10 - Lionel Messi - v3

[messi2140]

Barcelona striker Lionel Messi believes that the introduction of Luis Suarez to his team will make them stronger and give them more variety up front.

The Uruguay forward is still serving the suspension he earned for biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini during the World Cup, but is on course to make his Barca debut on the weekend of October 25.

"It's special that he chose to come here [from Liverpool]," Messi told Fox Sports Magazine. "We will be stronger as a team with him. We will have a lot more variety.


Pedro be like:

 

[Morten]

I dont understand the complaints regarding Ronaldo statpadding. Sure, he does statpad quite alot, but hey, half of Messis 90 goals that one year didnt even matter either, dont hear people anywhere regarding it as statpadding. I think it was very impressive nontheless.

 

[blaugrana1987]

I dont understand the complaints regarding Ronaldo statpadding. Sure, he does statpad quite alot, but hey, half of Messis 90 goals that one year didnt even matter either, dont hear people anywhere regarding it as statpadding. I think it was very impressive nontheless.

I agree, and I respect Ronaldo and his dedication for being the best he can be. Without it, he wouldn't be half the player. I think when he hangs his boots he will go down as top 5 of all time, and his talent IMO is not in top 20, but his work ethic brought him what others were given by birth.

Anyway, he is statpadding and Messi has done the same couple years ago, I don't mind it. I wouldn't call it statpadding actually, its constant need to score a goal and prove its worth, and thats great characteristic that I feel Messi misses nowadays. What I don't like about Ronaldo, and the thing I will always bring up is his utter selfishness and need for validation. Just look at game against Elche, you can't tell me he wasn't pissed of when Bale scored equalizer. He was sad, pissed and angry that it wasn't him who brought his team back. He went on to score 4 more and celebrated like he won a World Cup (which he should have), but him not caring about teammate scoring a goal is fucking obvious.

I guess it steams from his childhood and the way he was raised, without father and in constant need to prove his worth since he is after all playing a very competitive game. I don't mind, and quite frankly I don't care. All I care is for you guys to stop scoring so many goals...Hopefully you slip up at El Madrigal

 

[Tonykross]

It is not only about fullbacks.
An not only about Messi.

Look at this post from a match thread:


Messi is declining.
Xavi, Iniesta and Alves are much weaker than in the past.
Other teams have learned how to neutralize us.
Our team in general runs less than in the past.
Our current players aren't and will never be as good and as suitable as a few years ago for our style.

When you sum it up, you get a Barca who runs much less.
And even when we run, every decent team knows how to neutralize us.
There is no world class Xavi in his prime anymore.
Messi runs less, but he also gets less balls, the whole team runs less, but the whole team is also easily neutralized by any bus.

Also, when people talk about triangels: We CAN'T play triangles like 5 years ago.
Just look at the picture above, how teams are defending today.
You don't have the space to play triangles or to play through the middle.
The only empty space is on the flanks.
In the middle, teams play with 6 players against our midfield 3 trio, and again, our trio is much weaker than Xavi+Iniesta+Busquets in their prime.

So, too many factors have gone against us, against Messi, against everyone.

We need to convert Adama to a wing back to attack those empty spaces with pace power and skill.

 

[CesDel]

I dont understand the complaints regarding Ronaldo statpadding. Sure, he does statpad quite alot, but hey, half of Messis 90 goals that one year didnt even matter either, dont hear people anywhere regarding it as statpadding. I think it was very impressive nontheless.

And that's why I don't ever use Messi's 90+ goals in a year as a proof of Messi being the best player in the world. Infact, I never use stats at all when I am making my case why I think that Messi is the best player in the world. I just don't think that scoring a hattrick when your team is already winning by 4 goal is more important than dominating an entire game, even if you don't score a goal or get an assist.

The reason why I always thought/still think that Messi was/is better than C.ronaldo is because he has Iniesta's ability to dominate a game from the start to the finish like Iniesta while also scoring as much as C.Ronaldo.

Sure, scoring goals is fine and all and it's not easy, but it's not the only thing in football. I mean, Lampard has scored ALOT more goals than either Xavi or Zidane, yet I would take Xavi or Zidane any day of the week ahead of Lampard. The samething with Pedro and Di Maria. Pedro in his best year scored more goals than Di Maria and got a respectfully amount of assisst aswell, yet Pedro has never been as good as Di Maria as Di Maria's all around game has always been superior to Pedro's.

 

[kishore680]

I seriously hate Barney Ronay of Guardian. Always exaggerates players. During world cup he exaggerated Neymar's effect after he scored a penalty. Now he wrote a piece on Guardian that Ronaldo is best player than Messi. Seriously?. Any fan will tell you that Di Maria was the Real Madrid's best player last season

Some of my observations

1) No team will give a shit about Real Madrid and they think they have equal chance to have a go at ALL THREE POINTS unlike against us where a draw is like a win.
2) I didn't see any top team setting up two, three players to mark Ronaldo.
3) I was having discussion about who of Iniesta or Fabregas have an excellent eye for a Killer pass. The latter is usually called the best playmaker because of his 'Killer Pass'. Many vouched for Fabregas in that aspect because of his time at Arsenal . Excuse me, Messi beats them at 'Those aspects of the game too'. His pass to Iniesta(Vs Real Madrid, supercopa) or Neymar(last elclasico) or Di Maria(Against Belgium) or the one for Xavi against AC Milan.
4) Last season, Messi did nothing in terms of tracking back. He used to stroll around for 90 minutes. TATA at times said, he wanted to use Messi as one vs one, so he shifted him to right flank where Messi seemed disinterested. Yet Messi had a great year(very bad acc to his standards)
5) This year Lucho is using Messi as a playmaker in order to fit both Neymar and Suarez. Obviously Messi will have less goals.
6) How many brilliant passes Ronaldo has in his name ? None.

SO as said by some of you. I reiterate that GOALS shouldn't be the only criteria to decide who is the best. The one aspect where Ronaldo is good at is : Headers. That's all.

Food for thought : Saying Cr7>Messi because of number of goals is like saying Chicharito > Messi because chicharito has 10+ goals against Peter Cech and Messi has none

 

[Luftstalag14]

Some of those journalists jump on the hype train whenever they see one. Just because Ronaldo is scoring like crazy, to some of them he is the best.

There is no need to get upset over them.

 

[Kohe321]

Hopefully this can light a spark under Leo to get back to his top form, if nothing more. Ronaldo is in great form now, but everyone knows that if we're comparing talent and their respective top-level, no one even comes close to Leo Messi. He's unique, and he has shown that over and over again the past few years, so it's pretty much a moot point to discuss it more. I don't get why some media needs to keep that ball rolling, but they need their "clicks" and readers I guess.

But he needs motivation, and it's understandable that it's not easy to keep it after you've beaten so many records and won so much that he has. Not everyone can keep that insane level of a competetive mindset that Arnold Schwarzenegger had

"The wolf on top of the hill is not as hungry as the one climbing it".

"That's true, but when he wants his food, it's there..."

 

[messi2140]

Or they played too much fifa.

 

[Egert]

Chelsea made a 150M bid for Lionel Messi (27) before he renewed his contract in May. Barcelona and the player didn't accept the offer. [tv3]

 

[Mitchell1978]

Chelsea made a 150M bid for Lionel Messi (27) before he renewed his contract in May. Barcelona and the player didn't accept the offer. [tv3]

so thats why Mourinho was defending Messi after the WC-final...

 

[CuleLife4Life]

LOL TV3? Highly doubt its true. And if so Mou probably did it to troll.

 

[DonAK]

Messi and Mourinho make a good duo in Chelsea. The beauty and the beast.

I would sell him for that amount, especially since he is just like every other player now. It would also fund the stadium redevelopment.

 

[Luftstalag14]

so thats why Mourinho was defending Messi after the WC-final...

Because he was so glad that Messi didn't come to Chelsea, since he has no idea how to manage him?

 

[CatalinR10]

who would want a guy who would just jog in the mid anyway...