Recently, the introduction of La Masia academy players like Ansu Fati into the Barcelona first team squad and some huge market transfers like Antonie Grizemann from Athletico Madrid and De Jong from Ajax, has raised the hope of fans and has gone a long way to douse the fears of many as regards Barcelona's future. With the Catalan giant's talisman Lionel Messi and the likes of Suarez, Pique, Sergio Busquets etc approaching their retirement age, there is need for Barcelona to start fortifying the team ahead of time.
The Argentine magician has been battling with injuries lately and has been kept out of action in order to recover. Within these period, Barcelona have struggled to balance their game and get the proper motivation. Ernesto Valverde's flaws and ineptitude always become more conspicuous when the Argentine is on the sideline. Without him in the squad to pull some magical stunts and navigate Barcelona through Stormy encounters, Valverde most times appear clueless on the next step to take in order to salvage a defeat.
Despite bringing in some new signings into his squad, it seems the team is yet to get over their dependence on the Argentine and it makes me wonder how long Messi will continue to shoulder the team. In few years times, he will retire, is this how Barcelona will struggle as an average team just like Real Madrid is doing now after the departure of Christiano Rinaldo? While Messi was absent because of injury, the fans craved for his return because he still holds the magic wand of Barcelona's motivation. Though it was nice to watch him play against Inter Milan in the Champions league, it would have been more appropriate to start him in the second half.
Barcelona and Valverde are overworking Messi, and they need to put this into consideration. He needs to allow the injury to heal totally to enable him play his games with joy and contest for balls naturally without being afraid of upsetting a not too healed wound. Though the medical team confirmed him fit for the Clash, I still don't think it was right for him to play full 90 minutes. But come to think of it, if he wasn't there, Barcelona would have probably lost the game or at most drew at Camp Nou. He provided the assist for Suarez to net the winning goal and served as a huge distraction on the pitch. The bigger games are coming up and Barcelona can't afford to have Messi injured during those games if there must go far this season. However, if they continue to overplay him, he may be overworked and may not deliver when it matters the most.
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