"I played him as a false winger, central midfielder, deep midfielder and just behind the striker and he was always excellent ", said then Barcelona Coach Frank Rjikaard concerning Barcelona Captain Andres Iniesta.
Juan Roman Riquelme went on to say "The one player who plays this game the best is Iniesta. He knows exactly when to go forward and when to drop back. He picks the right moment to do everything : when to dribble , when to speed things up and when to slow things down . And I think that's the only thing that can't be bought or taught. You can learn how to shoot or how to control the ball, but being aware of everything that's happening out on the pitch, that's something you're either born with or you're not ".
Iniesta is a complete player who has won the Spanish La Liga eight times with Barcelona since making his debut under Louis Van Gaal in 2002. He has also won the Champions League four times and the Copa del Rey three times . He graduated from the prestigious La Masia Barcelona academy which also produced the likes of Lionel Messi, Carlos Puyol, Xavi Hernandez, Mikel Arteta and Pepe Reina to mention a few. Also Iniesta is the player who scored the only goal of the 2010 World Cup Final in South Africa against the Netherlands after receiving a sublime pass from Cesc Fabregas in extra time . He also won the 2008 and 2012 European Championshipwith Spain and remains the third Barcelona player to have received a standing ovation from the fans of rivals Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu while being substituted (Diego Maradona and Ronaldinho are the other two). On an individual level , Iniesta was awarded UEFA Best Player in Europe in 2012, Best Player of the 2011-2012 Champions League and also runner-up to Lionel Messi for the 2010 FIFA Ballon d'Or and again achieving third place in the 2012 event.
While Iniesta is not known for his goalscoring exploits as his present record of 34 goals in 381
League games for Barcelona is far from encouraging . Also with the Spanish National team he has scored 17 goals in 107 games . Iniesta has shown over the years that his contribution to the team shouldn't be solely judged on his goal records. But worryingly, the 31 year-old recent record shows he might be experiencing some diminishing returns and may have passed his prime .
Statistics have shown that Iniesta has failed to score or record an assist since 2016 in both La Liga and the Champions League. Also the midfielder has failed to score but recorded only two assists in 44 games counting from the 2014-2015 season. He has again not scored any league goal at Camp Nou since 2014 after his last goal against Osasuna in a 6-0 demolition . As if that wasn't enough, his World Cup form last two years left a lot of doubt on his consistency to continue to perform at the very top level, as Spain lost consecutive matches to both Netherlands and Chile. The difference this time was that he wasn't the only player to have had an abysmal tournament as the same could be said of the whole Spanish team.
The reason why the decline of Andreas Iniesta might have been difficult to decipher is the prolific form of the MSN (Messi, Suarez and Neymar) trio attackers which still remains the deadliest in world football at present for two seasons now . While the debate continues on Iniesta's loss of form , one thing that remains constant is that, "Statistics don't lie".
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