As an opponent I suffered the Alba-Messi society often; let someone else suffer it now,” Ernesto Valverde said. And yet it has never been as productive as this season, their first under the former Athletic Bilbao manager. Alba has benefited more than anyone else from the departure of Neymar:
handed almost the entire left wing, the results have been spectacular – especially when he combines with Messi, which he does often. No one has more assists in Spain than Messi; only five players have more than Alba. And it is each other they are looking for: Alba has provided seven assists for Messi. When Alba progresses up the left, reaching the byline, his typical ball is pulled back towards Messi, dashing into the area, behind the defensive line, which is drawn towards its own goalkeeper by Luis Suárez. When Messi has the ball in a deep, just-right-of-centre position, the run he looks to often is Alba, sprinting in behind the full-back. “Only Leo sees those passes,” Alba says. And even if opponents see it coming, that doesn’t mean they can stop it. “We’d seen it, we’d analysed it, we’d worked on it, everyone does,” said Valencia’s assistant coach Rubén Uría when the classic Messi-Alba undid them at Mestalla. “But with that touch Messi has; he puts it in just the place for Jordi to score a great goal.”