Lionel Messi’s brief bursts of effort during matches helped him to maintain the same levels of performance he had as a youngster, according to his ex-manager, Pep Guardiola.
Messi dazzled with 2 goals and 2 assists in Barcelona’s 5-1 La Liga smashing of Real Valladolid days back which lifted Barcelona to the top of the table.
However, with the Argentine clocking 33 at the end of this season, retirement looms and Pep believes his present way of playing is an advantage for him.
He added that he was very lucky to coach him at Barcelona.
His words, “One day Messi will retire and Barca will cope with that,”
“What needs to be prepared is the space for the statue, the way to pay tribute to him like [Laszlo] Kubala or Johan [Cruyff], and I’ve no doubt they’ll find it.
“Stars need to run like anyone else, if not the team can’t cope, you need to convince them to run. Sometimes, you say to them ‘I won’t make you run 40 metres like the 20-year-old athlete in the team, but give me a reason not to run’.
“If someone doesn’t run, but scores three goals every game I can buy that, but nobody scores three goals a game, only Messi comes close.
“Right now, you need to ask Messi to make short bursts of effort. He can’t run for the sake of running, no way. If Leo ran like he ran in his first season with me he’d be injured every three months. Managing legends of 30 and above is the hardest thing for a coach.”
“There are great coaches who have won nothing because they didn’t have Messi,”
“I was lucky enough to have him, and Xavi and [Andres] Iniesta and Dani Alves and [Gerard] Pique. And what’s more, at the perfect age.
“There is not one player who doesn’t think about defending at all, but you have to adapt to the qualities of your players.
“When Barcelona played better it was with [Michael] Laudrup at false nine and then Messi.
“I tried it at Bayern Munich, but there wasn’t a player who could dribble past three players and then score, so we had to look for alternatives.”
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