Happy Birthday, Messi, what do we do now?

It takes a lot for Barcelona to score a goal. And the worst thing is they're even struggling to create chances. Barça have a serious creativity problem. Almost everything good is reduced to Lionel Messi, who turns 33 today. Time is passing so quickly and the average age of the XI on Tuesday against Athletic Club was 29.5 years old.

There was a lack of magic, there was no spark to propel the side to victory against Athletic. They flirted with tragedy and the team was close to handing the title to Real Madrid on a silver platter. Messi and Ivan Rakitic avoided that. It's the law of least effort and it seems evident that this team lacks bellows. And more. 

Attacking solutions 

Barça knock the ball around as much as they want but when they reach the final third, they run out of ideas. That's the case with the midfielders, who are incapable of surprising the opposition, and above all the forwards, who only look for Messi, unable to find a solution on their own. 

Luis Suarez is not in shape yet and Antoine Griezmann's not appeared all season. His signing was an error. It's not that he's failed (his numbers are decent). The problem is that Barça signed one player when they needed something else -- someone that can unbalance defences and run at the opposition. A counterpoint to Messi. Now, everyone moves in the middle, looking for Messi. And that makes life easy for the opposing coach, who only has to build a jail around the Argentine. 

The future is complicated because Messi is now of a certain age and the club must find wide players that can unbalance defences. One could be Ansu Fati, but the other should be someone like Neymar. Or Neymar. That's the magic the team needs to take a step forward. If that's not the case, it will be a step back. Another step back.