Life after Messi: Barcelona will miss talisman but showed positive signs in win

When Barcelona supporters took up the chant of 'Messi! Messi!' on minute 10 of Sunday night's game against Real Sociedad not everyone in the Nou Camp joined in.

And when the same fans began to sing his name 10 minutes into the second half others whistled and starting chanting 'Barca! Barca!' instead.

There will be plenty of days this season when Barcelona miss Lionel Messi but Sunday was not one of them and it was little wonder the attempt at a double homage didn't go very well.

Barcelona have to accentuate the positive without their greatest ever player and there are several positives from his departure.

They can become less predictable without him – the best-positioned player on the pitch will receive the ball instead of it being given to Messi by default. All 10 outfield players can press the opposition instead of nine pressing and Messi taking a breather so as to conserve his energy for his bursts of brilliance.

Barcelona are not better without Messi. But there are things that they can do better without him and Ronald Koeman saw plenty of evidence of that in this 4-2 win.

'In the first half we were fantastic not just on the ball but in the way we won it back,' said the Barcelona coach.

Barca's second goal came as a direct result of the intensive press. Adnan Januzaj lost possession under pressure from Eric Garcia and when the ball ran loose to Frenkie de Jong he crossed for Martin Braithwaite to score. Garcia had been deep in the Real Sociedad half when he pressed Januzaj to create the moment that led to the goal.

On the subject of 10 pressing with the same intensity Koeman added: 'We can be more of a collective now.'

He went as far as to say that the first half an hour was the best Barca of recent years.

The intensity started at the top of the pitch where Memphis Depay had as good a debut as the Nou Camp can remember anyone having for many a season.

His whipped in free-kick for the opener suggested he will be important from set-pieces and his clever pass led to the third goal scored by Braithwaite, his second of the game.

The Dane knows the state of play at Barcelona. Koeman said on Friday that he wants another striker and for that to happen someone has to leave.

Braithwaite could be the man because there is a market for him. Premier League suitors on Sunday cannot fail to have been impressed with his overall performance.

And the third man in the new front three, Griezmann, also worked ferociously hard and could easily have come away from the game with two goals – he hit the bar and scored from an offside position with an excellent low finish.

In midfield both Pedri and Frenkie de Jong were constantly trying to run beyond the forwards and with Garcia's pace an asset alongside Pique the defensive line was higher than we have seen it in recent times.

Before the match the biggest talking point were the banners around the perimeter stadium denouncing Joan Laporta's perceived role in the club losing Messi. After 90 minutes no one was discussing that or the president, or even Messi.

Memphis, Braithwaite and Pique had made sure of that.

There will be darker days to come. Messi won matches for Barcelona when they did not play well. But on Sunday the football was good and so the extra-terrestrial talisman wasn't needed.

The only way to replace him is with a team of 11 players. On Sunday, Barca were a team and they blew Real Sociedad away.