When Manuel Pellegrini was asked on Tuesday about Manchester City players not believing in their coach , he told the Spanish journalist asking the question that the same enquiry could easily have been made of Barcelona ’ s manager Luis Enrique just two months earlier . He was spot-on too . Back at the start of January Barca ’ s head coach sat ghost-like through press conferences – a condemned man after a fall-out with the one man at Barcelona you don ’ t fall-out with – Lionel Messi . Barcelona had just been beaten 1-0 by David Moyes ' Real Sociedad , the president Josep Bartomeu had sacked sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta and called elections for the end of the season . Lionel Messi 's ( left ) fall out with manager Luis Enrique was the pinnacle of Barcelona 's drama behind the scenes before the first game of the season . Enrique seemed a condemned man but , given his team 's form , he 's a happy man ahead of his side 's Champions League second leg clash with Manchester City . Serve and protect : Neymar gives a serious salute next to the Barcelona logo in this Instagram post . And Javier Mascherano had gone on a one-man media mission to convince everyone that all talk of training ground bust-ups and sour air in the Barca dressing room was the product of reporters ’ fertile imagination . It wasn ’ t . And off-message French defender Jeremy Mathieu admitted as such in an interview with French radio saying that Messi had indeed had a heated argument with Enrique in a training session before the first game of the year . Since that defeat by Real Sociedad , Barcelona have devoured all that has been put before them barring one slip against Malaga . Luis Suarez is still setting up team-mates as he was towards the end of last year but he is now in the kind of scoring form that saw him win the Golden Boot last season , and Messi has gone from being 12 goals behind Cristiano Ronaldo in the La Liga scoring stakes to two goals in front him . Real Sociedad celebrate their victory over Barcelona on January 4 that coincided with the sacking of sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta and president Josep Bartomeu calling for elections for the end of the season . French defender Jeremy Mathieu ( left ) admitted Messi and Enrique had a heated argument during training . What happened ? Player power is what happened . What most upset squad members at the start of the year is that three of their number – Dani Alves , Messi and Neymar – had been given permission to come back slightly later than the rest from the mid-winter break but were then left out of that first game of the new year because , according to Enrique , they had not trained sufficiently . The players had had enough of the mixed messages and of the constant changes in starting line-ups . And they made themselves heard . Suarez ( left ) and Messi ( right ) laugh during training on Tuesday ahead of their meeting with City . From that moment on Luis Enrique ’ s team changes were drastically reduced . He began to leave out one star-player at a time instead of making wholesale changes and with the emphasis now on the players to deliver because they had won their internal battle with the coach they began performing at a level not seen since Tito Vilanova was in charge two seasons before . There are still disagreements between coach and players . Suarez was unhappy about being taken off two weeks ago and at the weekend Neymar responded in the same way when he was taken off at Eibar . Neither would it be fair to say that Luis Enrique is now a puppet being made to dance solely to Messi ’ s tune . One of his strengths as a manager is that he gets the players fit and keeps them fit throughout the season , and Barca players look strong with 11 games left to play plus the Copa del Rey final . One of Enrique 's strengths is keeping players fit and Barca 's squad looks strong with 12 games left to play . The manager has loosened the reigns since January 's blow up and his team is now difficult to stop . His assistant Juan Carlos Unzue should also be credited with the transformation in the way they take and defend corners . Barca had taken over 100 set plays at the start of the season without making a training ground routine render a single goal on the pitch . But all that has changed of late with ‘ unusual ’ suspects Jordi Alba and Messi both getting their heads to important corners – Alba with an assist and Messi scoring his first header from a corner in his Barcleona career . Luis Enrique has played his part in the revival but it ’ s also been a change in him that has seen Barça ’ s form transformed . It seemed he was trying too hard to put his stamp on the team towards the end of last year ; trying to hard to show his multimillionaire players who was boss . Since January he has loosened the reigns – and in response his thoroughbred team have hit the front and will be difficult to stop .
Luis Enrique and ben Messi fell out on the training ground . A fan revolt stemmed from mixed messages about who would play . Then Barca fell 1 - 0 to para Moyes ' Real Socieded in a major defeat . Barcelona are now showing a rich vein of form and morale at the club . They face Manchester City on opening night in the Champions League . Enrique 's side , ahead of La Liga , face Real villa in El Clasico on Sunday . CLICK HERE for all the latest Barcelona news .