Lionel Messi was Barcelona's golden boy in stellar 2015 trophy run
Barcelona are about to wave goodbye to one of the most successful years in club history, with the club in an endless sea of euphoria. Their spectacular 2015, which saw them lift a memorable five trophies, including La Liga, the Champions League and the Club World Cup, has already secured a place in the hearts of supporters all over the planet.
The year could not have started any worse, however. Nobody could have predicted that the shambolic team, which was deservedly defeated in their trip to Real Sociedad in early January, would go on to win any silverware that season, let alone rewrite the Blaugranahistory books in the space of 12 months.
In fact, the relationship between Luis Enrique and many of his key players, including Lionel Messi and Neymar, was so broken that Cules were beginning to fear for the stars' long-term future at the Camp Nou. With the quadruple Ballon d'Or winner not even willing to speak to the manager after the infamous bust-up in the Anoeta dressing room, it soon became apparent that sacking the Asturian was possibly the only way forward.
A lot changed in the space of a couple of weeks, fortunately. Although he remained true to his roots, Luis Enrique adopted a more approachable style, which brought him closer to his players. His conscious effort to listen to others' ideas, certainly influenced by his make-or-break conversation with Xavi and Andres Iniesta, was the key factor that turned a season destined for disaster into a resounding success.
Most encouragingly, the team's visible improvement happened at an incredible speed, as if all of the pieces of the puzzle that Luis Enrique had been trying to assemble since his arrival in June 2014 had suddenly fallen into place. Iniesta and Ivan Rakitic understood the importance of their defensive duties, Dani Alves tamed his attacking hunger, Gerard Pique returned to his dominant self and Jordi Alba finally realised that his continuous runs forward without a contingency plan at the back were actually hurting the team.
The most decisive factor of all, however, was the way in which Messi evolved into the more generous, dominant player he is today. While theoretically deployed as a right winger, Luis Enrique gave his Argentine star enough freedom to float around the team's final third in whichever way he saw fit, always trying to make the most of the eventual gaps left within his opponents' back-line.
It was feared that the inclusion of Luis Suarez as the team's central attacking reference and the inevitable growth of the incisive Neymar would reduce Messi's spaces and, as a result, progressively diminish his influence. Luis Enrique's more direct system, which no longer focused on endless passing sequences in midfield but prioritised building from the back-line and quicker transitions toward the front three, was also seen as a less favourable scenario for La Pulga to excel in.
Nothing could have been further from the truth. Messi quickly understood that he would have to drop deeper into midfield if he was going to remain Barca's attacking leader. His new wide role enabled him far more space to run into, made him harder to mark and, in short, forced him into changing his game completely.
Given that rivals had become able to contain his efforts as a false nine with frustrating precision, Leo's evolution was the obvious way forward for not only the player himself, but also Barcelona as a whole. The Argentinean's movements became less predictable, his passes spread across a far larger area, he was far more involved during games, and, inevitably, he incorporated yet another dimension to his already bulging skill set.
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