10 - Lionel Messi - v3

[BerkeleyBernie]

If it's a sickness as everyone here predicts, then Tata is an absolute idiot for playing him. Like I said before though, I highly doubt it's a sickness. He looks completely fine in team dinners and practices.

Not a sickness as in some kind of contagious cold, but some kind of ongoing condition which inhibits extended high levels of exertion, other than short bursts. It did appear to me he was much more mobile in the previous two games, and was at some points in today's game, but it does seem like he was also self-regulating, resting on the pitch. It appeared fairly humid there, might have been a factor. The choice for the coach would then be whether a Messi who is fine for attacks here and there is better than no Messi at all. It's clear he can still be dangerous, no matter what is going on with him.

 

[Zangash]

I would say Alexis, Bartra and Dani were better than Messi, but I agree Messi wasn't terrible. He had some nice runs, passes, and shots that were blocked. The problem is he looks fatigued beyond belief, and stands around when he should be hustling to win the ball, play defense from the front, and move off the ball, but he did none of that and hasn't for some time. He has got to be ill or saving himself for wc and if that's the case I would lose a bit of respect for him. I think once the season comes to a close we will have some answers about Messi's state. One thing is for sure, we will have big changes ahead.

He's our best attacker by far and the only one creating even remotely close to a goal threat and we're still throwing out the "Saving himself" garbage around?

 

[Learo]

Pinto, Masche, Martino all leaving. These are Messi's guys...I think something is really, really bad in our club.

 

[Behrox]

What woeful is that Messi is the only attacking threat in our team nowadays you can leave Alexis and Pedro through on goal and expect them to somehow sky it or send it into the keepers arms thats if they don't slip first. You know something is wrong when Adriano is the 2nd best finisher in the team

 

[Gaudi]

His technique was never a question, but he declined physically a lot. Why? That I can't even guess, just hope it's not something connected to vomiting or some disease they are hidding.

 

[Learo]

What woeful is that Messi is the only attacking threat in our team nowadays you can leave Alexis and Pedro through on goal and expect them to somehow sky it or send it into the keepers arms thats if they don't slip first. You know something is wrong when Adriano is the 2nd best finisher in the team

Alexis and Pedro did brilliantly during the games when Messi was out. Alexis has 18 goals in la liga this season. His goals to games ratio without Messi is spectacular.

 

[Zangash]

Pinto, Masche, Martino all leaving. These are Messi's guys...I think something is really, really bad in our club.

Pinto is leaving because he's no longer even decent as a keeper, Masche is leaving because his old boss is managing Napoli and wants him in his midfield, and Martino is leaving because he isn't good enough to be manager of Barcelona.

Something terrible must be happening!

 

[Learo]

Pinto is leaving because he's no longer even decent as a keeper, Masche is leaving because his old boss is managing Napoli and wants him in his midfield, and Martino is leaving because he isn't good enough to be manager of Barcelona.

Something terrible must be happening!

Messi is depressed and is lethargic, and his three best buddies are leaving. Rumour has it that the atmosphere in the club is pure poison. Dani Alves hate it here apparently.

 

[serghei]

He's our best attacker by far and the only one creating even remotely close to a goal threat and we're still throwing out the "Saving himself" garbage around?

If anything, our biggest change to score was Iniesta's shot of the post, better than Messi's poor finish in 1 vs. 1 with the keeper. Messi's all around game is poor at the moment. Even his passing was poor not to mention the effort, wich was almost nonexistent. No need to save him of criticism. He should be lucky that La Liga doesn't keep stats for distance run in a game, it will be on 5-6 km again vs. Elche.

 

[Rahj]

i told you he has burnout.

 

[CatalinR10]

 

[FiReFTW]

You people must be tripping, he looks every bit as fast as he was ( which was never that big to begin with, he never had a really great top speed, only good ). He just doesn't have enough space anymore and defenders mark him tightly like never before, if we manage to get a counterattack going and he has ton of space ( which is rare ) you can see he is still fairly fast ( as he was always ). Nothing changed apart from having less space, being more tightly marked by 2 or 3 players and his head not being 100% with soccer anymore ( he has a son now ).

 

[Kerrybai]

damn couldn't watch the match since I was out, thought the team was gonna really try their hardest to win, particularly Messi

guess not. Sad

Actually he had 7 shots and looked exhausted in the second half.

 

[Ghostmaster]

That's why if we sell Alexis, we should not buy a star winger. If we do buy Reus/Suarez, it will only ensure the end of Adama and Deulofeu's Barca careers. Instead we should go for a striker who can play wide if needed. Someone in the mold of what Villa was for us. The removal of Alexis of course will mean that we'd need to lock down the right flank defensively, and Montoya, I think, could do that better than current Alves.

I agree and look at this: "Barcelona didn't score in 8 games this season, their highest number since the 2007/2008 season" [barcastuff]

We depended on Messi when he was on a godlike mode and now that mode is over, but we are still depended on him. We need a striker next to Messi who can score 30+ goals a season, someone who can dribble and can play on the RW as well as CF. Alexis is amazing this season but only in La Liga and I am afraid that we ain't gonna achieve anything if we rely on him or Pedro to score tons of goals.

 

[Poor_Sunyol]

If anything, this season has proved how we are not a one man team. Messi is as good as he is because of the players around him and the system that was employed to get the best out of him. This season when we have tried to change our system he looks out of place and isolated (which is why it looks as if he isn't trying) because he has always walked around, like a panther waiting to strike. When he is not involved for long periods, then it looks as if he is walking around the whole time.