10 - Lionel Messi - v2

[tariqo]

The club needs to stop indulging Messi. Part of the problem is they are scared of stepping on his toes. Look at the Ibra situation. He wanted the false 9 middle position so Ibra had to go. Time to tell him that there are matches where he will be used on the wing and we get a speedy physical forward like Falcao, Cavani to take up the PROPER forward position. No more false 9 bullshit-get a real number nine.

Didn't know that messi has this power to make them doing what ever he want ^_^


Its simple , there is no real threat against big teams but messi & villa upfront & we must get neymar & get rid of alexis

 

[aaron101]

Aside from him I never saw anyone doing a 1 on 1 dribble yp Milan defenders.

We really need a major change. Maybe with different players and nee manager.

 

[Juan03]

Ibra wasn't even bad for us, he scored 20 something goals that season. The only problem is he isn't your typical #9, he is more of a false 9 as well. Examples of number 9's suited for Barca imo are: Villa/Eto'o/Grogba/Falcao/Cavani.. Of course Villa isn't even played as a 9 to suit Messi, but he has shown that he delivers when he is played there.

 

[Karnivore]

Tell you what, whoevers telling/not telling Messi to stay up front needs kicking out the club. Last night (and in recent months), he's joined into the midfield coming deeper and deeper.

Why would you need him there when three of the best central mids in Europe already play there?

Why were the team walking it about for 90 mins. I spotted three clear occassions when Xavi could have put a forward in and instead he opted to pass it sideways or backwards.

The number of times the Barcelona side have a counter attacking opportunity but play possession football is frustrating as hell for a neutral like myself. The world of football has been waxing lyrical about the way they play for 4 years now, however there are pockets that are now turning well against them. The obsession for possession football doesn't work against well organised defences, and it certainly isn't appealing to those around Europe waiting for Barcelona to live up to the hype.

Messi is the only player who even dares to force play, no one else is on the same level as him unfortunately, and that was very apparent last night.

 

[Juan03]

Tell you what, whoevers telling/not telling Messi to stay up front needs kicking out the club. Last night (and in recent months), he's joined into the midfield coming deeper and deeper.

Why would you need him there when three of the best central mids in Europe already play there?

Why were the team walking it about for 90 mins. I spotted three clear occassions when Xavi could have put a forward in and instead he opted to pass it sideways or backwards.

The number of times the Barcelona side have a counter attacking opportunity but play possession football is frustrating as hell for a neutral like myself. The world of football has been waxing lyrical about the way they play for 4 years now, however there are pockets that are now turning well against them. The obsession for possession football doesn't work against well organised defences, and it certainly isn't appealing to those around Europe waiting for Barcelona to live up to the hype.

Messi is the only player who even dares to force play, no one else is on the same level as him unfortunately, and that was very apparent last night.

I agree with you in almost everything except the bold part. Iniesta imo is always looking to create something, even taking on seas of opposing players, yesterday he didn't have a great game like he has had this year, but I don't blame him because everybody played was bad.

And to the people that complain about the way Messi loses the ball so much. I rather see him try to create danger than pass it back and sideways.

 

[Karnivore]

Iniesta's the closest, but he's definately not on Messi's level (we are talking about the greatest player of all time after all).

Barcelona fans won't want to hear it, and I imagine they'll deny it, but they have one gear, one pace, and only one gameplan. Pass it till they're blue in the face.

I actually couldn't believe how stupid they were after going a goal down, absoloutely no urgency whatsoever. Milan showed more of it even when 2-0 up. They chased the Barcelona players down, worked in groups to force them into mistakes, and when they got it, they hit them hard on the counter.

It was the most arrogant performance you'll see from a team this season. They need a proper kick up the arse for the return leg. Dilly dally about like that and Milan will pick them off just like Inter did in 2010. It'll be a clear road for Real Madrid too IMO if it happens. They'll win at Old Trafford and Mourinho will make sure they trump the likes of Bayern and Dortmund to win it.

 

[Flavia]

Barcelona fans won't want to hear it, and I imagine they'll deny it, but they have one gear, one pace, and only one gameplan. Pass it till they're blue in the face.

I agree to an extent. This has happened before, but last night it was worse, as no goal scoring opportunities were created. The front line of Iniesta, Messi and Pedro is weak, compared to MVP, or HEM, or any other. Pedro is not the same from past seasons, Iniesta works better on cm, Alexis can't score, Villa always injured. All of this is hurting, and the record breaking season somehow masked the problem. There's only Messi to score, and this season the dependency on him is even worse than 11-12. Most of the games that Villa started, I saw an improvement on that department. Sometimes even Alexis makes a good difference, but he can't finish his chances. Messi should have more assists as well, but most of the time those chances were lost, be it Alexis or Pedro.

 

[raskolnikov]

We just need another plan for parkee buses, no need to change up the whole system.

 

[Flavia]

We just need another plan for parkee buses, no need to change up the whole system.

The system was already changed. Iniesta at LW, instead of the middle, it's quite different from him at cm with Villa/Alexis/Tello on the lw.

 

[Karnivore]

We just need another plan for parkee buses, no need to change up the whole system.

Milan didn't park the bus last night, what game were you watching? In the second half they took the game to Barcelona, and even when they were 2-0 up they were still forcing Barcelona into mistakes.

That's as good a job as any side has done on them, Real Madrid being the only other one. Milan were comfortably the better side and the scoreline reflected that.

Barcelona need to quicken the tempo up, force Milans hand into making quick decisions, mistakes will happen. They're a technically gifted side who unfortunately are starting to believe in their own hype. Last night you almost got the feeling they were just passing it around almost thinking Milan were going to open up and let them walk it into the back of the net.

Should have been a real eye opener. If the manager had any balls or spine some harsh words need to be said.

 

[abual3bed1]

We just need another plan for parkee buses, no need to change up the whole system.

Not really, we just need to finish the chances we get against those teams. Milan didn't park the bus, they defended well and had more attempts than us. I don't this means they parked a bus. They played extremely well on both ends.

 

[darthvader7888]

Not really, we just need to finish the chances we get against those teams. Milan didn't park the bus, they defended well and had more attempts than us. I don't this means they parked a bus. They played extremely well on both ends.

This. And IMO, the main reason Milan beat us is because we played (uncharacteristically) badly. Sure they played well, but it was more down to us playing badly.

 

[Pepe Silvia]

We didn't have a natural goal-scorer on the pitch or on the bench outside of Messi.....

why do we insist on calling cesc, iniesta, alexis and thiago goal-scorers in this system? it's simply ridiculous and at the start of the season, seeing our personnel, i and many other cules saw the same catastrophe of a problem in front of goal that we had last season.

 

[Garrus]

Look at this image:

If has to go the right to escape heavy marking anyway, What's the point of using him as a central striker (false 9), Look at the empty space he left in the middle!!, This is absurd.
He should play on the right from the beginning instead of pedro.

 

[footyfan]

Again, that's great defending from Milan. Mexes knows nobody will go to the centre so he goes up to pressure Messi. El Shaarawy drops back too. Even if Messi beats them both, he still has the middle 3 blocking any passes that he may make to the left wing which he usually does.

You could see this pattern repeatedly yesterday. Somebody like Villa would have moved inwards from the LW spot and held Mexes back.