Lionel Messi's penalty issues leave Barcelona with a dilemma

After struggling to make the initial breakthrough against Levante at the Camp Nou, Marc Bartra’s smart strike opened the floodgates as Neymar soon put his side 2-0 up.

Messi himself then got on the scoresheet with a slotted finish from the penalty spot – but his night was soured soon after, when another penalty was awarded.

This time Messi stepped up and smashed his shot high over the crossbar, sparking new discussion about his surprisingly poor record from 12 yards.

Barcelona ended up winning 4-1, but the post-match discussion was largely about this growing deficiency in Messi’s game.

Shock, mainly. Messi’s position as the best player in the world is fairly well-established at this moment in time – Cristiano Ronaldo remains his obvious challenger, but their respective trophy hauls over the last 12 months tells a compelling story – so it is an even bigger surprise to see him struggle so badly with one of the more straightforward facets of the game.

Messi is known for his goalscoring ability, yet he has now missed 23% of his penalties for Barcelona (15 of 65) according to stats in Spain (Opta, meanwhile, have an overall club record of 16 misses in 72). Considering his left-foot ability, most would assume the Argentine to be almost infallible from 12 yards.

How can he swerve between four players and then find the bottom corner from 20 yards, as he did to round off the scoring on Sunday, and yet not put a stationary ball on target from almost half that distance?

"The fact that he missed a penalty does not make Messi any more human," Barcelona boss Luis Enrique said. "Messi still scored twice and set up another goal. He does not really seem human to me."

Not as badly as you might think, but there is a clear difference. Messi has now taken 44 penalties in La Liga during his career, missing six of them. Ronaldo, by way of comparison, has taken 52 and missed five.

The Portuguese has also scored twice from the spot in the Champions League this season, both coming against Shakhtar Donetsk in the opening group game. Overall, the Portuguese is the superior converter - his success percentage hovers around 90% in all competitions - while Messi's record has dipped under 80%, indicating there is serious room for improvement.

As journalist and penalty expert (he literally wrote the book on them) Ben Lyttleton points out in this piece for Eurosport, part of the issue seems to stem from a change of technique.

In recent times Messi seems to have reverted from a goalkeeper-dependent technique (waiting for the goalkeeper to make the first move and then going the other way, a la Eden Hazard or Mario Balotelli) to a goalkeeper-independent one (picking a spot before run-up and concentrating on hitting it).

That brings a whole wave of different variables and, in the case of the Levante game, adds a raft of 'game theory' considerations coming up against a goalkeeper for the second time ('will he go the same way this time? Should I go the same way?') . Perhaps that is why Messi seemed to melt down second time around, ultimately missing completely.

That being said, it should be noted that Messi has never been a clinical penalty taker, and has always seemed to have to wrestle with the demands of the situation. He has previously admitted to “nerves” over the ball from such situations.

However, Pep Guardiola set the policy at Barcelona that has never been challenged when he noted that Messi would take the penalties (and free-kicks, and corners…) until he said otherwise.

Well, perhaps – but then it is something they have dabbled with before. Messi briefly handed penalty duties to Neymar earlier this year, but the Brazilian then saw his attempt saved by Villarreal goalkeeper Sergio Asenjo in the Copa del Rey.

It was the first time since 2010 that Messi had not taken a Barcelona penalty when he was on the pitch, and it was an experiment that has not since been repeated.

The switch came after Messi had missed an important penalty against Manchester City, one that would have killed off their Champions League tie.

He previously also missed a penalty against Chelsea that ultimately ended up helping send Barca out of the Champions League in 2012, so he is aware how costly his frailty can be to his side.

Spanish newspaper El Confidencial argued on Monday that Messi continues to take penalties only because “no-one coughs … no one insinuates [to Mess] that maybe, do you think, going forward it would be better to throw it to someone else?”

If not Neymar, however, then who? Luis Suarez did not take penalties at Liverpool because of Steven Gerrard, while Andres Iniesta is not experienced in the form either (thanks primarily to Messi). Ivan Rakitic might be an option, but he missed a few penalties during his time at Sevilla - and beyond that you are looking at handing the responsibility to a defender or player who is unlikely to always be on the pitch.

Short of holding a squad-wide competition to pick the next penalty taker (an approach that led England to pinpoint Jamie Carragher at the 2006 World Cup … and then against Portugal in a shootout he missed), there is no obvious candidate to succeed Messi.

Messi’s penalty record is now officially a cause for concern, but there is no chance either his manager or any of his team-mates approach him about taking the responsibility away. It would be like a courtier going to the king and suggesting he 'just hand over the crown for a bit' and, without an obvious alternative in the squad to replace him, Messi is hardly going to hand off the responsibility of his own volition either.

Perhaps this latest miss will simply convince Messi that this is now an area of his game that he needs to dedicate extra focus to. Perhaps he will revert to the goalkeeper-dependent approach, or perhaps he will simply devote extra time on the training ground to perfecting his approach.

Maybe he will also speak with a sports psychologist, as it seems possible much of the issue is in the mind.

Messi is undoubtedly a footballing genius, but part of his rise has been down to his workrate and analytical approach to the game. It is those elements he should now devote to his penalties – after this wake-up call, it would be little surprise if we now gradually see him become much more clinical from 12 yards.

It is too much to expect any player, even Messi, to be perfect from the spot - but he can certainly get much better.