IMO Coach Messi is extremely underrated and is not getting the credit he deserves for the job he's done this season. He's made a few tweaks to the way Barca play since the winter break and it's paid off. If you notice, these days Barca take more risks and try to take advantage of counter attacks as opposed to focusing solely on possession football to attack. That change has benefited the attacking trio, as they find a lot more spaces to operate in, when the ball is played to them more quickly. Back in Pep's days(and apparently they continued this even after him) he had what he calls the "15 pass rule", which was that for any attack including when they get the ball off the opposing team, they have to play 15 passes to build up any attack so that the team has time to get into their positions and get compact enough to be able to snuff out any counter attack at it's source. Messi kind of moved away from that philosophy, so while they still play possession football, they actually counter attack whenever they get the ball off the opposition in the middle of the field.