beIN SPORTS

By Andreas Vou (@AndreasVou89)

There is simply no stopping Barcelona’s dynamic front three at the moment – after another two goals between them on the weekend, the South American trio of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar have racked up a ridiculous 117 goals in all competitions this season. 

Barcelona have been blessed with some of the finest front lines in recent years and so for ‘MSN’ to be labeled the very best of the lot, they have to finish the season with trophies, namely the Champions League.

It took them a while to click but they are now blitzing just about every defense put in front of them. Neymar and Messi hit the ground running in the early part of the season, scoring 61 goals together by mid-February at the same time as a struggling Suarez had only managed six.

Suarez was suspended for the first eight league matches of the season and then needed another seven games to score his first goal in La Liga. The Uruguayan looked like a hindrance to the side and there were fears that he would not fit in the side.

That has all changed in the last few months; the same side against which he scored his first league goal for Barcelona came his first ever hat-trick at the start of May in the 0-8 win over Cordoba, his 24th in all competitions. 

The leader of the pack, of course, is that man Lionel Messi. The turning point of the trio’s success came after Luis Enrique decided to move Messi out to the right wing to accommodate Suarez in a central role. Since then, they have excelled together and Messi has proved even more effective in his less preferred position, not only with 56 goals but with an amazing 30 assists for his teammates.

They have already reached a number of milestones. The front three of arch rivals Real Madrid managed 97 in all competitions last season as Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale guided their side to the a Champions League and Copa del Rey double. 

The big question remains, is this the very best attack in Barça’s history?

Debates are now rife as to whether this attacking trio is in fact the club’s best ever having surpassed Barça’s two most famous front threes of recent years in the goals category.

The combined output of the front three this year has been formidable and there are two matches remaining to further this unfathomable benchmark. However, it is in these remaining games which will deem whether this really is the best strikeforce in the club’s history.

As well as an incredible number of goals, the two attacking trios which really stand out managed to bring silverware, namely Europe’s biggest prize, to the club which is something ‘MSN’ have to do to be regarded as the best.

Messi, David Villa and Pedro reached 98 goals in the 2010-11 campaign as the Catalans earned a league and Champions League double. ‘MVP’ as they were better known, as well as consistently terrorizing defenses in Spain, helped the club to its fourth Champions League title with each of them scoring in the final against Manchester United at Wembley.

Also with Guardiola in charge, two years prior, saw the first Barça trio to reach 100 goals. Messi, along with Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto’o finished that campaign on exactly a century of goals in what was the club’s most successful ever single campaign. They helped the club to an unprecedented treble which put their names forever in the Catalan club’s history books.

En route to winning the Champions League saw one of their best performances of that season, a 4-0 win over Bayern Munich at the Camp Nou in which they shared all of the goals that night.

In the two-legged affair with the Bavarians earlier this month, Messi, Suarez and Neymar demonstrated the incredible understanding formed over the course of the season to overcome Guardiola’s men. Now, they must lift the trophy to be regarded as the very best front three in Barcelona’s history.