Lionel Messi has looked a little out of sorts in recent times, and the stats back that up.
According to ESPN, the Barcelona superstar has now gone six games at the start of this season without a goal from open play.
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As they state in their tweet below, that’s Messi’s longest such drought since the start of the 2005/06 season – an incredible 15 years ago…
Messi has 0 goals from open play in 6 games this season.
His longest open play goal drought to start a season since 2005-06. pic.twitter.com/HhAL5Xipt3
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) October 25, 2020
This is certainly not the Messi we’ve got used to, and it would be a real shame if we’re starting to witness the decline of the Argentine maestro.
Messi has established himself as perhaps the greatest footballer of all time, but at the age of 33 he may now be losing his great powers.
It hasn’t helped that Barcelona have also generally been a bit of a mess in recent times, with no real sign of improvement under new manager Ronald Koeman.
One imagines the goals will soon come for Messi, but these numbers do show just how out of character this is for the forward.