When Lionel Messi tearfully limped off the field during Barcelona's Champions League victory over Celtic a few weeks back, millions of Barca fans worldwide all thought the same thing; "Well, this season's over." In a split second, all of the optimism over the team's recent form, the fact that they were about to advance to the Champions League quarterfinals, and having clawed back to within 2 points of Madrid in La Liga had vanished. No one was realistically thinking "Hey, do you think we can still do this without him?" No, instead our thoughts turned to "Do you think we can convince Mourinho to take over for next season?"
This whole situation of course points to bigger problems for the club. No club, especially one as rich with money and talent as Barcelona should be so reliant on one player that the loss of that player effectively dooms their season. Sure Messi is one of the best players on the planet, but the fact that the team feels that they need him at 100% in every game to have any chance of winning is a huge problem. Just watch a game where they play without him; they're a completely different team. The whole squad looks down, disinterested, and depressed.
It also points to the problem of Messi being fragile. He's only twenty years old, but people are already beginning to wonder if he's doomed to be one of those players who never really reach their full potential due to constant injury problems. Will he have to change his style of play to avoid getting hurt in the future? Will he ever be able to play a full season? Only time will tell.
Lastly, the Messi injury may have put the final nail in the coffin for Frank Rijkaard. The revelation by team doctors that they warned Rijkaard after the teams previous game against Atletico that playing Messi against Celtic would be a huge injury risk only makes matters worse for the manager. So why did Rijkaard start him in the home leg of a tie that they already had pretty well wrapped up? Supposedly, because the press talked him into it. They were unhappy about the fact that he hadn't started in the loss to Atletico, so they put the pressure on the manager to get him in against Celtic. Taking the advice of the media over the advice of the team doctors is inexcusable, and hopefully Rijkaard will repeat that type of mistake when he's coaching Chelsea next season.
After last weekend saw Barca again fall 8 points behind Madrid, the press officially dubbed the La Liga season as over. Even the most positive thinking Barca fan has to agree. The team did get a much needed piece of good luck this morning though, when they were drawn against Schalke in the Champions League quarterfinals. Not to take anything away from the German side, but they are one of the only teams remaining in the competition who Barca can realistically handle even without Messi. If they do advance to the semifinals, Messi may be back to play in them. His return to the field, and his return to some level of fitness is the teams only chance of winning the Champions League, which is the only conceivable way to avoid this season having been a total loss.
-Dizzer
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Thing I'm looking at is that La Liga can be so damn unpredictable at times. I still feel like there is a race to be ran there, although Madrid falling 8 points is stretching it.
I also think Barca has looked very impressive at times w/out Messi. There seems to be some inconsistency there as a whole. I watch every one of their games, and it doesn't really seem to matter who's out there, theyre just so hit or miss sometimes. Despite that, however, I still back Rijkaard 100%. I think he's brilliant. I don't want to see Barca playing Mourinho football, as much as I like the dude.
But when it comes down to it, I'm dying to see a fully healthy Lionel. Get well soon. I'm favoring n the Catalans for the CL title ;)
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