5 goals and 2 assists is a lot when Messi is playing a lot more minutes compared to pretty much everyone else. If the others are playing a lot less and scoring more, that has to be taken into account.
I meant the creating part about Neymar, his goalscoring went up in Paris although that's also due to his change in position rather than him just playing against worse teams. He can take freekicks and penalties now and he's playing closer to goal.
For the Juve game, I mean that for a team which supposedly is 'all Messi' and '80% of their success is on Messi's feet' they played away against Juventus and were the better team without Messi on the pitch. Isn't that relevant? Valverde has improved the solidity and cynicism of the team which is a big plus in those big games which was what this discussion was about.
The "if" part it's that Messi has played 3.393 minutes, KDB 3.333 and Harry Kane 3.098
De Bruyne and Messi are virtually in the same minutes and Harry Kane has played 295 minutes less, scoring at the same ratio that would mean Kane would have 3 extra goals, taking the difference from 4 to 7 goals, still not "a lot" if you keep in mind that Messi is producing almost on equal terms with De Bruyne, and only has 7 goals less than Harry Kane, that's the perspective we're looking at with Leo in this Barcelona side.
Also, you literally said
and Suarez has been the best striker in the world for the past few months.
There are several players who both assist more or have more key passes in the top 5 leagues. Neymar, De Bruyne, Ozil, Eriksen, etc. Then there are plenty of players who score more often. Neymar, Salah, Kane, Ronaldo, Cavani, Aguero, Immobile, etc.
How?, when Suarez has 8 goals less than Leo and 12 less than Kane (with more minutes).
When
you talk of the global picture, we are favourites
despite Messi having bad games, when
you start looking individually, every team depends more on their star players because they have one certain player that slightly edges Messi at one thing, when Leo excels at two things at the same time, with the list of names you're using, we're too far from being favourites
Spurs have Kane (better scorer than both Barcelona strikers), Dele Alli (more assists than Messi) and Eriksen (better at creating).
Psg have Cavani (better scorer), Neymar (better scorer and creator), Di Maria (almost equal on assists with Messi, 15 goals) and Mbappe to spare (16 goals, 14 assists).
City have Agüero (scores more often than Messi for you, also more than Suarez), KDB (better midfielder), Sterling (3 goals behind Suarez playing 600 minutes less), and Sané (12 goals 15 assists).
Liverpool have Salah (beats both our strikers) and Firmino (1 goal behind Suarez, 200 minutes less, 3 assists more).
Real Madrid... well may I talk about how Cristiano Ronaldo is doing this season in the UCL too?. Also Bale (151 minutes/goal) has almost catched up to Suarez' pace (141) already.
Suddenly, Messi and Suarez vs the world doesn't sound that terrifying, every other team with good odds have at least 2 players that can rival our duo, you've basically said it yourself by comparing all that bunch of players individually to our best forward (Messi).
Saying that Suarez has been the best striker in the world for the last months when he shared continent with Salah, Kane, Cavani, Neymar or Lewandowski (players you said scored more than Messi, who is still outscoring Suarez) it's just another loop in the argument to not recognize the fact that if we win the UCL, it will be mostly because Leo was up to it. If he's not at top level, no one looks fit to step forward and carry this team to the line. It's been that way in La Liga, and will be the same in the UCL
