22 Sep 2014
Lionel Messi is yet to hit the goalscoring form of recent years this season, but coach Luis Enrique says that the Argentine striker will be the best player in the world at every position including defence. Messi contributed in terms of assists to the 2-0 win over Athletic Bilbao during the weekend. Barcelona looked in danger of dropping points for the first time this season after failing to find a way past Athletic Bilbao despite having several chances in the match. Neymar finally eased the tension around the Camp Nou by scoring two goals towards the end.
Messi may not have been on the scoresheet, but he created both the goals for Neymar. Enrique, who has received a lot of plaudits for the way he has once again transformed Barcelona into a winning machine, says that Messi could be the best player in the world even if he plays in defence. Such is the commitment of the 27-year-old that he is happy to have him in the team. There have been a number of question marks about the Argentine superstar in the last six months. Last season, he was in and out of the Barcelona team due to a succession of injuries, while he looked lethargic and tired during the World Cup 2014.
"Messi isn’t only the best for his goals but for his assists. If he wanted to be the best defender around he would be. He does things that people couldn't do on a Playstation video game console. A team is formed to unite different personalities and profiles of players. I’m happy with what I have. I won’t explain why whoever plays to the players and I won’t do it here. We always hope to have the best version of each player. Any individual thing is easy to achieve but overall, the coordination of everything, means many hours of training,” said Enrique.