Some people demerit Messi's accomplishments with the excuse that he's a "system player", since he's played for Barcelona for his entire career. As I will prove in this entry, this is completely false, so without further ado, let's get into the subject.
All the way back in La Masía, he wasn't a system player, since he could play either on the left wing or as a number 10, this proves that he wasn't a system player all the way back in his early La Masía days, since he wasn't even given a set role. When he made his debut, it was made even clearer, as Rijkaard completely changed his role from a number 10/left winger to a right winger. He adapted to it very well, and later became a starter around the 2006/07 season and the 2007/08 season.
He once again changed roles when Guardiola came, when near the end of the 2008/09 season he put Messi as a false 9, a completely new role than what he used to play (a right winger). He played in the center instead of the right wing and broke havoc with the tactical problems he caused to other teams due to his new position. It stayed relatively the same with Vilanova and Martino in the 2012/13 and 2013/14 seasons respectively.
It all changed again when Luis Enrique came in the 2014/15 season, and with the introduction of Suárez, forming the MSN trio, he moved to the right wing to let Suárez take the central role, but he did play somewhat as a false 9 too, using Suárez as a reference point. There, in the centre, he could dictate Barça's play, and judging from his heatmaps, Messi started being way more central (compared to his right flank) at late 2016 and early 2017.
After Luis Enrique left, Valverde changed Messi's system once more. Now, the team over-relied on him a lot, just like they did in the 2012/13 season. His role went back to the basics, instead of a wide forward that went to the center, he made him play mainly in the center. He also started tracking back more, dropping more deep as well.
There hasn't been much time to evolve since Setién and Koeman came, but he's kept his central role in the field, with some interventions in the middle right and dropping deep as well to collect the ball.
Messi has thrived in all of these systems, which proves he's not a system player in the slightest. In fact, you could argue that Messi IS the system, as some managers want to focus mainly on him for their tactics to work (Messidependencia).
Another argument that invalidates Messi being a system player are his achievements with the Argentine national team, which I detailed on this entry.
Overall, it's clear that Messi is not a system player as I said earlier. I hoped you liked this entry, and I'll see you in the next entry.
