Messi the best ever in mediocre defenses.

Messi scores the first of what would be five goals while
Bayern Leverkusen keeper helplessly looks on.

Time has most certainly changed. The game is being played differently. Lionel Messi is quickly on pace to shatter every record in the history of soccer. Part of it is his talent and drive to be the best and a significant part is also the way the opposing defenses decide to play him. Let's take a quick look at yesterday's Champions League game against Bayern Leverkusen thrashing of 7-1 in which Messi scored a record breaking five goals. If you analyze how Messi was able to score, it just baffles you the inability of defenders in not being able to locate Messi at all times. Now let's give credit to Messi for scoring all five goals in a beautiful way and let's also acknowledge how ridiculous he made the Bayern Leverkusen goalkeeper look. But what amazed me was how wide open Messi was collecting passes that resulted in him scoring all those goals. Barca's game is all based on winning the battle of ball possession (77% against Bayern Leverkusen) with quick passes designed to put defenses at great difficulties. It's all pass and move and defenses have trouble tracking attacking players because they don't hold possession for very long. In that kind of system you can't defend man-to-man. You have to play zone and you have to be great at it. It requires a tremendous amount of confidence and discipline to prepare against a team of Barca's caliber. How do you really practice to prepare against Barca? Every team would love to practice against a Barca-cloned team, but that's not possible. How do you defend against them? Well, first you have to establish the ball possession battle. The less Barca has the ball, you limit opportunities to create chances for them to score. Second, you got to know where Messi is at all times. If you let him wander off on his own, he will hurt you. The key is have someone always at his side no matter where he is and be physical with him. When that happens he usually plays around the midfield area to create space for himself or for his teammates. That's actually good and in the favor of defenses. You gotta make sure you keep him there. Third and most important is to not relax, be persistent and limit your mistakes. The minute teams convince themselves that they have him under control they start to relax. Case in point Real Madrid.  There's a reason why Messi has only scored one goal against an Italian club. That goal came by way of a penalty kick against AC Milan at San Siro earlier this season in group stages. Against Inter Milan in the 2010 Champions League final he was held in check for the entire game. He didn't touch the ball much because Mourinho's side played very aggressive and discipline defense by shutting down the 3/4 area of the pitch. Mourinho had success the same way at Chelsea. At Real Madrid he doesn't have the luxury of defensive players he had in his two previous clubs and it's near impossible to defend Messi solely with hit-men Pepe or Sergio Ramos. Sooner or later someone is bound to be sent off. Messi is a great player, but let's not be so quick to crown him the best of all time. Instead let's hope opposing defenses start playing with more discipline than shown thus far.