(Marca) - Perhaps it is viewed as the easiest job in football, play Lionel Messi and let him do as he pleases, and the goals will arrive.
However, as Barcelona coaches past and present can attest, it is not as simple as that. In fact, building a side around the Argentine to complement him is a very particular skill.
His first Blaugrana boss, Frank Rijkaard, pampered Messi in his early days, preferring to wrap the teenager in cotton wool before Pep Guardiola came in and placed his talisman as either a wide attacking midfielder or false-nine amongst wide forwards.
Tito Vilanova's preference was to push Messi forward, maximising his goalscoring potential and getting his best goal-to-game ratio in return as 2012/13's LaLiga was won.
For Luis Enrique, however, Messi operates as a free man. Dropping so deep as to be a midfielder at times, Neymar and Luis Suarez provide the attacking flair down the middle and are rewarded with a number of assists from the Argentine.
Of course, the No. 10 still pops up with plenty of goals, as is his mastery of the game, but it's increasingly hard to pinpoint his exact role in the team.
[Messi] is the world's best No. 10, No. 8, No. 6..." remarked Luis Enrique after the forward's hat-trick in thrashing Celtic 7-0. "To curtail that would be ugly and unintelligent on my part.
Turning 30 at the culmination of the current season, it appears that Messi has begun the process of receding down the pitch in a trend common among many world-class attackers in modern football.
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