Would Real Madrid Double Mark Lionel Messi and is Barcelona counting on that
It is no news Chelsea in the Champions League last year shut out Messi for large periods of the game. They did a great job to make sure Messi did not do well. Good players will always contribute one way or another and so did Messi and managed to get an assist but his record of scoring a goal every 87 minute did not hold true. He did not score a single goal for the entire 180 minutes because Chelsea had a great plan.
Even the best player in the world would get frustrated when he can’t score; scoring is the high that drives the world’s greatest players to push themselves to the next level.
When you allow a good player to score early; they will run circles around you later. Chelsea was not having any of that and decided to double and at times triple mark Messi. The plan paid dividend and Messi went scoreless.
Real Madrid should take a page out of Chelseas’ book; they should not allow Messi to be free. Triple Mark him in the beginning and reduce the marking as time goes on in the middle of the game, followed by increased marking towards the end.
Pellegrini and Alvaro Arbeloas have their work cut out for them but do posses great defensive skills to make sure they can keep Messi in check especially when double marking is in full force. Messi is likely to start from the right so Pellegrini and Arbeloas will be fully prepared and most likely watched every video of Messi to put together a plan of action.
Messi is also going to come to the game fully prepared and will shift his position according to in-game conditions. He is known to move away from the right and has played number of games as centre forward. This switching of position was in full force against Arsenal at Camp Nou in midweek, Messi drifted inside so many times that you would be pardoned for thinking that he was playing the role of a withdrawn centre-forward.
Messi will move and shift as he has to and create chances for himself and others in the game. If he moves to the centre, Dani Alves will shift to the right and if Messi is being double marked; the right side is going to be the best place for Dani to attack from. When defensive resources are not fully balanced, a weakness will appear and that is what Barcelona is relying on.
In the end, the best players in the world are good because they have this additional advantage; they have to practice harder than anyone else, they must have natural instincts and they would have to play harder than anyone else. In essence the double marking in the long run actually is better for Messi, it makes him better and with every game forward he will get better and better.
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