Comparing Lionel Messi's 2014/15 Stats to His 2013/14 Numbers

Lionel Messi has enjoyed a wonderful season with Barcelona during this campaign.

Like a good wine, Messi is getting better with age, and as the months have passed in 2014/15, so it seems that the Argentine continues to improve.

There can be no doubt that the prowess of both Neymar and Luis Suarez has helped Messi find his mojo again. Some of the skill that has been on show this season has been jaw-dropping.

Yet it wasn't long ago that certain sections of the media were suggesting that Messi's best days were behind him.

Rob Devine of Metro wrote this for example:

"

For all football lovers seeing the very obvious decline in the little Argentine genius has put a dampener on the first couple of months of the season and the almost unspoken, almost criminal, talk amongst many is that at only the age of 27 we may have already seen the best of the Barcelona superstar.

"

We've seen Messi put that particular argument well and truly to bed but just how good has he been during the current campaign?

Let's take a look at the numbers from this and last season to make a comparison...

Goals

There have been some spectacular goals this season, and the one just this past week against Bayern Munich will live long in the memory.

It's one of 53 goals in all competitions, including 10 in the Champions League, to not only make him the all-time record scorer, but also this season's top dog as far as goals scored are concerned.

It's a vast improvement on last season when the diminutive No. 10 finished with 41 goals in all competitions.

His 28 in the league for the last campaign has also been bettered with 40 already scored in 2014/15 with two more games left to play.

Assists

When he's not scoring goals, Messi can generally be relied upon to be assisting, and once again this season, he hasn't disappointed in that regard.

One for Ivan Rakitic against Manchester City and another for Neymar against Bayern while under immense pressure are two that particularly spring to mind.

Overall during this campaign, Messi has amassed 23 assists, with 18 coming in La Liga and five in the Champions League.

That compares favourably to last season where the Argentine managed just 11 in the league and was unable to register any in Europe's premier club competition.

Pass Accuracy

"

Messi's passing range and vision is an absolute joke!! 

— josh chanda (@joshchanda) May 6, 2015"

One area where he has failed to improve is in the accuracy of his passing in league matches. 

When you consider the sheer amount of cross-field arcing balls that have resulted in an assist or directly led up to a goal, that's quite a surprise.

Last season, his 85 percent pass success wasn't the best when compared to his colleagues, but certainly wasn't the worst either.

A drop-off to 82.9 percent for this campaign could do with being addressed.

In the Champions League, the upturn has been minor: 86.2 percent instead of 85.9.

Tackles/Defensive work

"

Successful tackles in the UCL 2014/15: Messi - 10 Suarez - 10 Neymar - 8 Benzema - 4 Cristiano - 2 Bale - 1 note: Hazard - 2

— erdi (@erMESSIdi) May 7, 2015"

Perhaps the most noticeable improvement, certainly when watching Barcelona's games, is the defensive work that Messi again willingly undertakes.

Last season, Tata Martino's side seemed to lack any sort of urgency, and that clearly manifested itself during games.

Pete Jenson from the Daily Mail was just one journalist to run with a story during the latter part of the last campaign that Messi had only run one mile further than goalkeeper Jose Manuel Pinto in the Champions League game against Atletico Madrid.

The numbers back up a marked improvement too, with Messi's per-game tackles rising from 0.5 to 0.7 in La Liga and 0.4 to an incredible 0.9 in the Champions League.

All stats courtesy of WhoScored.com.