Messi's not finished, nor is he on his own

After Barcelona's Clasico defeat, no one has been spared. Executives, coaches and players have all been subject to a virulent strain of criticism. And Lionel Messi, of course, is no different.

But let's first give him his dues - he wasn't the worst Barcelona player on the pitch, but neither did he do much either. There are various theories that do the rounds after similar setbacks.

One is that Messi is alone in this team, and that he has to do things all by himself. And certainly being without Luis Suarez - his favourite accomplice on and off the pitch - is having an impact. But when you consider the Blaugrana's line-up last Sunday, he is not alone.

Alongside him he has a German international goalkeeper, Portugal's right-back, a French World Cup-winning centre-back, Gerard Pique, who could play anywhere he wants, a left-back who was part of Spain's glory era, the starting pivot in Luis Enrique's current Spanish starting XI, Holland's best central midfielder, a gifted pass-and-move Brazilian, and in attack, a French forward that Barcelona pursued for season after season.

And that's without considering the subs bench or those in the stands. This is not 'being alone'.

Messi is surrounded by elite international footballers. But their performance alongside their totem is questionable.

With him in the team, they look to him at all times. But the weight of his influence seems to be hurting their own personality on the pitch.

Barcelona are an erratic team that makes individual and collective errors, which have been seen with both Ernesto Valverde and now Quique Setien in charge.

With Messi nearly 33 years old, it's a question now of how they reconstruct the team, as Setien has discussed in his few weeks at the helm.

Marcelo's intervention

Following the game, a clip of Messi being caught when clean through by an unusually speedy Marcelo went viral, and some claimed it was a sign that the Argentinian was finished, and that he only scores now against weaker teams.

To suggest that Messi is done is bordering on idiocy. Of course he's not the same as he was at 24. At that age if he was clean through at the Bernabeu there would only have been one result.

But if that one instance is enough evidence to say he's finished, then everyone else should give up right now.

Messi isn't the same as a decade ago, but neither are Barcelona, as seen by the No.10's recent Instagram activity. However, although he isn't finished, he's not on his own either.