Cast your mind back to October 2015. Lionel Messi clashed with Las Palmas defender Pedro Bigas Rigo after 10 minutes of a Liga match. Despite his game attempts at carrying on, the Argentine was done.
Barcelona were rocked; they knew there and then they would have to do without their talisman and best player for up to two months. A hard game ensued in the Canary Islands and Barca only just managed to scrape through, 2-1.
That day, Luis Suarez demonstrated that he had the personality – and class – to take over the mantle of Barca’s attacking chief. It was Suarez who scored the two goals, single-handedly taking the fight to the Islanders and relighting a title campaign that threatened to go out after a midweek defeat to Celta Vigo.
Barca could not recover their composure sufficiently to beat Sevilla a few days later but, over the course of the next four league matches, Suarez made a dash towards becoming Barcelona’s most important player. There was a goal and two assists against Rayo Vallecano. There was a hat trick against Eibar. There was a goal against Getafe and a goal and assist against Villarreal.
Messi was fit enough to make the bench for Barca’s next fixture – which happened to be the Clasico against Real Madrid – and took to the field for the last 30 minutes. By that stage the game was wrapped up thanks – largely – to the contributions of Suarez and his two goals. He had done the hard work so Messi didn’t have to.
That’s the way it’s been since Suarez signed on from Liverpool. The energy and aggression in the Uruguayan’s game has permitted another evolution for Messi. Messi is no longer the ‘false 9’ of the Pep Guardiola era. He is much more multifaceted these days and is as effective as a creator – supplier – scorer as he was during his time at the very point of the Barca attack.
Now stationed on the right, he has the freedom to roam where he can best affect the game. That has been facilitated by the signing of Suarez. Messi gave his approval on a move from the centre and with that shift in position came a new Barcelona.
You knew what you were going to get under Guardiola but the implementation of the Messi-Suarez-Neymar axis has given Barca more attacking weapons than ever. They hurt you with the ball but they can also play a ruthless counter-attacking game. Leading that is Suarez. He, not Messi, is the one who sets the tone for Barca’s press. He is quicker across the ground than Messi and can press with more intensity than his Argentine counterpart. It frees up Messi – who has had to deal with more injuries as the years go by – to put in a shift when he has the ball at his feet or when he can smell a goal. Without this, Suarez we wouldn’t have that Messi.
“He has so much to offer the team and it is a pleasure to play alongside him,” Messi said in January. “We also have a very good relationship off the pitch and I am very happy to be sharing everything with him.”
As the 2015-16 La Liga season closed in, Barcelona were slipping from their perch. They had endured a terrible run of form at the wrong time. There were four winless matches – including a Clasico defeat to a resurgent Real Madrid – and it appeared that the Catalans might be overhauled for the title. Luis Suarez then arrived with the most extraordinary run of individual goalscoring form that football has ever seen.
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Barcelona won five matches in a row to ease to the title, scoring 24 goals in the process. Suarez scored 14 of those, including a hat trick in the final game of the season against Granada. Before that, he had scored four goals against both Deportivo La Coruna and Sporting Gijon. In the Depor game alone, he was involved in a world-record seven goals.
When Barcelona needed to conjure something special, Suarez delivered. He scored 59 goals in 53 matches across all competitions last season, earning the Golden Shoe in the process. He was top scorer in La Liga and the Club World Cup. The two times when Barca couldn’t look to Messi, Suarez stepped in.
His signing transformed Messi and transformed Barca into a more complete team – and it is this reason why Suarez was ranked second in the Goal 50 and Leo was only fourth.
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