10 - Lionel Messi - v3

[Flavia]

He doesn't have to be like Messi. Like Paganinisrvnge said, Neymar should focus on building muscle in the lower half of the body including his core, which will improve his balance and stability to no end. It won't reduce his speed or agility, and even if it does, pretty sure the tradeoff would be a positive one.

That's the job of Barça training staff. It won't happen overnight though, and I don't think he'd get much different than he is now. Just a bit stronger.

 

[Kohe321]

The thing is, Pedro and Iniesta are also pretty lean in their build, but both can guard the ball really well under pressure before falling over, and especially Iniesta who only falls when there's a clear foul on him. Iniesta is actually incredibly scrappy and tough to get off balance if he's determined to stay on his feet.

That said, I also think that Neymar should gain more muscle in his legs and core to increase his ruggedness, but this also has a lot to do with mentality. Neymar seems to have it ingrained in his mind that if he feels a push he will fall over. Sometimes this will lead to goals in form of freekicks or penalties, but most of the time it just stops the rhythm of the team with a freekick at midfield, or even worse, a turnover...

 

[raskolnikov]

The keyword is balance, Messi has amazing balance, a lot of strength in his legs as well.

 

[Stric]

This reminds me of the discussion a few years back about how Alexis kept falling down because of balance issues. They were never balance issues. Or bad boots. This is mostly not about muscle mass, balance, leg length or physics in general. Physics has little to do with it. This is about the player's mind, their decision making. You either want to stay on your feet and use your body to make that happen (this is where the physics part comes in), or you want to fall down. That's 90% of it.

 

[Ocurrente]

 

[CatalinR10]

 

[flamenco]

 

[beautifulgame]

This reminds me of the discussion a few years back about how Alexis kept falling down because of balance issues. They were never balance issues. Or bad boots. This is mostly not about muscle mass, balance, leg length or physics in general. Physics has little to do with it. This is about the player's mind, their decision making. You either want to stay on your feet and use your body to make that happen (this is where the physics part comes in), or you want to fall down. That's 90% of it.

:-0

as well, one of the reasons alexis' balance was worse than this year was becaon too much use he had put too mass in upper body. his body was out of proportion, it looks a bit better this season.

 

[beautifulgame]

17, actually. Doubt I would have put on 50lbs of muscle sitting around after that.

The point is that Neymar can do something about his shitty balance and he should. I can't even imagine if he had gone to the Premier League.

quite obvious you are an arm chair critic. as are the rest of you that follow this nonsense.

 

[CatalinR10]

According to opinion poll, 25% of French people would give 2014 Ballon d'Or to Messi. Ibrahimovic 21%, Ribery 16%, Ronaldo 15%. [leparisien]

 

[Paganinisrvnge]

quite obvious you are an arm chair critic. as are the rest of you that follow this nonsense.

The nonsense is you guys thinking it's not Neymars fault he has the strength of an 11 year old boy. Either he chooses to go down and he needs to correct that behavior or he's pathetically weak and he needs to do some strength training. Which is it?

 

[Messi]

The nonsense is you guys thinking it's not Neymars fault he has the strength of an 11 year old boy. Either he chooses to go down and he needs to correct that behavior or he's pathetically weak and he needs to do some strength training. Which is it?

I think there be a bit more to it. I just watched the Neymar diving video, and on MANY occasions he was about to be slaughtered and moved his leg at the last minute, which is what brought him down. Take the very first incident for examble. If he hadn´t thrown his leg away from the challenge he could easily have beed injured. I certainly understand why a young player wants to protect himself from serious injuries. I agree though that he could use better balance and that sometimes he seems to go down a bit too easy. I just don´t think he is as bad as many make him out to be

 

[Ghost]

Tough matches ahead. We will need you.

 

[Antimadridista1]

He always steps up during the big matches. I'm sure that he'll be our man tmw, as always. He's the best.
I just hope that he won't get injured with those bit*hes from Madrid.

 

[Hamzah]

The nonsense is you guys thinking it's not Neymars fault he has the strength of an 11 year old boy. Either he chooses to go down and he needs to correct that behavior or he's pathetically weak and he needs to do some strength training. Which is it?

You don't think he is working on it? Come on. In the mean time he can dive to protect himself.