10 - Lionel Messi - v2

[TornAndFrayed]

With Matuidi as a left defensive midfielder and Thiago Silva as the left central defender, Messi will face tough competition. Villa and Tello could thrive on the wings.

 

[Luftstalag14]

Pele is third behind Bican and Romario. Here's the list http://www.rsssf.com/players/prolific.html

Note, it counts also regional and lower divisional games.

If Messi can keep this up 2-3 seasons, he will be up there in the end.

Didn't the game of soccer become faster, more physical and sophisticated over the years? Am I completely far off to think back then goals were relatively easier to score than today?

 

[Galning]

Am I completely far off to think back then goals were relatively easier to score than today?

No

 

[misterplatin]

Didn't the game of soccer become faster, more physical and sophisticated over the years? Am I completely far off to think back then goals were relatively easier to score than today?

As some past players say football has not got easy or difficult . It has evolved in different forms . So has the different strategies of defense ,attack, midfield control etc .

IMO speed of game ,athleticism and other changes have affected the way we play the game and not much the individual players . What can be said is that tactics and systems do suppress individual creativity and skills and emphasizes the use of system players .

 

[raskolnikov]

What I dont get is how they had so many friendlies as well, nowadays they have about 5-10 of them and then 60 official games.
Look at Gerd Müllers stats for example: in 73/74 he had 94 matches including friendlies, a few years earlier 92.
Take in mind there is also national team games,training and traveling.
I cant believe they could keep up such a level for that long in so many matches, it must have been about football 24/7, no rest.

Same with Pele, in 1959 he had over a hundred matches including friendlies.

 

[jiopi]

Gerd Müller is the only top goalscorer we can take seriously imo, Pele's record is hard to take serious due to the circumstances at the time and the opposition he scored against.
Same with Romario where he suddenly got 400+ goals in Brazil after age 30.
And then you had players like Daek,Bican, Puskas who padded most or all of their record in what most likely was a very poor local competition.
Which means all the great goalscorers outside of Müller got 500+ but not over 600.

Leo will probably have 400 after Christmas, its no unrealistic that he gets 350 more in the 8/10 years after that.

Even Müller's total includes 92 goals in regional competitions, and as in a reference his 35 goals in European Cup, only 9 came against a team from the "big" countries (multiple winners, Spain, Italy, England, Germany, Holland, Portugal), where as Messi has already scored 43 against those.

 

[jiopi]

Didn't the game of soccer become faster, more physical and sophisticated over the years? Am I completely far off to think back then goals were relatively easier to score than today?

Yeah, goal scoring averages have been steadily dropping throughout the years, bar couple exceptions like overly defensive leagues, like SerieA in the 80's etc.

 

[FCBarca]

With Matuidi as a left defensive midfielder and Thiago Silva as the left central defender, Messi will face tough competition. Villa and Tello could thrive on the wings.

I've liked Matuidi from what I had seen of him up until the France-Spain match recently, less concerned about him now

 

[DonAndres]

Barcastuff: Messi out for the rest of the season with a back injury.

That was the most overused joke in the world last season except with RVP and Arsenal

 

[Youngie]

"Barcastuff: Messi out for the rest of the season with a back injury."

Was it from carrying his baby?

 

[darthvader7888]

"Barcastuff: Messi out for the rest of the season with a back injury."

Was it from carrying his baby?

Carrying Barca

I Realized it was kinda lame, so I deleted it

 

[ShandyFFM]

 

[Xtroverto]

Yeah, goal scoring averages have been steadily dropping throughout the years, bar couple exceptions like overly defensive leagues, like SerieA in the 80's etc.

Actually, la liga was very defensive in the late 1960s and early 1970s, only a few teams managed to score over 50 goals. When FC Barcelona scored 75 goals in the 73-74 season it was the first time since Real Madrid in the 64-65 season that any team scored over 2 goals per match. Few teams even managed over 1,5 half goal per match during that period.

In the 1972-73 season Real Madrid only managed to score more than 3 goal in one single game the whole season.

One common theme during that period is that many teams were rock solid home but poor defending away. Some numbers are almost alien comparing to today. Pontevedra C.F. conceded 2 goals home in 1968-69 season, Granada C.F. was just barely worse with 3 goals conceded. The following season Athletic Club only conceded 3 goals home and Granada C.F. only 6 goals. The 70-71 season both Athletic Club and Celta Vigo only conceded 4 goals home. During those years every season there were 5-6-7 teams conceding less than 10 goals home. That is crazy comparing to today, the last time a team conceded less than 10 goals home in la liga was Valencia CF in the 2001-2002 season. And in the last 2 decades these are the teams conceding less than 10 goals home.

Valencia 2001-02
Mallorca 1998-99
Real Betis 1994-95
Espanyol 1994-95
Deportivo 1993-94
Real Madrid 1992-93
Real Oviedo 1990-91

 

[Kerrybai]

Messi has been so close to Ronaldos goal tally for a while now. He trails 351-341 and 313-309 for clubs only. I know he won't care about that but I do!

 

[mixer]

idk what happened to the last goal but we all remember it quite good