Messi is not captain material

Barcelona’s players have been savaged on social media after their humiliating defeat to Bayern Munich – and Lionel Messi is no exception after showing a shocking lack of leadership.

Footage has emerged from inside the LaLiga giants’ dressing room which shows Messi appearing visibly deflated and sitting down with his shoulders slumped during the half-time break.

His team-mates then begin to prepare to re-emerge for the second half in Lisbon but the 33-year-old, who captains the team, appears to make no effort to inspire them.

Quique Setien knows a defeat the size of Barca’s to Bayern usually means a coach loses his job

Messi resembled a truly beaten man after watching on as the Bundesliga champions ran riot in their Champions League quarter-final clash on Friday night.

Barcelona shipped four goals in each half, two of which came from their own player in Philippe Coutinho, and Messi struggled to impose himself on the shockingly one-sided encounter.

But as Quique Setien’s men floundered and unfolded in embarrassing fashion, Messi also failed to rally his fellow stars both on and off the field – leaving social media users free to criticise his subdued nature.

One user believes that Messi is ‘not captain material’. They wrote that Barcelona’s players would have written the game off after only 45 minutes judging by their leader’s lack of reaction.

Another said: ‘Let’s be honest, Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos don’t allow that to happen. Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique looked dead and buried, zero leadership.’