Barcelona great hails Messi, Suarez, Neymar

Former Barcelona star Luis Suarez Miramontes has lavished praise on the club’s star forward trio of his namesake, Neymar and Lionel Messi.

The defending Spanish and European champions have turned in a pair of stupendous performances over the past week, thrashing bitter rivals Real Madrid 4-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu before returning to Camp Nou to demolish Roma 6-1 in the Champions League.

Neymar and Suarez have shouldered much of the burden in attack this season after Messi was sidelined by knee ligament damage at the end of September but the Argentina superstar marked his return to the starting line-up with a brace as Roma were put to the sword.

The 1960 Ballon d’Or winner Miramontes, who currently works for another of his former clubs Inter as a scout, told Marca: “Everything is going great guns. In Italy everyone is talking about Barca’s last two performances, which have been outstanding.

“I’ve never seen a trio like [Messi, Suarez and Neymar], no bones about it.

“The humility with which Messi has welcomed Suarez and Neymar into the team has been central to it.

“The three have shown an appreciation that by leaving their egos to one side they can go on and achieve great things.

“In adapting they’ve showed that they are intelligent human beings.”

Last season, Barcelona repeated the feat of their 2008-09 counterparts by winning the Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League treble and Miramontes believes the current vintage could stand alongside Pep Guardiola’s great team.

“If this Barca team go on as they have been, they will draw comparisons with Guardiola’s team,” he said.

“Last year they lifted three trophies, none of which were easy to win. At times we’ve been critical of the manager because he started to do strange things.

“The coaches aren’t the ones who win games, it’s the top-quality players that Barcelona have in their ranks that do.

“Luis Enrique has now realised this, he’s changed his approach, and it’s working a treat.”