"He was able to make us suffer"- Yaya Toure on Lionel Messi

Who doesn't know about the greatness of Lionel Messi? Every legendary footballer is in awe of him, apart from the fans. In one such instance, the former Barcelona and Manchester City player, Yaya Touré, also finds himself in awe of the player. In an interview, Yaya Touré spoke about how Lionel Messi made him suffer during training and how he and other players consoled themselves after a tough session. In the interview, Yaya Touré mentioned that getting the ball from Lionel Messi was an arduous task, and attacking him was the only temporary solution.

Speaking about one specific incident, Yaya Touré recalled a 6v6 game in which Lionel Messi glided past them effortlessly, not by holding the ball but by using tiki-taka to navigate through. Touré remarked that Messi made it look so easy for them. He said:

In training, he was able to make us suffer. To get the ball from him, sometimes we had to go and attack him and it was incredible. I remember one time when we were training, it was like a 6v6 on the side of the pitch. The session was about high-pressing on the halfway line of the pitch. He went past me so easily, didn’t even touch the ball, he was just driving it [forward] and passing so easily 

How did Barcelona players console themselves after having a bad day at the office?

In the same interview, after getting to the dressing room from training, Touré mentioned that they used to justify themselves by saying Lionel Messi performed so well because he was shorter, which made his life easier. They also reasoned that, as they were taller and had to bend down to block him, it was more difficult to play against him. He said:

After that when we got inside the dressing room, we tried to justify why he did it so well by saying he’s too small and that’s why it’s easier for him. He has the agility, but we were tall and we had to go down to try and block him. It was always difficult to play against him.