10 - Lionel Messi - v3

[CatalinR10]

Best player on the pitch, but I'm surprised he's getting dispossessed so easily.

True , I remember 2 years ago how he always had the ball glued to his foot. I was amazed how nobody could take the ball away from him.

 

[CatalinR10]

 

[Barcilliant]

Same guys who said Mourinho was a genius after today 's game ?

The Brits cant get enough of Mourinho. Calling him a genius for putting 11 players in the box-laughable really. They can identify with Mourinho because England and English players can only play at that level.

 

[BerkeleyBernie]

He looked to me in many moments of the game pretty much a involved and determined Messi which is great.

Yes, I had no problem with his play today. It was a bus, and everybody was working to break it down. Messi was far more mobile than the last game. Barça was on top of the Villarreal box the whole game, thanks in large part to Messi's movement.

 

[Egert]

It seems he likes to curve the ball when he is shooting from long range. I think he should go for more power, but the king knows what is the best for him.

 

[Pepe Silvia]

Thought he was poor aside from the finish. He made a few good runs and maybe a few good passes, also on target with his free kicks but overall I thought he looked lazy for better parts of the game, standing around while the rest of the players were struggling to get back into the game, he also lost the ball cheaply on more than a handful of times. The tactics with Xavi were dreadful and benefited no one, Messi most noticeably. However, still not an excuse for Messi not to run his ass off for the team, especially when fighting for La Liga.

 

[eye-switcher]

The last 30 minutes we saw glimpses of good old Messi, looked more into it yesterday than he has done in the last couple of weeks.

 

[Haruko The Goon]

Are there any interviews with Messi?

I want to read what kind of person he is, and what he enjoys in his spare time, how he finds spain.. loads of other things too etc?

He seems like such a quiet guy off the field

 

[dakt]

Are there any interviews with Messi?

I want to read what kind of person he is, and what he enjoys in his spare time, how he finds spain.. loads of other things too etc?

He seems like such a quiet guy off the field

That's because he is. I think there is 60 minutes video about him.
Well, this is the best I could find:

 

[FiReFTW]

Its true that he losses the ball alot, I don't know what the reason for this is.

 

[FCBarca]

Uggh, that 60 minutes segment was terrible...There are far better clips online

Michael Robinson's is much better by comparison...without the ignorance of the game...although there's no real conversation with Leo himself

Sky did a short segment interviewing Leo a couple years ago

 

[Kerrybai]

Thought he was poor aside from the finish. He made a few good runs and maybe a few good passes, also on target with his free kicks but overall I thought he looked lazy for better parts of the game, standing around while the rest of the players were struggling to get back into the game, he also lost the ball cheaply on more than a handful of times. The tactics with Xavi were dreadful and benefited no one, Messi most noticeably. However, still not an excuse for Messi not to run his ass off for the team, especially when fighting for La Liga.

The tactics don't suit Messi. Our play gravitates too much to the wings while it should be going through the middle to get Messi more involved. As the the highlighted part people really need to move past this, he hasn't run his ass off for a long time and I don't expect that to change. Also the benefit to cost ratio of Messi running is ass off is so marginal that it's not even worth worrying about. Messi uses his energy in short bursts so he's better off saving it for when he gets the ball, I think it was Guardiola who instructed him to play like that

Best player on the pitch, but I'm surprised he's getting dispossessed so easily.

True , I remember 2 years ago how he always had the ball glued to his foot. I was amazed how nobody could take the ball away from him.

Its true that he losses the ball alot, I don't know what the reason for this is.

Of course he loses the ball a lot... notice how direct he is with his play compared to our other players, he's always looking for a through ball or a difficult dribble to open up the opposition. This is nothing new, he has always lost the ball several times per game and I know stats can be pretty useless but according to whoscored.com he is losing the ball less than he used to.

http://www.whoscored.com/Players/11119/History/Lionel-Messi

Of course he is averaging about 25 less passes per game so he is getting less touches too, I can't be bothered trying to calculate the difference but it probably isn't that significant. For the record players like Suarez and Ribery lose the ball far more often than him.

I hope our new coach will revert back to a system that focuses on a mix of central and wing play, we should be getting the most out of Messi in his prime years.

 

[linetty]

Its true that he losses the ball alot, I don't know what the reason for this is.

Messi isnt involved enough, he's frustrated (a result of Tata's tactics - he just doesnt know what he is doing).

I'll be mad if Tata stays for another season. He should resign himself.

 

[linetty]

 

[Egert]

Messi isnt involved enough, he's frustrated (a result of Tata's tactics - he just doesnt know what he is doing).

I'll be mad if Tata stays for another season. He should resign himself.

I hope Rudi Carcia or Lucho comes because they know how to use Messi. Messi worked great with Tito tactics. Scoring a lot of goals and stuff, I won't even talk about Pep's tactics with Messi.