Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar make up MSN, Barcelona’s epic attacking force that strikes fear into the hearts of defenders the world over. When they are playing at their worst, they are tough competition. But at their best they are unstoppable. Are they perhaps the greatest attacking force that soccer has ever seen?
The Record
Last season, MSN broke the record of total goals scored in a season by a combination of three players, with a whopping 122 goals in all competitions. The previous holders were Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Gonzalo Higuain with 118. This season the MSN trio of South Americans have been at it again and, at the time of writing, have already combined to score 100 goals with still a hefty portion of the season remaining. It looks as though they could easily beat their record from last season and could have possibly done it sooner had Messi not been out of action for two months earlier in the campaign.
Suarez could well be classed as the greatest no.9 in the world now. He is constantly improving and his contribution of 26 goals already in the league are one of the reasons why Barcelona are at odds of 1/100 in La Liga betting to lift the title. No other teams can really get close to Barcelona at the moment, and they look like having a very strong chance of lifting the Champions League again as well.
Other Contenders
The closest contenders to this attacking trio are quite possibly the strike force from Barcelona’s bitter rivals, Real Madrid. Their own attacking trio is known as BBC, and is made up of Gareth Bale, Benzema, and Ronaldo. This combination includes two of the most expensive players in soccer history and came together nicely in that great 2013/14 season where Madrid won the elite competition in Europe for the tenth time.
This season BBC are way behind MSN in terms of goals scored but they have, however, played fewer matches as Madrid have not appeared in the Copa Del Rey this season. The Barcelona trio have made significantly more appearances than BBC this season, so the figures are stacked in their favour. If all these players remain at their teams for the next few seasons, there could be more raging battles to break goalscoring records.
The Future
The exciting thing about this deadly attack force is that they are still in the best years of their soccer careers. This is not a set of players who are having one last hurrah before retiring, they are all still improving. The three of them obviously attract a lot of attention from elite clubs the world over, but it seems doubtful that any of them would want to move from a club where they are enjoying such great success.
It seems likely that Messi, Suarez, and Neymar will be together for many more years to come, and it spells a lot of eye-catching, intense, and amazing soccer for the lucky viewing public.