The last season has not been fruitful for Barcelona. They performed like a below-par team and their over-reliance on Lionel Messi was evident. Former Barcelona right-back Albert Ferrer also shares the same school of thought. Again, he tinks, Messi would not leave Barcelona.
He gave an interview with FourFourTwo.
Here are the excerpts:
On Barcelona’s over-dependency on Messi
“It’s a unique situation. No other team can say they depend so much on someone. Barcelona needs to become independent of Leo Messi, but he is still the best, and the moment you give him the ball, he does something with it”.
“It’s a good sign that Barcelona still have Messi, but other players need to play more, so not everything has to go through him. It may be difficult to mark Leo, but sometimes he is surrounded, so you need other ways. Barcelona need to make other players very important too and do something different to help him. But they have some good options with the likes of Ansu Fati now”.
Will Messi leave Barcelona?
“I’m not too worried about how Leo has been feeling – we expect that because he is a winner.”
“He wants to compete for everything and win the Champions League. I think he will be at Barcelona until he retires. He loves Barcelona, the team, the club”.
On Barcelona’s below-par display
“I think before the lockdown, Barcelona were OK really. But I think the squad is a bit short in terms of numbers and they couldn’t really rotate how they desired, maybe”.
“In some of the games, there might have been six or seven players from Barcelona B playing, and while they’re very talented, they still lost games and particularly struggled in defence. So depth on the bench was one reason”.
“They also tried to play differently, less predictably. But when there is a game every three days, that is difficult – you are just playing for your lives. It was a strange situation. And you have to also say that the run from Real Madrid [at the end] was fantastic”.
What should Barcelona do?
“Barcelona can never win everything. They’ve won eight of the last 12 titles. Important players have left the club, so it has taken time to adapt”.
“I think what they’re trying to do is the right way. They are trying to make a transition and bring some new players on, and bring in some young players from the academy. It’s difficult to find players when you’ve got those at the level of Leo and [Sergio] Busquets, but it is true that new players need to come in and improve the tempos and the levels”.
“They also maybe need to experiment with formations. Yes, 4-3-3 is the philosophy of Barcelona but I think they should be more open to trying different things within the philosophy. It’s key.”
