Lionel Messi's penalty woes: What's caused them, and how to fix them
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Updated 14/03/2016 at 10:01 GMT
Lionel Messi used to be good at taking penalties. Not any more.
Lionel Messi of Barcelona talks to Getafe's goalkeeper Vicente Guaita
Image credit: Reuters
The record books will show that, on Saturday, the Barcelona superstar missed a penalty for the fourth time in eight attempts this season.
Now, things for Messi aren't quite as bad as that sounds: one of Messi's "misses" was actually the pass he laid on for Luis Suarez - or possibly Neymar, depending on whom you believe - in the infamous "two-man" penalty set-piece against Celta Vigo last month.
Messi did get credited with an assist for that one, however. Statistics, eh?
Missing three of eight is still a poor return, when you consider that the likes of Rickie Lambert went years without missing from the spot.
Worst of all for Barcelona, it's not just Messi who is affected: Barcelona have missed 10 of their 20 penalties so far this season - or once again, nine of 20 if you discount the two-man effort.
The very fact that Barcelona resorted to a two-man penalty actually says it all about the lack of confidence from 12 yards that pervades a team that otherwise seems flawless - as does the fact that they have chopped-and-changed penalty takers, given Messi's own troubles in finding the net consistently.
And those troubles are serious, because right now the best team in Europe have the worst penalty record in Europe.
What is going wrong? And how can it be fixed?
CHANGE OF TECHNIQUE
Eurosport regular contributor Ben Lyttleton wrote the book on penalties - quite literally: it's called 'Twelve Yards - The Art and Psychology of the Perfect Penalty'.
And writing last year, after Messi missed a spot kick against Manchester City 12 months after scoring one against the same goalkeeper, he blamed a major change in Messi's approach for his troubles - namely a move from one strategy to another:
"Twelve months ago, Messi scored from the spot in the same stadium; at that point it was 0-0 and Messi waited for Joe Hart to make the first move before rolling the ball in the opposite corner," Lyttleton wrote. "Hart moved early, and Messi scored comfortably.
"Fast forward to Tuesday, though, and things have changed: including Messi¹s mind-set. Hart saved the penalty (he waited before diving a little longer than before) and Messi headed the rebound wide. Messi has now missed five of his last 10 penalties in all competitions, and four of his last seven for Barcelona. This season, he has missed three out of six.
All of those misses have come since he changed his penalty strategy. Until late in the 2013-14 season, Messi used the Goalkeeper-Dependent method. This is when players wait for the goalkeeper to make the first move, and strike the ball in the opposite direction. Over time, it has been proven to be the more successful method. It is used in today¹s game by Eden Hazard, Yaya Toure and Mario Balotelli but technically it is harder than the Goalkeeper-Independent method, which involves picking a spot regardless of where the goalkeeper may dive. - Ben Lyttleton
MESSI'S WORST EVER MISS SHOWS HOW IMPORTANT IT CAN BE
Lyttleton continued his analysis by looking at arguably Messi's worst-ever penalty miss, on the night that an ailing Chelsea side somehow put the all-conquering Catalans out of the Champions League in 2012:
"The most famous, and costly, example of Messi using the Goalkeeper-Dependent method came in Barcelona¹s Champions League semi-final second leg against Chelsea at Camp Nou. At the time, Barcelona were 2-1 up (2-2 on aggregate) and had a man advantage after John Terry¹s first-half red card. Four minutes into the second half, Didier Drogba tripped Cesc Fabregas and Messi stepped up to take the penalty.
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Messi hits the bar against Chelsea in 2012 from a penalty
Image credit: Reuters
"Petr Cech had studied Messi¹s methodology and knew that he liked to wait for the keeper to make the first move. So Cech did not commit. He waited and waited, and forced Messi to make the decision for himself. Messi went for the roof of the net, doubling his margin for error (you can hit the ball too high, but you can never hit it too low), and his effort struck the crossbar."
PRESSURE GETTING TOO MUCH?
Even Messi is human, and has admitted that pressure gets to him - anyone who remembers his largely disappointing displays in the knockout stages of the 2014 World Cup will agree with that assessment - and never more so than when he stands over a penalty.
And against Getafe on Saturday, that certainly seemed to be the case. He stood for an age at the edge of the box, then looked directly at the spot he'd picked before putting his head down and committing to his shot.
The shot itself was low, but fairly weak and far too central, making for a simple save for Getafe's goalkeeper Vicente Guaita. And we can hardly credit Guaita with super-human powers between the sticks, considering that he picked the ball out of his net no fewer than six times at other points on Saturday afternoon.
In short, Messi looked nervous to the point of amateurishness in his effort.
DOES IT MATTER? AND HOW CAN IT BE FIXED?
It's tempting to write off Barcelona's penalty woes as unimportant at a time when they enjoy multiple-goal thumpings on a weekly basis in La Liga.
And Gerard Pique was dismissive when quizzed about the issue after Saturday's game: "In important games, when things are on the line and we have to score them, we will score them," he insisted.
But that's easier to say than it is to do. If Barcelona are to repeat last season's treble, there will come a moment when the chips are down in a Champions League knockout match, or perhaps the Copa del Rey final against an impressive Sevilla in May.
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Luis Enrique hoists the Champions League trophy after completing a treble with Barcelona in his first season in charge
Image credit: AFP
THE ANSWER
When he wrote his analysis this time last year, Lyttleton suggested two possible fixes.
The first was that Barcelona turn to a different penalty taker - something which has been tried intermittently this season, with no success. Neymar and Suarez have both missed a couple of penalties themselves, (Neymar has scored three out of five in the league, Suarez one out of three). That has led to the ball consistently ending up back with Messi more often than not.
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Neymar, right, and Lionel Messi
Image credit: PA Sport
The other solution was that Messi returns to the "goalkeeper dependent" method; as seen on Saturday, he has not yet gone down that route.
But why not? Has Luis Enrique, for all his undoubted talent as a coach, ordered his best player not to try cheeky penalties? Has Messi's nerve from 12 yards gone to such an extent that he now doesn't trust himself to read the keeper and place the ball accordingly? Or does the player himself believe that too may keepers - like Cech - had seen though his technique and found a way to combat it?
Given that neither approach has worked, maybe it's time Barcelona tried something different: take penalty duties away from all three of their MSN, and give them to one of the midfielders or defenders - Andres Iniesta, perhaps?
It might not be better, but frankly right now it could scarcely be much worse.
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