Suarez trying to fill Messi void

Barcelona striker Luis Suarez says he feels "responsibility" to try and compensate for the loss of Lionel Messi during his injury layoff.

Messi is out until late November with a knee injury picked up in last month's La Liga clash with Las Palmas -- and Barca have struggled at times in each of their games since, especially when losing 2-1 at Sevilla just before the current international break.

The difficulty of playing without Messi has also been shown by Argentina picking up just one point and scoring zero goals in their opening 2018 World Cup qualifiers against Ecuador and Paraguay this week.

Uruguay forward Suarez scored Barca's winners in the recent games against Las Palmas in La Liga and Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League, and said in a preview of an interview with Catalan TV3 show "Hat trick Barca" that every player in the team had to step up with the "irreplaceable" Messi missing.

"With Leo everything is much easier, but without him I must try and make things easy too," he said. "Each one must take responsibility for their work, and do it as well as possible. Nobody is going to replace him, as he is irreplaceable."

Even before Messi got injured, Barca had not been firing as expected during the first games of 2015-16 season -- with the team as a whole scoring just 15 times in their first nine fixtures across La Liga and the Champions League.

Suarez, who has five goals in eight appearances, admitted that as a whole the Barca attack was not functioning as well as last season.

"We do not have the same attacking punch as last year," he said. "But well, then we also won games and you were left with the sensation that we were around. The second part of the season was when we were spectacular."

Barca's uncertain form even brought whistles when the team were 1-0 down at home to Leverkusen recently.

"There is not much sense in whistling the team," he said. "You don't like them getting angry, in no sense. It was all marvellous when the treble was won, when the European Super Cup was won, and now, after losing two or three games, the team is judged for some things, which I believe makes no sense."

Suarez is himself a doubt for Saturday's La Liga fixture at home to Rayo Vallecano, having not trained with his teammates during this week's first two group sessions.

Times when Messi and Suarez were in Barcelona. Photo: Reuters File