The reason those players were 'protected' so much is because they were playing the best football at the time and were being fouled left and right because it's the only way teams could prevent them from hammering them 5-0 week in and week out. Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, Neymar, Modric, Ronaldo, Isco, all receive the same level of protection and it's because they ghost past players and if they're not protected then they're pretty much shirt-pulled, kicked, blatantly pushed, or physically held back to the point where the game becomes unwatchable.
Barcelona's playmakers received that protection the same way Madrid's do now and did for the previous three seasons, because they play the most attacking football and they eventually get fouled out of the game. Refs are protecting PL players more these days too, Hazard, Coutinho, Salah, and the likes of David Silva/De Bruyne/Sterling are getting a lot of protection, it's not like these guys are getting hacked to death and there's no repercussion. Either we have to be alright with skillful players getting some kind of protection from perpetual fouls or we can't complain if the PL deteriorates into terrible route 1 football because skillful players don't want to bother.
This is what happens to all the skillful players in La Liga:
Is it any wonder refs start protecting them?
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