JamieThis is a way in which i think your team could best deal with Messi and limit his threat. Countering Messi in the Falso 9 role is a big question Jose Mourinho will have to answer this season and heres a way which he might do it. Essentially play with 2 narrow, disciplined full backs and 2 slighty advanced wing backs. As Messi drops between the lines Diarra is set a strict man marking job due to his quality stamina. But im sure you know noone is good enough to man mark Messi so Khedira must keep a short distance between himself and the back 3 and move slighty left when he senses Messis danger, This would require antciaption and concentration however that im not sure hes capable of Marcelo would be occupied with nullyfying Alves maurauding runs so he couldnt help when Messi loses Diarra, Khedira moves left and Coentrao pushes slightly ahead of the defence thus restricting as much space as possible for Messi to operate in after hes free of Diarras shackles. Also when Barca attack the Defence must be Narrow and a 10-15yard distance must always be kept between diarra and defence and a 6-7 yard gap between Khedira and the defence. When Coentrao pushes up he must be within 5 yards of Khedira at all times. He must push into the same area as Khedira leaving a 5 yard gap between them. This then essentially should create a Zonal Cage with limited space which Messi would find it hard to operate in. So overall this solution is focused on both strict man-marking and zonal marking. However one must also realise that you cant completely stop Messi cause hes too good but you can limit his impact.

01.09.2011