I know a guy who is a high level soccer coach. We were at a conference together and watching some of the World Cup. I asked what made Messi so great.
He said that Messi can make plays to get his teammates the ball in the right spot, but what he needs are teammates that know where they should be and that if they get there they will get the ball. He plays very little with the national team so he and the other players do not know one another that well compared to the hundreds of hours spent with his club team.
It made me think of Pete Maravich (look him up on YouTube--if he had played later when games were on national TV he would be in the conversation as one of the all-time greats). When Pete started playing for the Hawks his teammates had to learn that Pete could get passes into spaces no one else could. I saw videos of guys getting hit in the face because the player thought "There is no way he can get the ball to me".