10 - Lionel Messi - v3

[KingMessi]

Every player needs support, even Messi. No coincidence Messi was out of it for much of the game, the last 20-30 minutes he looked more like the amazing player he is. Its a team game, absolutely no player can do everything on his own, though Messi is certainly amongst the best ever to do just that.

+1 Morten.

 

[DrPepper]

He wasn't bad. Well, for his "best of all time" standards maybe, but objectively not. Also you have to give credit to Madrid for that, they isolated our right side and forced us to play on the left, which was Neymar's side who obviously was shit.

 

[karthik]

He decided to turn in to kill the game and he very nearly did so.

 

[Ritchie]

Shame he can't get a rest over the break. It'd be better for Argentina if they want him in good shape for the Copa.

 

[raskolnikov]

He could have tried more though, he let Marcelo go constantly and was slowly walking around. Wasnt until we regained control over midfield, Madrid got tired and he started playing false 9 that he started showing up like his quality self trying to kill it.

 

[raskolnikov]

Shame he can't get a rest over the break. It'd be better for Argentina if they want him in good shape for the Copa.

Yeah him staying at home resting for 10 days would help everyone in the long run, especially us. He wil be dead tired again when it matters most, just like in 2012.

 

[Vars]

Wasn't very present in the 1st half but it's true that the team prefered the Iniesta-Neymar route most of the time, may be that was tactical knowing that Messi would be heavily marked..

This.

 

[Kohe321]

Every player needs support, even Messi. No coincidence Messi was out of it for much of the game, the last 20-30 minutes he looked more like the amazing player he is. Its a team game, absolutely no player can do everything on his own, though Messi is certainly amongst the best ever to do just that.

+1, you're very correct here Morten. I can't understand the people giving Messi a hard time about the first half, when it is so obvious that the tactical system was completely flawed in it. Messi hardly saw the ball at all because Mascherano passed the ball to the left almost the entire time, and so did both of the CBs. The attacking buildup happened away from Messi for what felt like almost every single string of possession we had. There was absolutely no connection between the two sides. Rakitic was tired and off, Mascherano kept passing to Iniesta, and Neymar hogged the ball to no end. The second half after the subs solved most of this, and Messi came alive.

 

[matheusemp]

The team was playing through the left side even though he was free on the right. What do you expect him to do? Run over to the left? Maybe he could've dropped down deeper or to the center more often, apart from that it wasn't his fault IMO.

He was hiding lol, walking around and not calling the game for him, maybe he were tired? Many times when the ball was with alves he didnt move out the marking, wich wasnt that heavy

Now im the second half, he runned out the marking and searched more for the ball .
Every time Messi wants to play, barcelona improves like 200%

 

[Alik]

Messi looks like he has thrown on some old clothes left behind by Tata.

LOL at everyone just ignoring the fact that Douglas is in the picture.

Yeah, cannot blame Messi for the first half when everyone was attacking through the left only to have Neymar give it away.

 

[Blaugrana Bull]

Real made us play more to the left. That was not how we wanted it...

 

[Kohe321]

He was hiding lol, walking around and not calling the game for him, maybe he were tired? Many times when the ball was with alves he didnt move out the marking, wich wasnt that heavy

Now im the second half, he runned out the marking and searched more for the ball .
Every time Messi wants to play, barcelona improves like 200%

He did seem a bit tired, which is understandable due to his midweek game, but as we saw in the second half, this didn't explain what happened in the first half. The bad first half was down to tactics not working, wrong positioning and a midfield that was not distributing the ball correctly.

 

[KingMessi]

Messi looks like he has thrown on some old clothes left behind by Tata.

Eyyyy. Didn't know JamDav had a comedian within him.

 

[serghei]

Yeah, cannot blame Messi for the first half when everyone was attacking through the left only to have Neymar give it away.

We can blame pretty much the whole team for the first half except maybe Pique and Bravo. That includes Messi. If the service is not comming, he needs to drop back and help a bit in games like this, not just stay and wait for the ball like he did in the first half. The 2nd half was better and he gave more in terms of effort.

 

[Egert]

First half was crap. 2nd one was good by Leo. Had some chanches, but that one when he passed it to Neymar instead of Suarez.... Had few chances to score too, but unfortunately he didn't.
Hopefully can rest a bit in the ARG matches, don't expect him to play 90min in both matches, they play El Salvador and Ecuador I believe.