Want the latest Scottish sport news sent straight to your inbox? Join thousands of others who have signed up to our Record Sport newsletter. Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

There was a lot of ill-informed junk spoken and printed about Leo Messi after Barcelona were humiliated 4-0 by PSG on Tuesday.

I saw and heard people talking about Messi's 'worst game', blaming him for the defeat, wailing about the fact that he was often strolling around the pitch plus pinpointing that it was him losing the ball at the beginning of PSG's second goal goal as if that had been the turning point for a match which, in fact, was one way traffic from start to finish.

Those who watch Messi once or twice a year are entitled to their opinions - but should probably make like Harpo Marx and say nothing on occasions like this.

Anyone who's even paid vague attention this season will already know that the Argentinian has carried this Barcelona team - with one or two exceptions - on his back and produced some of the most brilliant football of his career.

But those who've regularly watched both Messi and Barça over the last nine years in particular will have understood precisely what they saw while PSG put their hand around Spanish champions throat and didn't stop until they passed out.

(Image: Getty)

Messi had an off-night when things didn't particularly go for him. He couldn't turn the tide, his attempts at dribbling went down blind alleys and PSG targeted him, press-ganged him, when he tried to 'go solo'.

Although he's a genius, although he is, in my view in a two-man shortlist for the greatest in the history of football [with Pele], although everyone who's ever played with him thinks him to be either alien or super-human - you can see all of these 'difficulties' in his game on a regular basis.

When he makes us gasp with exhilaration and admiration at things he does with the ball that we, literally, can't believe it's because he takes chances, accepts risk and 'believes' with the same calm confidence that a high-wire artist crossing between two fifty-stores buildings believes.

'I can because I think I can' - the fact that nobody else can do it is irrelevant.

What most who view him intermittently fail to recall, or fail to even note, is that he tries so many outrageous dribbles and passes that the sight of him losing possession is far from unusual.

It's an occupational hazard.

If you want him to score metronomically, slalom around players and produce passes which would put Tom Brady and Peyton Manning to shame then it's just a statistical fact that he'll occasionally be caught out.

Go back to YouTube and look at the goal Barcelona concede when losing 1-0 to Chelsea in the 2012 Champions League semi-final first leg.

The scenario is the opposite to Paris but the tactics are the same.

Barça are battering Roberto Di Matteo's side, but not scoring. In frustration Messi attempts to be on the ball all the time and elevates the risk of where he tries to dribble and from which starting position.

Frank Lampard anticipates this, presses him, robs him and sets Didier Drogba's goal in train. Messi's 'fault' just like on Tuesday. Since when he's won eleven trophies and a Ballon D'Or.

2012 was also a time when Jose Mourinho , at Madrid, would target Messi and Xavi with specific pressing.

Not just to prevent them doing damage but with the concept that if Barcelona's key passer and dribbler were caught in possession then Guardiola's team would instantly be at it's most vulnerable to lighting counter attacks.

Pressing as an attacking tactic, not simply defensive.

Messi's 'walking' during matches is another matter. Only the ill-informed pick on that.

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

To be able to continuously erupt into those bursts of anarchic brilliance he can't be haring around the pitch like an enthusiastic puppy chasing a tennis ball.

That's just a ludicrous idea.

Over and over again he'll make the right runs, the smart ones - defensively or offensively.

And it's an accepted fact within this Barcelona era, as with every one since Pep Guardiola took over in 2008, that Messi is so exceptional that the team must be set up to allow him to play his way.

None of the other players want or expect him to 'put in a shift'.

Finally on that point, Guardiola has a still clearer idea of the value of how Messi moves during matches. The Catalan coach believes, firstly, that the more frenetic the match gets around Messi the more likely it is that him either walking, or staying stock still, will lead to opposition markers just losing track of him a little.

Secondly, Guardiola believes that while Messi is wandering around the final third of the pitch, even if Barcelona are attacking, he's taking in a brilliant X-ray of other players positions, space and opportunity.

In other words the genius which Messi produces owes a great deal to him studying and assessing angles, geometry and likely openings while everyone else hurtles around him.

What's been forgotten, or obscured by the humiliating nature of Barcelona's limp performance, is that it was the team around him which allowed PSG to earn a six or seven goal win although the final score was only 4-0. Their fault, not his.

(Image: AFP/Getty Images)

What's also being ignored or missed is the impact of all this on Messi.

Besides his absolute, utter genius the Argentinian is, alongside Gerard Piqué, by far the most competitive beast in that squad.

In the ruins of this Champions League campaign, and with the Liga title within Madrid's hands if they show 'the right stuff' and win their two games in hand, lies Messi's choice as to whether or not he wishes to stay at Barcelona for the last huge contract of his career.

Do not forget that Barcelona's incomprehensible handling of the situation has left him within ten months of being free to sign for whoever he chooses on freedom of contract.

Perhaps Barça can persuade him to stay. But not playing like this, not without immediate clarity on who will be coaching Barcelona next season and not until they are, once again, as hungry and competitive as he himself is.