I've been following every reply on this post just for the fun of it. I watch almost all LA liga matches as much as I watch the premier league. I see some trying to defend Messi and some criticizing him bitterly. Someone even came up with a match in which Ronaldo tracked back and concluded Messi never does. Imagine expecting a Messi of 33yrs of age to begin tracking back. During Guardiola's time at Barca, he called Messi the best defender because of his strength and energy to track back and still do his runs and dribblings.. You guys actually think trying to dribble to open more spaces in easy? Have you ever been to training with yourself being alone with a ball to dribble past the cones? You get tired doing that let alone dribbling a skilled group of defenders coming with sliding tackles and elbows. Even players like Hazard ain't expected to track back to necessarily win the ball, but to receive the ball when won. Go to whoscored and you'll find out it's the weakness of most attackers.. Below is a screenshot of the strengths and weaknesses of the best two attackers...