Unlike the good old days when strikers came in the classic pair of big man, little man, every team now has to have a three pronged strike force. Whats more their initials have to fit with those of a multinational media conglomerate.
Barcelona have Messi, Neymar and Suarez ( MSN ) and Real Madrid have Bale, Benzema and Cristiano ( BBC ). Capricorn Research would normally be inclined to dismiss such things as a tedious modern fad, but in fact jumped on the bandwagon naming last season’s Watford’s promotion heroes of Ighalo, Troy ( Deeney ) and Vydra as ITV.
Louis Van Gaal, no stranger to the 3 initial thing himself decided to join in last summer by signing Antony Martial and Memphis Depay.
Presumably LVG hoped that these two would combine with Wayne Rooney to produce WMD. Unfortunately for him, these weapons of mass destruction turned out to be as illusory as Saddam Hussein’s.
The trouble is you can’t just throw any threesome together and hope it gells. You have to do a bit of research first.
Depay and Rooney was never going to work as both player’s Suns aspect the other’s Saturn. Depay has the Sun at 24 Aquarius in square to Pluto so he might well be a bright spark with an explosive burst of pace, but Rooney’s Saturn is at 27 Scorpio so any passes that make it through to the England captain would inevitably bring the movement to a halt.
Rooney’s Sun is trine Depay’s Saturn so it suits him when the Flying Dutchman slows down a bit. Unfortunately Rooney’s Mars in Virgo is opposite Depay’s Moon in Pisces, so the plans of the former merely serve to confuse the latter.
Martial’s chart has similarities with Depay’s in that his Sun is in flying Sagittarius and his Moon has an explosive opposition aspect with Pluto.
However Martial’s Moon is opposite Rooney’s Saturn. Its possible, particularly if our Wayne was born in the evening that his Moon is conjunct Martial’s Saturn, so that would be a remarkably unhelpful combination.
They do have one interesting aspect in that Martial’s Sun is square to Rooney’s Moon, which might suggest something could work but some considerable thought would have to put in to who plays in what position.
But either way its certainly not going to work now as the transitting Saturn is afflicting both.
Depay and Martial however have much more promise. Martial’s Sun is exactly sextile Depay’s Mars and Depay’s Sun is sextile Martial’s Jupiter.
So LVG should just give up on WMD, and stick with MD. In fact perhaps he should draft in Marouane Fellaini to create MDF. It might sound weird but a brief check on the synastry between the big hairy elbowed one and the two youngsters suggests it could work.
Either way United should just pack Wayne Rooney off to China. He would love it there. They both have a great reverence for old grannies.
If you’re going to have a three pronged strike force you have to have a theme that works. Maybe it has to be a lunar instinctive thing or a Mars type aggression but they all have to be on the same wavelength.
The theme that the Barcelona triumvirate have is Mercury, and for tiki taka, high speed, quick changes in pace and direction confusing the hell out of opponents and opening up scoring opportunities you could hardly do better.
Messi, although a Sun Cancer is as mercurial as they come. That Moon / Venus conjunction rising in Gemini says it all. He also has Mercury conjunct Mars square Jupiter.
So even in the unlikely event that you manage to keep him quiet for half a match like Arsenal did in the first leg of the last 16, a quick change of direction and you’ve lost him, with the ball nestling in the back of the net.
Also that Sun in a Water sign opposite Neptune provides a level of intuitive inspiration that is little short of divine. No wonder he appears at times as if not of this planet.
And its worth noting that the last Argentinian to have this combination was that Sun conjunct Neptune in Scorpio, Diego Maradona.
Another important point about Messi’s chart is that despite his extraordinary gifts, the Cancer / Gemini focus means there’s really no big ego about it. He can dovetail perfectly well with other players because his whole focus is on movement and communication, not self.
Which is interesting as his so called great rival Cristiano Ronaldo has the Sun in Aquarius opposite the Moon in Leo, coupled with Capricorn rising and Mars in Aries. So basically its all about him. He has recently stated ” if everyone was at my level perhaps we would be top “.
But of course this is missing the point. If there was three Cristianos in the Real Madrid team, none of them would pass to each other, so they’d still come up short against Barca.
The amazing thing about Barcelona over the last few years is the lack of egos. There have been phenomenal players there like Xavi and Iniesta but none of them have done the ” me ” thing. Perhaps its the way they play, but one of the first things that Guardiola did when he became manager was get rid of Ronaldinho, Eto’o, Deco and Ibrahimovic, all great players but each with a certain selfishness and a great sense of themselves as performers.
When it was first mooted that Neymar join Barcelona, many pundits wondered whether that would work. Neymar was so used to being the main man in Brazil, would he accept junior status alongside Messi ?
But of course, these pundits never looked at the synastry.
With an Aquarian Sun and Sagittarius rising, noone could say Neymar is devoid of ego but the way his chart dovetails with Messi’s is extraordinary.
The astrological classic in terms of a relationship between two people is where the Sun of one aspects the Moon of the other. If these aspects are favourable then so much the better.
If this combination works both ways then both partners are obviously uniquely made for each other. This happens very occasionally. One example is Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor where his Sun is conjunct her Moon and her Sun is opposite his Moon. For more details see – Pure Synastry
Burton and Taylor were of course made for each other and managed to get married twice as well as acting together. They also had their conflicts probably fuelled by that opposition.
Messi and Neymar’s connections are both pure, harmonious trines. Messi’s Sun at 2 Cancer is trine Neymar’s Moon at 1 Pisces, and the Argentinian’s Moon at 12 Gemini is trine the Brazilian’s Sun at 15 Aquarius.
This is really as good as it gets.
Neymar’s Mercury is in even closer trine with Messi’s Moon and Messi’s Mercury / Mars conjunction aspects Neymar’s Capricorn stellium.
So these two were already an amazing fit, but what happens when you throw serial biter Luis Suarez into the mix.
Suarez also has the Sun and Moon in Air and Water signs although they don’t actually form aspects with the lights of the other two.
His Mercury does though being conjunct Neymar’s Sun and trine Messi’s Moon, showing that his own quick thinking can dovetail well with the instinctive pairing of his fellow strikers.
All 3 players have Venus / Uranus contacts, Messi the opposition and Neymar and Suarez the conjunction.
When you watch Messi and Neymar together you can’t but be amazed at the artistry and skill involved. Of course they score goals by the hatful but if there is something missing from the complete package it is maybe a lack of single minded, obsessive, sheer power that turns their magnificence into utter dominance of their opponents.
All that Air and Water is perhaps missing some Fire.
There is one other thing about the synastry of these two.
Their Mars’ are in opposition, Messi’s in Cancer and Neymar’s in Capricorn, but really with all those trines, that just adds to the picture. They might at times appear to be moving in opposite directions but they can instantly find each other with a pass that noone’s expecting that throws a whole defence off course.
And this is when Suarez really explodes on the scene. His Mars in Aries bursts through the middle, receives one touch from either of the maestros and he’s scored before any of the defenders even realised he was there.
Needless to say, Luis Suarez Mars at 11 Aries is the apex of a T square created by Messi’s Mercury / Mars conjunction and Neymar’s Mars / Venus / Uranus / Neptune stellium in Capricorn.
And as regular readers of these articles well know, a planet at the apex of a T Square receives and focuses the power of the energy generated by the planets in opposition. So Suarez comes up with an avalanche of goals.
Luis Suarez has had his issues in the past which have been well documented on these pages. For more details see – Biting Back.
Pluto’s transit square to his Mars was the cause of all of his nutritional eccentricities, but we all know that even the most destructive of the Grim Reaper’s tendencies are with a plan in mind. The whole point of it is to create a fresh start in a completely new situation that is actually more suited to the person concerned.
Of course most of us on the receiving don’t see this at the time as Pluto goes about killing off everything we held dear up to that point. Certainly Luis Suarez did not set about munching the shoulders of Branislav Ivanovich and Giorgio Chellini in order to force through a move to Barcelona to form the most incredible attacking trident that the football world has seen, but that is how its worked out.
The three of them together produce moments of such breathtaking skill and audacity, all you can do as a fan is to laugh.
If only Neymar’s name began with the next letter in the alphabet, we could simply call them LOL.