How to stop Messi – Ancelotti offers his solution

​Former Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has opened up on a possible solution to stop Lionel Messi in his column on ​Sina Sports, pinpointing the importance of teaming up against him as a unit, and has even offered drawings of his proposed tactic.

Ancelotti would often come up against Messi from his time at Real Madrid, although he did not manage to stop him himself on too many occasions. The Italian will likely look to put his tactic into effect when he takes over at Bayern this summer, should the German outfit be paired with Barcelona in the Champions League.

“The best way to stop him is by defending as a team, keeping the space between the lines tight and now allowing him to touch the ball.

“You need a lot of players in midfield to make that happen. That reduces Messi’s options and he will see less of the ball, at least in dangerous positions.”

Ancelotti considered that even if you manage to thwart Messi, other Barcelona players can capitalise on the attention paid to him and use the space to cause problems of their own.

“If you focus on Messi, their other attackers can do the damage.”

Ultimately, despite all his research, the ex-Chelsea boss concluded that is more or less ‘impossible’ to stop Messi when he is fully fit and on his game.

“But if Messi is at 100 per cent physically, it is impossible to try to stop him, no matter who the coach is and what his strategy is. His enormous talent makes it nearly impossible to anticipate what he will do, so there is no way to keep him quiet.”