Lionel Messi is only five goals away from passing Gerd Muller’s historic record of 67 goals in a season. A record that was once though to be unbreakable is winning touching distance of the best player on the planet.
And a lot of credit for Messi’s development over the last four years has to go to Pep Guardiola. Guardiola has positioned Messi a little further up field and closer to the opposition’s goal.
Since that move Messi has turned into a veritable goal-scoring machine, averaging 0.96 goals per game. With Rijkaard, who played Messi a little wider and deeper, Messi scored 42 goals in 110 official matches (0.38 goals per game).
The best player in the world has consistently improved year after year. In his first season with Guardiola, 2008/09, he scored 38 goals in 51 official matches. In 2009/10, he scored 47 in 53 matches. Last season he scored 53 goals in 55 official matches. This year he already has 63 goals in 51 matches, averaging 1.2 goals per game. So far this season, he’s scored 41 goals in the Liga, 14 in the Champions League, 2 in the Cup, 3 in the Spanish Super Cup, 1 in the European Super Cup and 2 in the Club World Cup.
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