10 - Lionel Messi - v3

[Blaugrana Bull]

Something is clearly wrong with him. There was a moment in the 37' minute when he took a free kick and the cameras focused on him for some seconds. Leo was totally exhausted and looked anything but fine.
He is not someone who misses training sessions or goes out partying all the time so there must be something wrong with his health. The issue with him vomiting before every game is alarming.
Of course I want him to play well and I want him to do everything possible to make our team win but right now I'm afraid there's something serious going on we all don't know about.

 

[raskolnikov]

Something is clearly wrong with him. There was a moment in the 37' minute when he took a free kick and the cameras focused on him for some seconds. Leo was totally exhausted and looked anything but fine.
He is not someone who misses training sessions or goes out partying all the time so there must be something wrong with his health. The issue with him vomiting before every game is alarming.
Of course I want him to play well and I want him to do everything possible to make our team win but right now I'm afraid there's something serious going on we all don't know about.

I thought the same thing, he was gasping for air as if he had already ran 90 minutes at top speed. Im worried as well about his health since I dont think he is doing it on purpose.
Then again, surely they run all kind of tests on him to make sure his health is top notch right?

 

[Gamegod]

GOAT Messi the last time Barca won the league on the last day.

i love to watch these old games, he played with so much more passion backthen. Nice reminder of how good he used to be aswell.

 

[Sumlit]

Busquetes, Valdes and Iniesta although starting slow, has all been better. Scoing goals is not everything, you also have to work for the team.

Not to mention the first half of the season Neymar was clearly our best playe, even though we played quite bad then aswell.

Busquets has been erratic all season long, he has not had a good season. Iniesta started woefully out of form. He got his form back and played at Iniesta level again, but he did not shine today either.

Valdes is a keeper, that you have to include him in your list says everything about the level of play of this team as a whole.

 

[SocalBarcaFan]

Something is clearly wrong with him. There was a moment in the 37' minute when he took a free kick and the cameras focused on him for some seconds. Leo was totally exhausted and looked anything but fine.
He is not someone who misses training sessions or goes out partying all the time so there must be something wrong with his health. The issue with him vomiting before every game is alarming.
Of course I want him to play well and I want him to do everything possible to make our team win but right now I'm afraid there's something serious going on we all don't know about.

There wasn't anything wrong with him. He was actually trying and had just gotten done exerting tremendous energy trying to make something happen for once. He had to catch his breath a little. You'd think most of you would be thrilled with him huffing and puffing. That proves he was trying

 

[Stric]

GOAT Messi the last time Barca won the league on the last day.

To be honest, the main difference between now and then, one that is first noticed, is that now there is at least two rows of four defending at all times, and Messi is marked by at least 3 players at all times. In these old videos it looks like we're playing against half a team. Other than that, he's basically doing the same.

 

[raskolnikov]

Which was also the case in Peps final season or last year with Tito and he was ripping them apart, he had 42 goals after 28 games last season when he got injured.

 

[Blaugrana Bull]

There wasn't anything wrong with him. He was actually trying and had just gotten done exerting tremendous energy trying to make something happen for once. He had to catch his breath a little. You'd think most of you would be thrilled with him huffing and puffing. That proves he was trying

Normally perfectly trained professionals who play on the highest level aren't that exhausted when they've played 37. minutes of football. Especially the way Leo plays. He's not someone who has a high working rate and who runs as much.
After thrilling 90. minutes in a close match maybe. But did you see him? He looked like someone who can barely stay on his own feet.
Imo such moments show that he isn't ok. That looked scary. And I really don't want to exaggerate anything.

 

[Kerrybai]

Which was also the case in Peps final season or last year with Tito and he was ripping them apart, he had 42 goals after 28 games last season when he got injured.

Yeah he also averaged 60-70 passes while now he gets about 45. We are playing the ball down the wings far more now and he's not getting as many touches. Hopefully our new coach centers our attack around Messi again.

Normally perfectly trained professionals who play on the highest level aren't that exhausted when they've played 37. minutes of football. Especially the way Leo plays. He's not someone who has a high working rate and who runs as much.
After thrilling 90. minutes in a close match maybe. But did you see him? He looked like someone who can barely stay on his own feet.
Imo such moments show that he isn't ok. That looked scary. And I really don't want to exaggerate anything.

Hopefully his health is fine. The way Messi plays involves lots of short bursts at very high acceleration which take his breath away. I'd love to see a break down of the sort of sprints he does vs other players on the team.

 

[footyfan]

To be honest, the main difference between now and then, one that is first noticed, is that now there is at least two rows of four defending at all times, and Messi is marked by at least 3 players at all times. In these old videos it looks like we're playing against half a team. Other than that, he's basically doing the same.

Which was also the case in Peps final season or last year with Tito and he was ripping them apart, he had 42 goals after 28 games last season when he got injured.

Nah I disagree. By 10/11, most teams were already wising up a fair bit (it happened in 09/10 too just not as frequently). I mean, look at this one, even a shitty defence team like Arsenal knew the template. Barca just had a lot more movement as a team, including Messi. As I already said multiple times especially early in the season, Barca's big problem while attacking is that there's no one upfront for the centerbacks to worry about. And yeah, of course the game is not played through Messi as much, so he does look poorer.

[video=vimeo;91810153]http://vimeo.com/91810153[/video]

 

[Kohe321]

Doesn't look any different really.

The difference isn't only how he's being marked and how teams defend, it's also the complete lack of a good system that the players can feel comfortable with, where they play as a unit and read eachother well. Right now everyone look lost, and Messi gets the responsibility of basically beating two lines of defence himself, and at times he still manages to do it. His insane passes, often after a quick dribleraid, also open up defences like a corkopener very often. It's just that the movement, linkup and general chemistry in the final third is nowhere to be found, it's just slow and has a feeling of always being too little too late - and Messi pays for it more than anyone.

He is either marked by 3 players in his back if he plays further up the pitch, sometimes making it impossible to even pass the ball to him as he can't even receive it without being fouled, and when he plays deeper and initiates something, it all stops when it comes infront of goal anyways, because the link-up play is dreadful. The result is frustration and lots of crosses. I have for instance never before seen him try this many headers for Barcelona. You know something is completely wrong tactically when we have a 1,69cm tall targetman...

Of course he's not in the form of his life right now, but that's besides the point. Last season was also sometimes too slow and low-pressing tactically, but at least we had a complete system with an identity that the players were comfortable with and that they intuitively understood - simply put, it played to their strengths. There was way more movement in the final third, and the players combined together with some nice passes in the buildup and collectively broke defences down.

It's not like La Liga teams suddenly drank a strengthpotion or cracked some supersecret code on how to beat Barca. We're just playing really, really shitty right now. In fact worse than in many, many years. The tactics/system or whatever you want to call it simply doesn't work at all, our players just look completely lost and out of sync. The motivation is there, that much was obvious today, I think all of them fought hard.

Luis Enrique can't come to Barca quickly enough...

 

[Stric]

Doesn't look any different really.

The difference isn't only how he's being marked and how teams defend, it's also the complete lack of a good system that all of the players are comfortable with, where they play as a unit and read eachother well. Right now everyone look lost, and Messi gets the responsibility of basically beating two lines of defence himself, and at times he still manages to do it alone. His passes also opens up the defence several times. It's just that the movement and chemistry in the final third is nowhere to be found, it's so slow and always "behind" - and Messi pays for it. He is either marked by 3 players in his back if he plays a bit further up, making it impossible to pass to him as he can't even receive the ball without being fouled, and when he plays deeper and initiates something, it all stops when it comes infront of goal anyways. The result is frustration and lots of crosses. I have for instance never seen him try this many headers for Barcelona. You know something is completely wrong tactically when we have a 1,69cm tall targetman...

Of course he's not in the form of his life right now, but that's besides the point. Last season was also sometimes too slow and low-pressing tactically, but at least we had a complete system with an identity that the players were comfortable with and that they thrived in. There was lots of movement in the final third, and the players combined together with some nice passes in the buildup that broke defences down.

This is it, pretty much. The opponents are heavily marking him, and the ball distribution isn't how it used to be, so naturally he'll be less involved. It's more of a system error than his own shortcoming.

 

[Sumlit]

Doesn't look any different really.

The difference isn't only how he's being marked and how teams defend, it's also the complete lack of a good system that the players can feel comfortable with, where they play as a unit and read eachother well. Right now everyone look lost, and Messi gets the responsibility of basically beating two lines of defence himself, and at times he still manages to do it. His insane passes, often after a quick dribleraid, also open up the defences like a corkopener very often. It's just that the movement, linkup and general chemistry in the final third is nowhere to be found, it's just slow and has a feeling of always being too little too late - and Messi pays for it more than anyone.

He is either marked by 3 players in his back if he plays further up the pitch, sometimes making it impossible to even pass the ball to him as he can't even receive it without being fouled, and when he plays deeper and initiates something, it all stops when it comes infront of goal anyways, because the link-up play is dreadful. The result is frustration and lots of crosses. I have for instance never before seen him try this many headers for Barcelona. You know something is completely wrong tactically when we have a 1,69cm tall targetman...

Of course he's not in the form of his life right now, but that's besides the point. Last season was also sometimes too slow and low-pressing tactically, but at least we had a complete system with an identity that the players were comfortable with and that they intuitively understood - simply put, it played to their strengths. There was way more movement in the final third, and the players combined together with some nice passes in the buildup and collectively broke defences down.

It's not like La Liga teams suddenly drank a strengthpotion or cracked some supersecret code on how to beat Barca. We're just playing really, really shitty right now. In fact worse than in many, many years. The tactics/system or whatever you want to call it simply doesn't work at all, our players just look completely lost and out of sync. The motivation is there, that much was obvious today, I think all of them fought hard.

Luis Enrique can't come to Barca quickly enough...

Luis Enrique is not going to magically fix what ails this team. Assuming he can live up to what it takes to manage this team, changing tactics here and there to return to some semblance of how Barcelona used to play is not going to be enough.

Bottom line this team needs better talent. Aside from Iniesta and Messi, this team has no other difference maker. No other game changing talent.

You look up and down the roster, and you see inferior talent, woeful depth, players in bad form, or just plain diminished. Change of tactic is not going to work without an improvement in talent.

 

[Stric]

Bottom line this team needs better talent.

No. This is exactly the kind of thinking that leads nowhere. What we need is to learn how to use the players we have, and make adjustments and improvements where necessary, because even with our player problems, we still have one of the best squads in Europe. Other clubs would kill to have the players we have. Excluding our thin defense, we're all set.

EDIT: OK, this is badly put together... we're not "all set", but my point is that transfers in are not the main thing we need to take care of. They're exactly not the bottom line. They're the additional improvement.

Aside from Iniesta and Messi, this team has no other difference maker. No other game changing talent.

And other clubs have dozens?

 

[Kohe321]

@Sumlit Nah, I'm agreeing with Stric here, it is the system that is at fault. We don't have to go more than one season back to find the same players giving us performances at a completely different level compared to what they are now.

Luis Enrique and Celta managed to beat Real Madrid 2-0 tonight, and they have a squad that is MILES behind ours in terms of quality, and meanwhile we had yet another miserable and confused game under Martinos system - this time walking away goalless, and without ever really looking dangerous, against a team that is placed 14th in the league. If this standard of play was to continue next season, would we even be in the top four at the end of it? Because I sure don't think so...

Our squad is one of the best in Europe. The way it is used is however among the worst of any clubs in Europe in terms of what level of performance the squad is capable of and what level they are delivering.