The 2014-15 season for Barcelona thus far can be divided up into three sections.

The season started off with Blaugrana looking virtually invisible. The numbers tell the whole story.

Barcelona's first eight league games of the year featured zeros on the right side of the score ledger. Barcelona was impenetrable defensively and had the right combination of offense and defense.

But on Oct. 25, the team hit a wall. The wall's name? Real Madrid.

The Catalan club lost 3-1 against its biggest rival and lost its aura of invincibility. Couple that with a loss to a lesser side right away and chaos had hit Barcelona. Some other in-house troubles added to the chaos and then there were rumors of star Lionel Messi getting ready to leave the squad in the summer. Everything was amiss heading into the New Year, even though Messi was starting to find his form. But a new low, which featured Messi fighting during a training session with manager Luis Enrique followed by a loss against Real Sociedad (in which Messi was benched to start), only led to the feeling that the team was coming apart at the seams.

That was Jan. 4. As of this writing, Barcelona seems to be a completely new team with a new identity. Tiki taka is back, but with a vengeance the likes of which has not been seen since the days of Pep Guardiola. Messi is having a tremendous start to the new year and has given his team the boost he had not given it thus far this season.

Messi has been downright dominant in the new year with eight goals in just five games. He has also pitched in with three assists in that span; Messi has not put up that pace all season. In fact, Messi has a total of 31 goals and 14 assists in 28 games in all competitions for Blaugrana this season; that 25 percent of those goals have come in 18 percent of those games tells you just how good he has been.

In that span, Barcelona has put up 19 goals overall; Messi has factored in with a goal or assist on 57.8 percent of those goals, which tells you exactly how essential he is to his team's success. On the entire season, Barcelona has a record of five wins, two draws and three losses in matches when Messi does not score a goal. The record is admittedly a winning record, but a closer look at those victories tells a huge story.

The five Barcelona victories with Messi were a 1-0 win over Villarreal, a 2-0 win over Athletic Bilbao, a 1-0 win over APOEL Nicosia, a 2-1 win over Almeria and a 1-0 win over Valencia. Notice a trend? Barcelona has only had 11 wins by a margin of two or fewer goals; five of them have come with Messi not scoring a goal. Overall, Barcelona has 13 victories on the year with margins of three or more goals. These numbers indicate that without Messi, Barcelona struggles to dominate games. It is worth mentioning that in two of those aforementioned victories (the Athletic Bilbao and APOEL wins), Messi registered assists.

The road will only get more difficult for Blaugrana. They have Manchester City waiting to prove a point in the Champions League and might have to figure out a way to stay healthy and rested as they try to win the Copa del Rey.

Most importantly, Messi must be at his best if this team is going to do great things in April and May.