Anatomy of a Genius: Messi the False 9 [Sample]
In this FREE sample chapter of Anatomy of a Genius: Leo Messi's Tactical Evolution at FC Barcelona, we dissect Leo the False 9. What's the secret behind one of the scariest versions of Messi to date?
By now, the cat is out of the bag - I wrote a book! Anatomy of a Genius: Leo Messi’s Tactical Evolution at FC Barcelona is the culmination of (approximately) a year’s worth of research, interviewing, relentless watching of footage and dissecting of one of the greatest players to ever grace a football pitch.
The topic of Messi, of course, is a path (very) well-trodden; countless books, articles, podcasts and even movies are a testament to that. But I wanted to do something different. Something bold. Something… Unique. Everyone knows Messi is good, as big of an understatement that is. But not many know the how or the why behind the footballing deity we’ve all grown so fond of watching week in, week out. That’s where this book comes in.
Anatomy of a Genius: Leo Messi’s Tactical Evolution at FC Barcelona aims to put an exciting twist on an old story, not only bringing Messi’s otherworldly achievements to life but also explaining them in detail - not show you THIS is what Messi has done but rather this is HOW he’s done it.
If something has always bugged me about the narrative surrounding Leo, it’s the perception of a great player never leaving his comfort zone or proving himself in different systems and structures. As a tactical mind, this was something I wanted to personally rectify. So I did, expressing it through what I loved the most: writing. That’s how this book came to be, through a union of my two passions of Barça and writing, with a subtle blend of tactical nuance and personal stakes on the line.
I wouldn’t go as far as to call this book a vendetta but in a way, perhaps, it is my way of responding to the haters, name-callers and non-believers. You don’t have to like Messi the person or Messi the player. You don’t have to consider him the greatest of all time. You don’t even have to bother watching him (too much). But to deny his (almost) limitless talent and influence on the sports industry as a whole would be objectively wrong - as much as anything can be objective in football.
With that said, I’ll let you read this free sample chapter of the book which focuses on Messi’s false 9 years and hopefully, it helps you make the decision on whether you want to purchase it or not. And who knows, maybe it even changes your perception of Messi himself.
Either way, I appreciate the overwhelming support so far and hope you’ll enjoy reading this book as much as I did writing it.
Here are the links to Amazon, Book Depository and Pitch Publishing’s official website which contains other sources as well.
Happy reading!
Sincerely,
(…)
Even though it may not be as complete as the versions that followed it, the false 9 era represents the absolute peak of Messi’s abilities, both physically and technically. The key, of course, lies in the new-found freedom that Pep Guardiola’s tactics afforded him and the role that unlocked his profile to flourish and ultimately ascend to new heights. This was also not an immediate change, as we’ve seen in the team analysis as well, since Leo would still be deployed as a winger in the first couple of seasons of Pep’s tenure despite the new false 9 role being introduced as early as 2009. The epiphany happened leading up to the legendary El Clásico clash that saw Messi terrorise Los Blancos and lead Barcelona towards victory. For a youngster to do something like that against one of the biggest clubs in the world in one of the biggest matches on the planet is almost unheard of and will likely not be replicated any time soon either.
Jordi Costa outlines how the transition from winger to false 9 was indeed gradual, and it wasn’t really until Pep’s third season at the Camp Nou that the rebirth and reinvention of Messi would come to be:
‘In Guardiola’s first year, he [Messi] played the same way [as a wide winger], and in the second year, he played as a winger or sometimes behind [Zlatan] Ibrahimović, but the real change happened in Guardiola’s third year when he started to play as a ‘false’ centre-forward, close to Xavi and Iniesta and with very wide wingers (Pedro and Villa) opening spaces and offering deep lines of passing. To me, it was the best version of Messi.’
And indeed, considering how menacing and free-flowing he was, calling that version of Messi the best one is very much warranted. But let’s get back to the freedom Pep gave Leo, considering his movement and gravity.
Gravity is crucial here too; all players have it, but in bigger or smaller doses. To put it bluntly, gravity in football represents how big of a ‘magnet’ certain players are for defenders. Does their presence immediately put markers on alert? Does it pull them away from their positions? Does it break defensive structure? In Messi’s case, it’s a resounding yes to all three questions, so we can conclude that his gravity is an effective tool in the attacking phase. Looking at his heatmaps between 2009/10 and 2012/13, we can see that gradual transformation we talked about taking place.
In 2009/10, Messi was still very much a right-winger but with a tendency to cut inside on to his stronger left foot. Of course, seeing how his left is the deadlier one, this doesn’t exactly come as a big surprise. Even in his youth, as we’ve seen in the previous chapters, when he was a more natural wide winger Messi would still aim to position himself to make the best use of his left foot. But as the years went by, this became more and more evident. While the early Guardiola years represent a mix between a natural and an inverted winger, the third season onward is where the real change would happen, as Costa explained previously.
Notice how the heatmaps are slowly receding from the wide areas until he’s fully focused on the central channels, starting in 2011/12 and culminating in 2012/13. These were also the years of Leo’s explosion in front of goal, as we’ll shortly see through the data as well. But what we have to remember is that, despite his godly lethality, back then Messi wasn’t the complete forward we know today. Guardiola’s arrival was the first step on Leo’s journey to eventually becoming an elite playmaker too, which would only start to become apparent after Pep’s departure and with Luis Enrique’s appointment some years later.
The second era Messi was more concerned with scoring goals than he was with setting them up. And, at first, that seemed more or less in line with what we’ve seen from him so far in his career. After all, not many electric and incredibly attack-minded dribblers normally evolve into complete forwards in the span of a couple of years. But then again, nothing about Messi is or ever was considered ‘normal’ in the footballing sense.
So looking at his chance creation and assists clusters next, the first huge difference that’s most evident compared to the season prior is the sheer quantitative output. Under Rijkaard, Messi wasn’t meant to be the creator nor did anyone think he would eventually grow into one. Under Pep, this was still largely true but subtle hints were starting to drop here and there.
Looking at the numbers, we can see a huge jump in output. Messi went from 158 chances created and 26 assists from 2005/06 to 2008/09 to 258 chances created and 54 assists from 2009/10 to 2012/13. The change and improvement are drastic to say the least, which could be said of almost all major aspects of his player profile during the jump from era one to era two. This is where most of his ‘maturing’ as a player would take place too. Costa, again, emphasises that exact point as well.
‘When he was deployed in the “false” centre-forward position, he was a more mature player – he had more top players around him to make his life easier and, above all, he was closer to goal so his statistics increased automatically.’
Compared to the first era, Leo would also start deploying passes from deeper and more central positions. This is highly beneficial because the centre, in general, is an area of greater strategic advantage in the attacking phase.
Just by being in the centre, Messi was closer to goal but also had easier access to both flanks, which was beneficial for someone whose passing range and vision were rapidly improving. It was the team as a collective that would prosper from that immensely in the years to come. It has to be noted, however, that Barcelona were arguably never as powerful as they were in Guardiola’s years, and when the team as a whole is on such a high level, it inevitably balloons the individuals’ output as well.
Of course, Messi was so good that it seemed he was playing an entirely different sport at times, but his feats wouldn’t have been possible without such an extraordinary ‘supporting’ cast. Here, however, we’ll focus more on Leo himself while turning the limelight to the rest of the ensemble in the team analysis chapter. So going back to Messi, next we’ll take a look at his progressive carries in the opposition half.
The biggest difference compared to the first era is the starting position of all of the carries. As opposed to his early winger years, Messi was now much more centrally focused and would almost never hug the touchline and start his runs from the wide areas. Instead, he would receive possession in a deeper central position with a licence to progress in either direction afterwards. But this diversification of movement wouldn’t really come to light until later on in his career, with the birth of the MSN partnership (Lionel Messi – Luis Suárez – Neymar Jr.).
Under Pep and in his false 9 years, Messi would largely advance towards the left and into ‘zone 14’, located in the central channel of the pitch, immediately outside the opposition’s penalty area (see Appendix for a pitch grid). In 2012/13, we begin to see him dropping significantly deeper too, which was just a taste of what was to come very soon with Lucho (Luis Enrique) and especially following the collapse of MSN. But as much as it’s fun and interesting to dissect this aspect of his player profile, the false 9 Messi was never really about passing and creation.
It left crumbs that would eventually lead to incredible revelations, sure, but at that point in Leo’s career, his mind was firmly set on scoring and then scoring even more. Pep knew that. After all, this change in role and position was with the sole purpose of unleashing the beast from within. But before looking at shots and goals, let’s explore his penalty area entries first. There’s quite a story to be told here too.
The first glaring difference is obviously the output itself. In his first seasons under Rijkaard, Messi was a very talented but still timid young winger who wouldn’t attack the box nearly as much. This trait was about to change – and drastically so. But apart from just accessing the box much more often, Leo would also attack it from different angles. Being a natural right-winger in his youth, the only real access he had to the opposition’s penalty area was through that right wing, largely resulting in entrances to the left of ‘zone 18’ and the right of ‘zone 17’ (area close to the right edge of the box). But with a far more central role, he would now suddenly get access to both sides of the box.
Naturally, that resulted in much more diverse penalty area entries than before, going towards both the left side and the right side of the box. But the real magic happened once he finally reached his favourite shooting positions. Marsden describes it perfectly:
‘Here you’ve got the years where he moved to a more central position, where he was more difficult to pin down – the false 9. He’s still got those original attributes where he’s tricky and quick but becomes a goalscoring machine, a brutal finisher as well.’
And a goalscoring machine is very much the right way to describe Messi’s false 9 days. He started shooting and scoring at an alarmingly high rate compared to seasons past, registering 161 goals from 663 shots and a total of 103.009 npxG. Needless to say, the 53 goals from the first era don’t even come close to his prime false 9 years, nor do his 281 shots and the 36.789 npxG value. This Messi was a completely new and improved player compared to his old self, not only because of his lethal finishing, but also his general awareness and decision-making too.
Marsden explains it well again.
‘Then there was a click when he realised: “Hang on, I can still do this and fit into the Barça style a bit more by knowing when to pass and when to run.” So I guess awareness and decision-making was the first big improvement in his career.’
This would come in handy for him personally, but it served the collective much more.
(…)
I hope you enjoyed this short sample which should give you a taste of the book. If so, consider buying Anatomy of a Genius: Leo Messi’s Tactical Evolution at FC Barcelona by following one of the links outlined here: