Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Is Barcelona’s front three now the best ever?

Barcelona's front three of Lionel Messi, Neymar and luis suarez helped the catalan giants record a 5-3 aggregate victory over Bayern Munich in the champions League semi-finals

Barcelona’s front three of Lionel Messi, Neymar and luis suarez helped the Catalan giants record a 5-3 aggregate victory over Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-finals

Last night Barcelona lost 3-2 at Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-final second leg, but won the tie 5-3 on aggregate.

The Catalan giants now face the potential prospect of facing arch-rivals Real Madrid in the first ever Clasico Champions League final, although Los Blancos have to overcome a stubborn Juventus team tonight to make that happen.

Crucial

Barcelona’s five goals over the two legs were all scored by their fantastic threesome of Neymar, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi. Three of those were scored by Brazilian superstar Neymar and two by the irrepressible Messi.

The third member of the trio Luis Suarez was also accredited with a few assists along the way. The trio quite simply have every tool in their locker to unlock any defence.

Matured

When Neymar arrived at Barcelona in the summer of 2013 from Santos he was regarded as one of the brightest young players in the world game. However, he had a reputation for being something of a selfish player on the pitch.

His early rise to stardom at Santos meant that he was lauded from an early age. It seemed he came into the Barcelona team rather naively expecting to still be the star turn.

That youthful naivety was soon swept away by the reality that everybody at Barcelona plays second fiddle to the immensely talented Messi. Neymar struggled to settle in his first season in Catalonia.

This season though he seems like a different player. He has scored 38 goals in all competitions and there seems to be less petulant behaviour from the 23-year-old. Reportedly his relationship with Messi has blossomed on and off the pitch.

The Brazilian has praised Messi and stated that he learns something new from him every day. The youngster is starting to mature and is becoming a better player for learning from Messi. They enjoy playing together and you can see that from their performances and Barcelona’s results.

Unselfish

The third member of that deadly trio, Luis Suarez, has definitely added something different to the Barcelona attack this season. Suarez has always been a team player, someone who will run all day for the team.

At Liverpool maybe he was slightly greedier with the ball, but he would still pass the ball to a teammate if he was in a better position than himself to score a goal. The Uruguayan has slightly adapted his game in Catalonia.

He does a lot of dirty work for the Catalan giants and his assist record this season suggests that he is now a more complete player. His statistics for this season are impressive, with 17 assists and 24 goals in all competitions, despite missing the first few months of the campaign through suspension.

Suarez does not seem to mind being a supporting act for Messi, or at times Neymar, because the team are winning and he could collect a whole host of medals this season. At Liverpool he had an outside chance of winning trophies, at Barcelona he is almost guaranteed to win them.

The 28-year-old also seems to have formed a bond with Messi and Neymar, despite the fact that they are all from rival South American countries.

Messi

There is very little left to say about Lionel Messi that has not already been said. Bayern Munich and former-Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola has stated that he believes Messi is the best player of all-time and at the moment it is hard to argue with that.

Messi enjoyed a relatively quiet night at the Allianz Arena, collecting just the one assist to add to his 23 assists and 53 goals for the season in all competitions. His brilliance helped Barcelona to a 3-0 win in the first leg, so he deserved a slight quiet night by his extraordinary standards.

Messi is the star at Barcelona, yet at times comes across as a humble guy, which is strange considering his status in world football. The fact that he willing to sacrifice his own goal records for the sake of an assist for a teammate shows that he is very much a team player.

Deserved

Suarez and Neymar may have cost the club from Catalonia big fees, but watching them play with Messi they have to be regarded as value for money. The trio are not just selfish goal hungry individuals, but are part of a team.

If Barcelona does not claim the Champions League crown this season then it will be a major shock, because their front three have been simply outstanding this season and could have a claim to be the best ever strike-force the game has ever seen.

Is Barcelona’s front three now the best ever?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Nugent


David is a freelance football writer with nearly a decade of experience writing about the beautiful game. The experienced writer has written for over a dozen websites and also an international soccer magazine offline.
Arguably his best work has come as an editorial writer for Soccernews, sharing his good, bad and ugly opinions on the world’s favourite sport. During David’s writing career he has written editorials, betting previews, match previews, banter, news and opinion pieces.

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  • Buzybee

    0 0

    4 me this trio will 4eva be mentioned whether the real madrid faithfulls lyk it or not!!!during the BBC dominance every1 were prasing them,bt they only won la decima…my barca are the treble winnerz,the only team 2 eva win 2 trebles…do I need 2 say more

  • Kennedy

    0 0

    thy are the best three now, until another Trinity appears.

  • Bob

    0 0

    Why always looking for those tags like ” best ever”
    You can never choose/say who or what are the” best”.until the end!
    Mabye in 2040 there wil be footballers that score 100 goals a season! Who knows!
    Mabye around 2103 there will be a footballer that is fast, strong, scores 50+ goals, makes assists, defends AND manages to be a decent goaly!
    Idk! We people should stop looking for ” the best” and just enyoy the(current) ‘good’

    so yeah, enough about that!
    Now about the question( are M.N.S ” the best” trio atm)
    My awnser is: No
    Are they in great vorm?; YES
    Are they playing well togeter?: YES
    but facts are:
    – the barca team isn’t just those three
    – they had a bad start
    – this is just a ( short?) period where they play really well togeter cuz they hit the right vorm.

    Last season ( or year) there was a moment
    Where benzema, ronaldo, bale worked REALLY well! Ronaldo was bagging in goals, benzema aswel, ans bale had allot of assists and scored some important goals aswel! Around then ppl said” this trio is unstopable! Better than others blablahla real madrid wil go unbeaten! #RBBisbesttrioever
    But atm they arnt working well( why?i think cuz of the bad shape of the team, the stress, missing a fit modric, the stress put on bale, losing. Important matches etc.) is the barca trio better than real?
    NO
    Is the real trio better than barca? NO
    You/we can’t really speak about. That honestly.
    Couple of months ago, the real trio had a better vorm, played better and had better results.

    Atm it’s the barca trio wirh better vorm and results
    Who knows after the summer it wil be real wirh the upper hand, or mabye both team’s topstrikers wil play” bad”
    Who knows
    You should not ask which one is the best trio, but which on has the (current) better vorm/luck

  • Bob

    0 0

    Why always looking for those tags like ” best ever”
    You can never choose/say who or what are the” best”.until the end!
    Mabye in 2040 there wil be footballers that score 100 goals a season! Who knows!
    Mabye around 2103 there will be a footballer that is fast, strong, scores 50+ goals, makes assists, defends AND manages to be a decent goaly!
    Idk! We people should stop looking for ” the best” and just enyoy the(current) ‘good’

    so yeah, enough about that!
    Now about the question( are M.N.S ” the best” trio atm)
    My awnser is: No
    Are they in great vorm?; YES
    Are they playing well togeter?: YES
    but facts are:
    – the barca team isn’t just those three
    – they had a bad start
    – this is just a ( short?) period where they play really well togeter cuz they hit the right vorm.

    Last season ( or year) there was a moment
    Where benzema, ronaldo, bale worked REALLY well! Ronaldo was bagging in goals, benzema aswel, ans bale had allot of assists and scored some important goals aswel! Around then ppl said” this trio is unstopable! Better than others blablahla real madrid wil go unbeaten! #RBBisbesttrioever
    But atm they arnt working well( why?i think cuz of the bad shape of the team, the stress, missing a fit modric, the stress put on bale, losing. Important matches etc.) is the barca trio better than real?
    NO
    Is the real trio better than barca? NO
    You/we can’t really speak about. That honestly.
    Couple of months ago, the real trio had a better vorm, played better and had better results.

    Atm it’s the barca trio wirh better vorm and results
    Who knows after the summer it wil be real wirh the upper hand, or mabye both team’s topstrikers wil play” bad”
    Who knows
    You should not ask which one is the best trio, but which on has the (current) better vorm/luck

  • Kennedy

    0 0

    thy are the best three now, until another Trinity appears.

  • Buzybee

    0 0

    4 me this trio will 4eva be mentioned whether the real madrid faithfulls lyk it or not!!!during the BBC dominance every1 were prasing them,bt they only won la decima…my barca are the treble winnerz,the only team 2 eva win 2 trebles…do I need 2 say more

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