Messi lost one of his best team-mates in the summer but prefers to look on the bright side
Now he is leading the way for Barcelona alone with his goals, at least until Dembele returns
We are in November but Neymar's departure from Barcelona is still being talked about. In an interview with Marca, Lionel Messi spoke about losing the Brazilian, one of his best team-mates on the pitch. Messi can see both the positives and the negatives.
"Neymar leaving has forced us to change our play. We lost a great attacking talent but that has also helped us in defence. Currently we are more powerful in the middle of the pitch, we have more order and that makes us defensively stronger," said Messi.
With Ousmane Dembele's injury, Valverde has preferred to use the 'third' attacker as someone who will give more force to the midfield. It is working defensively as Messi says - they have let in one goal in the Champions League and just 4 in 12 league games.
