Lionel Messi is experiencing whatever the opposite of second-season-syndrome is right now at Paris Saint-Germain. On the back of a disappointing first year at the Parc des Princes which saw him miss out on a Ballon d’Or nomination, the legend himself has flown out of the blocks for the 2022/23 campaign.
In fact, remarkably, Messi has already helped himself to four Ligue 1 goals from his eight outings so far this season when he only amassed six strikes in the competition across the entirety of 2021/22.
Sure, that might not make for the sort of head-spinning statistics we see from Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe these days, but boy is it still an emphatic return to form.
Anyway, though, much of the brilliance that Messi has been showcasing this season has come in the playmaking department with his frankly ridiculous range of passing orchestrating so many of PSG’s most potent attacks.