “I like to play attacking midfielder,” he said. And with Setién returned to the origins because when Barcelona had the ball at his feet, Leo step back a couple of steps for exercise of trescuartista to the time when the opponent took the ball chose where to press, released because behind had to Rakitic and Arturo Vidal, two means that are not traded with the effort and remaining lines pass, which not lost the site because Setién already noted that he wanted to order in the wide area.

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Attacking with chose a 3-5-2

Without being tied to the cost —although that was not because it decides the radius of its action to each duel—, Messi collected the ball with his back to goal but with the skill necessary to be rotated and make the team play in the hot zone. A sprinkler of football. Like that pass to Ansu Fati that are not completed or that another subtext to the race of Alba, which became a center that Fati is not resolved by the hairs. Even one more to Vidal, awkward in the extension because it was a four against three at the opponent's area.

In the area of three quarters, however, it is easier to create a cage or swarm around you for rivals, all time there is no computer that is not employed to close the interior corridors. Something that aligeraba Griezmann with his fall into —because Jordi Alba was installed in the field opposite to attack is almost always with a chose a 3-5-2; not so Sergi Roberto on the right— but not promoted Ansu Fati, always tied to the right side, receiver in any case of almost all the passes in the depth of the 10.

But there is no better option for Leo to be seen with Alba and their careers, well before the intermission marked the move mark of the house —go to the hole 10 and the center ceiling of the side-to-side— back, although his finishing was smashed into the side of the network. It was not his night in the control nor in the auction, as they do not exactly right on the three faults that launched from the front (one to the barrier, another high, and the last ended in a corner). Nor in that other shot from just outside the area that whistled on the pole outside. Until on a triangulation between Leo, Griezmann and Vidal on the front, the 10 hit a target and made a good decision of Setién.

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Date Of Update: 19 January 2020, 23:00