Such are the ridiculously high standards he has set himself during the last eight years that a disaster in the career of Lionel Messi constitutes three games without scoring.
This happens once a season, but just as the doubters are starting to suggest he is not the player he was – or that he has lost some of the magic which made him probably the greatest footballer of all-time – he silences them. He did it last season with a treble against Mallorca. Then it was business as usual, with more goals and more individual awards.
Messi's latest drought is his worst since April 2011. His failure to score in Friday's Catalan derby against Espanyol was his fourth league game without a goal. Barcelona won, but he did not play well and his team struggled to overcome their neighbours.
As has been the case for much of the past month, Neymar was Barcelona’s most potent attacker, the one easiest on the eye and with the jaw-dropping moments of skill. Messi looked frustrated that his body could not do what he wanted. When he has dips, he retreats inward. Friends wish he would open up more so that they can help him be himself.
Barcelona are preaching tranquillity and calm, that there is no issue and that they are not worried about their Argentina forward.
“I continue to think the same about him,” his Barca coach Gerardo Martino said.
“I don’t think he is worried. It is a coincidence, in the same way that it is rare for a player to score at least a goal in every game of half a season [as Messi did last term]. It is rare that he goes three or four games without scoring. When you set the bar so high and then don’t score, it seems like there is a problem. For me, from what I see of him, there is no problem.”
There have been issues, however, including three muscle injuries this year. His recoveries have been planned around the football calendar, rather than his body. Messi’s father Jorge said: “The injuries have affected Leo. He really wants to avoid another relapse. But no worries, he’ll be back soon.”
The inference is that he needed to be rested properly but was not. This is a huge season for Messi. The one trophy he has still to win is the World Cup. He wants to be right for next July. He also wants to be right now, but patience will be his greatest virtue as he learns to listen to his body until he’s 100 per cent fit.
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