5 underrated performances from Lionel Messi’s Barcelona career
By Steve Zavala
Barcelona 5-1 Valencia – 2011-12 La Liga
Messi’s 2011-12 campaign is widely regarded as one of the greatest seasons ever by a footballer. Over 60 games in six competitions, he totaled for a European-record 73 goals to go along with 29 assists. He wound up recording a goal or assist against every team he faced over the season aside from Spanish side Sporting Gijon.
Messi tacked on more world-class performances to his career resume over the season, such as his five goals against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League and trio of goals against Real Madrid in the Spanish Super Cup. One other prolific performance from that season was his four-goal showing against Valencia in a home league fixture.
The game pitted Pep Guardiola’s second-place Barcelona against Unai Emery’s third-place Valencia. The Blaugrana desperately needed the win to keep pace with league-leading Real Madrid.
As expected, Messi put on a clinic in his false nine position — a role which tasks the center-forward with the freedom to drop in behind from his line upfront. Messi exhibited exceptional awareness of just when to veer over to the flanks or into the half-space, which allowed for wingers Pedro and Alexis Sanchez to shift into the vacant center-forward space. His ability to drop and collect the ball from the middle third shuffled Valencia’s defensive gaps from their four at the back, which allowed for Barca teammates to exploit with runs in behind.
As shown by his pass map from the game, he was everywhere on the pitch.
On the score sheet, Messi recorded four goals for the first time in his La Liga career. His first two goals came from his superb spacial awareness within the box and runs to pounce on loose balls for goals. His fourth was the highlight of the night. With Valencia in a disorganized high line, Messi took advantage by making an off-ball run in behind Valencia’s defensive line. He capped it all off by receiving the incoming through ball from Sergio Busquets and charging ahead for a chipped finish over Valencia goalkeeper Diego Alves.
In total, Messi contributed to 17 of Barcelona’s 31 total shots with 10 shots taken and seven goal-scoring chances created.
This showing jump-started a historic run of games in his storied career; he scored 27 goals over his final 15 games of the league season.