I do exaggerate quite alot to make my point, I've noticed that, I often use quite alot of emotive language too, not sure why? It's not a conscious thing, I must just feel strongly about what I'm saying.
I've worded what I said badly, taking Messi out of Barcelona wouldn't turn them into Wolves, but I do really believe it would take away such a big part of what they are. He's just extraordinary, I mean he scored 47 goals last season in all competitions. I really do believe Xavi is great, incidentally I don't think Iniesta is in his class, but Xavi is limited. He's just an incredibly efficient footballer, who plays the right pass, at the right time, nearly every time. Obviously that's extremely important to the proper functioning of the team, but on it's own it doesn't achieve very much. 95% of what he does involves playing a very simple pass and then moving into space to receive the ball again - Denilson-like in fact, the other 5% of the time the right pass is an incisive pass and he invariably knows when to play it and plays it well.
Would Messi look the same player without Xavi finding him early with perfect passes? Would Xavi look the same player without Messi, or other absolutely world class forwards, to do something extraordinary with his perfect passes?
If you swapped Fabregas for Xavi, would the quality of our team dramatically increase? Would he make our forwards play significantly better? Would the quality of Barcelona's play drop significantly? Would Messi score significantly less goals, or the other forwards?
What about if you swapped Nasri for Messi, would the quality of our team dramatically increase? Would he make the midfielders look better because of what he does with their passes? Would the quality of Barcelona's play drop significantly?
I know what my answers would be, but they are genuine questions. I love to watch Xavi, he's perhaps the best midfielder I've seen in my time, but like I said above, he is a limited player. He is 5'6", pretty weak, and pretty slow, but at Barcelona that doesn't matter. The game he plays suits their game perfectly, and his weaknesses and limitations aren't exposed because he is never asked to do the things he isn't good at. Put Xavi in Wolves' team tomorrow and do yo think his strengths would suit their game, make them a better team? Or do you think his weaknesses would be badly exposed and weaken the team?
Messi on the other hand is perhaps the most complete forward I've seen. For me, he is an asset to any team, anywhere, whatever the style, whatever the League. So I agree Barcelona are a great team with great players, but Messi is so good that he takes them up another level.
