Lionel Messi was like a “tyrant” in training and has helped “mask everything” badly at Barcelona in recent years, according to manager Ronald Koeman.
Barça were left without their talisman in August, when Messi left for Paris Saint-Germain on a free transfer after they were unable to fulfill a new contract that had been agreed with the attacking superstar.
The six-time Ballon d’Or winner scored 672 goals and assisted another 265 in 778 appearances during 17 trophy-rich seasons at Camp Nou.
Koeman’s side slowly entered the post-Messi era, having lost points to Athletic Bilbao and Granada in their first four LaLiga games and lost 3-0 to Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
And with his job apparently in jeopardy amid speculation that Barça is ready to move for Roberto Martinez, Koeman accepts Messi’s hidden performances for far too long.
“Lionel Messi disguised everything. He was so good and he won, “Koeman told Voetbal International.” Of course he had good players around, but he made a difference.
“Everyone looks better than they are thanks to him. This is not a criticism, but an observation. I knew how good he was, but it’s still nice to see him up close every day.
“Everything you would like to teach a footballer, in recognizing situations, in catching the ball under pressure, in ball speed, in finalizing; with Messi everything is a 10. Not normal, not normal!
“When we did a refinement practice during training, sometimes there were players who started hitting easy balls, a bit of a joke. But with Messi everything was: boom, boom, boom, boom.
“No frills, all functional. And he always wanted to win everything. We always play a round before training. If the ball spins about 20 times, the players in the center must have one more turn.
“If this happens three times in a row, the players will form two lines and the two that were in the middle then walk and get hit on the head and so on.
“I asked Messi if that had happened to him once. “Yes, once,” he said. All those years. With him, the older players have never lost an exercise against the young ones. It happened once and Messi was seriously upset about it for a week. Really, a tyrant ».
Messi failed in an attempt to move away from Barcelona last year and scored 38 goals in 47 games last season – 18 more goals than Barça’s second-highest scorer Antoine Griezmann, who has also left the club.
This includes 30 goals in LaLiga, which was an increase from 25 in the season before Koeman’s arrival.
Koeman fears Messi’s departure could have a big ripple effect, with the standards of some players – including fellow student Ansu Fati – slipping since Messi signed for PSG.
Last year he scored 50 goals: 30 goals, 20 assists. He was an example to others, “Koeman said. When we won the cup, Messi had won so many trophies, bigger than this one, but it turned out that the Copa del Rey really did something for him this time around.
“With those young players in there, he saw the future of the club. All those guys wanted to take a picture with him, I’ve never seen anything like it. That’s how big it was and it is. It was a shock to the whole city that he’s not here now. “
Koeman added: “The performance with Messi is perfect. Now sometimes we make a pass and throw evidence, where you had to throw the ball into a small goal, around a post.
“The other day I saw Ansu Fati shooting three meters wide, simply from lack of concentration. But he wouldn’t have done that if Messi was still there. Then, he settled down, Messi got furious. It never happened to [Messi].
“I have never met anyone other than Johan Cruyff with his footballing intelligence. Alfredo [Schreuder, Koeman’s assistant] sometimes he explained the exercises in English and Messi doesn’t speak very well. But after a few seconds he knew. ‘
Despite his job being in jeopardy ahead of Thursday’s trip to Cadiz, Koeman remains steadfast in his decision to step down as coach of the Netherlands in August 2020 to take over at Camp Nou.
“I don’t regret signing for Barcelona and leaving the Dutch team,” he said. “It’s in situations like these that I get the best out of myself and my team.”