Is Messi's best yet to come?

Lionel Messi is nicely placed to take his extravagant game to yet another level after adapting beautifully to a deeper position at Barcelona.

Lionel Messi is already a four-time Ballon d'Or winner (Getty) Source: Getty Images Europe

Observers of the European game will have noticed that Messi has been entrusted with a different role this season.

The man seen by many as the best player in the world is spearheading Barcelona's assault on Spain's La Liga and the UEFA Champions League.

The Spanish giant is four points clear of Real Madrid at the top of La Liga with nine games to play and faces Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc des Princes in the first leg of the UCL quarter-finals next week.

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Messi will be the main threat facing PSG as it tries to become only the second French club after Olympique Marseille in 1993 to win European football's highest club honour.

Barca manager Luis Enrique may have discovered the ideal position for his talisman Messi by deploying him in the hole, behind the two strikers and with the freedom to roam to his heart's content.

Barca still plays 4-3-3 but Messi is not leading the line like he used to do so successfully under Pep Guardiola.

With Luis Suarez and Neymar more than capable of getting their share of goals, it is not really necessary for Messi to be at the business end of the pitch.

By playing in a deeper role Messi is finding more space and getting less attention from rival defenders, which of course enables him to keep producing the kind of football that mesmerises the opposition.

On a recent visit to Barcelona's Camp Nou, I met Miguel Corominas, a defender who played professionally for the Blaugrana in the mid-1970s.

He told me, over a coffee at a designated Barca veterans' clubhouse situated in the bowels of the stadium, that Messi this season could become an even better player in his new role.

The reason is simple, he said: "Up front Messi is invariably marked by two men, in midfield he is marked by only one."

Luis Enrique may also have been tempted to use Messi in a deeper position to add creativity to a team that was showing signs of stagnation.

Barca did not win a major trophy last season, remember, amid claims that the big clubs of Europe had worked out how to counter its famed tiki-taka system.

With 35-year-old Xavi playing only a peripheral role for Barca this season, Messi is seen as the man who can deliver the telling pass when it matters most.

Ivan Rakitic joined Barca after the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The Croat is a top midfielder but he certainly is no Xavi, which is probably why Messi might have been asked to move back and bolster the midfield department that has always been the key to Barca's recent successes

The tiki-taka tactics effectively may have gone but, make no mistake, Barca's game is still heavily centred on ball possession.

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