Lionel Messi, arguably the greatest ever player to play this game is unfortunately not in the best of his form. He may not be in the twilight of his career but probably his age has taken a toll on him.

The Argentine superstar has scored just one goal in four appearances this campaign. On top of that, he put in a below-par performance in the defeat at Getafe last weekend.

The 33-year-old’s only goal of this season was a penalty against Villarreal. More alarmingly, he has scored just seven goals in 19 appearances since football resumed in Spain in June and out of the seven, four were penalties.

Messi has averaged close to a goal per game for much of the past decade, so it is certainly a matter of concern.

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Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman said, as quoted by Sport: “It may be that Messi’s performance could be better at the moment, but he is happy, he wants to be team captain and is improving. He also had bad luck with the ball to the post and on the last play of the game. I have no doubt in his performance and we will see it in the next matches.”

Barcelona needs their star man in his best form right now as there are some very important fixtures coming up. The Catalans will play in the Champions League before hosting Real Madrid in this season’s first El Clasico this weekend.

Do check out:

https://technosports.co.in/2020/10/18/barcelona-and-real-madrid-defeated-by-1-0-what-it-means-for-el-clasico/