Suarez now as lethal as Messi and Ronaldo

BARCELONA — After a slow start at Barcelona, Luis Suarez now has a strike rate comparable to those of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, while his selfless style has helped instil a spirit of camaraderie within their deadly attack.

In recent seasons, Barca’s play was emphasised by their short-passing football, but now, it is the ruthlessness of their forward trio that is propelling the club towards a second treble in six years.

Messi, Suarez and Neymar have amassed 108 goals between them and have the Spanish record of 118 goals scored by Real Madrid trio Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuain in the 2011-12 season well and truly in their sights.

Suarez arrived from Liverpool under a cloud, following his four-month biting ban, but has now settled in. He has 17 goals from his last 16 games in all competitions following Barca’s 8-0 demolition of Cordoba on Saturday.

“I am very happy at the moment and this is all down to the support and confidence that my team-mates have given me,” Suarez told reporters.

“Without them and my family, I would not be scoring these goals.”

Against Cordoba, Messi also hit a double, but despite his competition with Ronaldo to be the league’s top scorer, he turned down the opportunity for a hat-trick by allowing Neymar to take a penalty.

The Argentine’s action comes in stark contrast to a week ago, when Ronaldo was angry that Alvaro Arbeloa nipped in ahead of him to score against Almeria, leading to some whistles from the Bernabeu crowd.

Suarez immediately struck up a close friendship with Lionel Messi and this, along with their effective link-up play, is a reason that the Argentine is enjoying his football again.

After a lean 2014, he now has 40 La Liga goals, two behind Ronaldo, and the impact of Suarez has certainly taken some of the pressure off him.

Barca remain on course to repeat the 2009 side’s treble, sitting at the top of the La Liga standings with a two-point advantage over Real Madrid with three games to go. REUTERS