10 - Lionel Messi - v3

[Ritchie]

WC argument served well 20+ years ago when basically 4-5 teams tossed themselves the cup, football was played at 40% the speed & strength of nowadays, key players stayed on their countries powering their own national leagues and club seasons were short.

If you look at it by just logic, you are comparing a team performance that compete every 4 years for 3 matches at worst and 7 matches at best (qualifiers/continental cups aside) v/s teams that play a whole season worth of 2 tournaments & every-week league game at the same time.

This is not the same era of football in which one-man show dominated, you actually need solid squads overall.

A prime Messi would have still won Argentina that cup on his own. He just wasn't fit.

 

[raskolnikov]

A prime Messi would have still won Argentina that cup on his own. He just wasn't fit.

Messi is prime


The whole world cup argument comes from a time when that was the only major tournament that could be viewed by the world. Hell, 15 years ago it was even difficult to view Barca matches live outside of Spain.
Nowadays everything can be watched and since the 90's the cl has risen to such an high level that its the benchmark for the highest level of football.

I still feel being the greatest clubfootballer in history along with taking Argentina to the wc final will be enough to seal his legacy as goat.
Let him add more greatness, break more records, score more goals and give more assists (1000 together), maybe win a copa america and a few cl's (hopefully) and let it sink for several years when he retires while the football world will be trying to fill up the void left behind by Messi.
Then it will truly sink in with everyone how Messi is the greatest player ever to play the game.

 

[6 Ballons for Messi]

Messi still has 2 WC's to play.
Especially the next one, he will play as attacking midfielder, with some good defence and some young proper players like dybala up front he could go all the way.
And as ritchie said, the only reason he didn't win last year is because he was in terrible condition.

At first, around march, I didn't wanna admit to myself that something was wrong with him, all the trolls talking about messi's decline and that we should sell him etc.
Then it became obvious that he wasn't trying with us, he was rly quiet, like in the liga deciding game vs atletico. Then I admitted that he must be saving himself for the WC.
And then the WC happened and it was painfully obvious that he wasn't lazy, or his form dropped or anything, he was just burned out.
It was rather obvious in the final, where he stopped running after the 1st half and puked in half time.

 

[raskolnikov]

Messi still has 2 WC's to play.
Especially the next one, he will play as attacking midfielder, with some good defence and some young proper players like dybala up front he could go all the way.
And as ritchie said, the only reason he didn't win last year is because he was in terrible condition.

At first, around march, I didn't wanna admit to myself that something was wrong with him, all the trolls talking about messi's decline and that we should sell him etc.
Then it became obvious that he wasn't trying with us, he was rly quiet, like in the liga deciding game vs atletico. Then I admitted that he must be saving himself for the WC.
And then the WC happened and it was painfully obvious that he wasn't lazy, or his form dropped or anything, he was just burned out.
It was rather obvious in the final, where he stopped running after the 1st half and puked in half time.

So what changed this season? a new diet with less Pizza and cola cant make such a huge difference in form right?

 

[6 Ballons for Messi]

So what changed this season? a new diet with less Pizza and cola cant make such a huge difference in form right?

Well we can't know the details but I'm sure that messi had all kinds of warning alarms firing on in his head, that something was wrong with his body and he needed to fix it.
So he visited the right people and fixed it.

 

[raskolnikov]

Well we can't know the details but I'm sure that messi had all kinds of warning alarms firing on in his head, that something was wrong with his body and he needed to fix it.
So he visited the right people and fixed it.

Like he did 3 weeks ago when he started looking tired and burned out again due a rest, visists a doctor in Italy, and all stamina issues were fixed

Honestly though I wish we could find out what Messi's huge change is why looks so much better than last season, regardless of the team's tactics. His diet and health regimen would be interesting to see.

 

[Jamie Cal]

A prime Messi would have still won Argentina that cup on his own. He just wasn't fit.

Hmmm.....and a proper manager (lets say Cholo) would of had Pastore and Otamendi in the team with Leo closer to the opposition goal.

Then again, Di Maria and Aguero not being fit was what really went wrong anyway.

 

[Jamie Cal]

Not in world cups, no. Something like brazil winning in 58, 62 and 70 won't happen again.

Hmmm, I'm not sure I agree. Spain could just as easily win the next one, or indeed the Germans.

 

[Iarwain]

Maradona didn't need European Cup to be considered GOAT yet Messi needs a 7-game WC team trophy to enter the debate.

Interestingly, Argentina didn't pass WC quarter-finals since Maradona (24 years), until this World Cup. With absent Di Maria and Aguero, I'd even call this one of their worst WC generations.

 

[Leo_Messi]

Just another piece of disgusting Chiringuito. Program after Messi shines vs Bayern, should they talk about the game? Should they talk about the performance? Nope. Lets hate on Pep and lets play and manipulate a video of a 17 year old Messi on a comedy show being pranked, and lets call it "humiliating" and lets say the video is "unpublished".

I don't condone violence to solve problems, but if there are a group of people that deserved to be jumped in a dark alley and beaten to a pulp, it's these fuckers.

Not sure why you are even taking those clowns seriously my Cuban friend. I know that it's difficult not to watch it, especially after RM meltdowns (I catch myself watching it time and time again, lol) but it should not be taken seriously by any means. Let those clowns bark for our entertainment.

All the sane football fans know what is going on out there in the real world.

 

[Sumlit]

Not sure why you are even taking those clowns seriously my Cuban friend. I know that it's difficult not to watch it, especially after RM meltdowns (I catch myself watching it time and time again, lol) but it should not be taken seriously by any means. Let those clowns bark for our entertainment.

All the sane football fans know what is going on out there in the real world.

Oh, I only watch it out of pure curiosity and entertainment. They are so friggin dumb it's comical. Still, sometimes they even break my "watch it because they're so stupid it's funny" attitude when they do something so low and despicable as this. This is very low.

I also don't watch it all the time. You'd go crazy watching such stupidity for prolonged periods. I follow @ElChirincirco on twitter, it's the parody account that makes fun of @ElChiringuito, that's where I get most of their stupidity. The guy that runs that account is a comedy genius.

He also runs @Llourinho, a parody of Mourinho; @HoyEnDeportes4, a parody of Los Manolos, a Spanish sporting show that claims to be unbiased but is comically pro Madrid; @FlorentimoPenez, parody of Uncle Flo; PeriodicoWarca, parody of Marca. There's also @_Moroncito_, which is run by someone else, but is a parody of that pig Tomas Roncero.

All those accounts are pure comedy gold.

 

[Ritchie]

Maradona didn't need European Cup to be considered GOAT yet Messi needs a 7-game WC team trophy to enter the debate.

Interestingly, Argentina didn't pass WC quarter-finals since Maradona (24 years), until this World Cup. With absent Di Maria and Aguero, I'd even call this one of their worst WC generations.

Messi still had a good impact on the World Cup despite not being fit.

Maradona's club career highlights were basically centred around a few years at Napoli but no impact on the European Cup. As much as he's up there in the top 3 of all time he hasn't achieved everything as a player.

Penaldo, for example. has done jack shit at 3 World Cups and the last couple of Euros but wins a ballon do'r because he scores a hat-trick in qualifying.

 

[Stric]

Honestly, how many of us thought Argentina would make it to the semi-finals even? This was a huge success for them, and there's no doubt that Messi played a big role in it.

 

[Luftstalag14]

Maradona the old fart is apparently losing it, finally...

"You have to be honest, goalkeepers are scared of Cristiano. They are not so scared of Messi in those areas because he doesn't have the same power as Cristiano.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/...ose-mourinho-still-greater-than-pep-guardiola

 

[raskolnikov]

Maradona the old fart is apparently losing it, finally...



http://www1.skysports.com/football/...ose-mourinho-still-greater-than-pep-guardiola

“It’s not the case that Messi is better than Ronaldo or Ronaldo is better than Messi. I think they are at the same level.”

So Maradona feels Ronaldo is better than him