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Messi’s most influential Barcelona season ever



Lionel Messi is always Barcelona's most important player. In 2017-18, however, he has arguably been even more influential than ever for the Catalan club. Especially in La Liga.
The five-time Ballon d'Or winner hit a hat-trick as Barca wrapped up the title on Sunday thanks to a hard-fought 4-2 win away to Deportivo La Coruna which saw the Catalans crowned champions with four games to spare. And the Blaugrana are on course to complete an unbeaten campaign in the Primera Division.
None of that would have been possible without Messi. In fact, it did not appear possible at all back in the summer when Neymar left the club and Barca lost 3-1 and 2-0 to Real Madrid in the Spanish Supercopa series in August.

In pre-season, Barca had played 4-3-3 with Neymar on the left, Luis Suarez in the middle and Messi on the right. But, after the Brazilian's €222 million move to Paris Saint-Germain, Ernesto Valverde switched to 4-4-2.
That gave added strength to the midfield and tightened the defence, but it made life more difficult for the forwards and, for much of the early part of the season, Luis Suarez struggled through injury and also in a new role without Neymar.
The change to 4-4-2 also made Barca more narrow, while the signing of Paulinho gave the team a player adept at timing his runs into the box, but one who offered little to the construction of attacks in midfield.
So, in many ways, Messi was left all alone. This season, the Argentine has been Barca's main scorer and also the chief creator. His hat-trick on Sunday means he now has 32 for the Blaugrana in La Liga this term and also 12 assists. But those numbers do not begin to tell the story.
Prior to Sunday's game against Deportivo at Riazor, Messi had created 78 chances for his team-mates in La Liga, given 84 lay-offs, completed 164 dribbles and had 86 shots on target, with 14 hitting the woodwork.

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