10 - Lionel Messi - v4

[TornAndFrayed]

lowering his price tag before the big move to city ?

 

[raki]

Didn't like his movement towards the end and didn't like his insistence on playing centrally

Bingo. Why the hell does he insisted on that?

 

[SeloBarca]

Well, hes 28 now. Even if his vision, accuracy and general geniousness is still there, hes no energetic speedmonster 17 year old anymore. Im perfectly fine with havng Messi as the best playmaker in the world, but him returning to the player that can dribble and accelerate past 4-5 players and score hattricks every game, i dont think will happen.

 

[UEFA_Barça_Chris]

Well, hes 28 now. Even if his vision, accuracy and general geniousness is still there, hes no energetic speedmonster 17 year old anymore. Im perfectly fine with havng Messi as the best playmaker in the world, but him returning to the player that can dribble and accelerate past 4-5 players and score hattricks every game, i dont think will happen.

Well not to say that we don't need the energetic 20-year old Messi again but IMO 28-year old Messi as a playmaker is highly beneficial for the deadly trio. Messi is much more direct and always is a step ahead of the opposition mentally.

 

[KyletheMuslim]

One bad game and everybody forgets who you are, I think many of us are so spoiled by the galactic level of form displayed by Messi 9 times out of 10 the 1 time he returns to human levels of performance we immediately bring the knives out

 

[Ghostmaster]

I think a lot of you are looking into this way too deeply. He probably had a great New Years holiday filled with lots of Asada and Coke. I'm sure next week he will be lightning quick again.

New Years, traveling from Japan to Argentina and then to Dubai and not to mention the way Espanyol played against him, foul after foul. On top of that he played very deep in the center of midfield, I don't know why Lucho took this approach as there were a lot of bodies in midfield and Espanyol easily closed all the ways for him to go forward.

 

[BBZ8800]

New Years, traveling from Japan to Argentina and then to Dubai and not to mention the way Espanyol played against him, foul after foul. On top of that he played very deep in the center of midfield, I don't know why Lucho took this approach as there were a lot of bodies in midfield and Espanyol easily closed all the ways for him to go forward.

Whenever Messi plays in middle, I am thinking: "Oh, no. Please, no."

It works in some matches, but in majority of matches, Messi is much more beneficial both for himself and for the whole team=as a RW.
In the end, this is one of the key reasons why our team plays differently in the last 2 seasons.

Further, whenever he plays in the middle in the last 2 Lucho's seasons, and when we play poorly, I remember: "Oh, Deja vu again. It's like looking the final years of Tiki-Taka again when we tried 90% of actions through the middle and when 9 out of 10 actions were hitting a brick wall/a bus/a boeing/whatever. And we just tried the same old crap over and over and over again. Like idiots."

I don't know whether Messi enjoys more to play in the middle or what.
But that thing is just not working anymore in majority of matches.
And probably never will.

 

[serghei]

Whenever Messi plays in middle, I am thinking: "Oh, no. Please, no."

It works in some matches, but in majority of matches, Messi is much more beneficial both for himself and for the whole team=as a RW.
In the end, this is one of the key reasons why our team plays differently in the last 2 seasons.

Further, whenever he plays in the middle in the last 2 Lucho's seasons, and when we play poorly, I remember: "Oh, Deja vu again. It's like looking the final years of Tiki-Taka again when we tried 90% of actions through the middle and when 9 out of 10 actions were hitting a brick wall/a bus/a boeing/whatever. And we just tried the same old crap over and over and over again. Like idiots."

I don't know whether Messi enjoys more to play in the middle or what.
But that thing is just not working anymore in majority of matches.
And probably never will.

Pretty much this. I enjoy him more in the right, and in the right it's perfectly fine to be more static, closer to the sideline waiting for the game to be brought to him, especially against teams that sort of park the bus, since he doesn't have to worry about tracking back much. But just standing in the center on the field, moving slow and all, it's not good and it means our right flank is completely dead. I mean, vs. Espanyol, our right wing play consisted of Alves crossing the ball every time we got there in a decent position. And since his crossing was bad this game, this means our wing play on the right was a massive, massive disappointment.

Basically, I don't want Messi to move around covering a large amount of space, because great workrate is not really his thing. That's why the idea of Messi playing as a midfielder, in a Xavi role is fiction. Xavi was a player who used to run an average of 10.5-11 km per game. He even reached 12 km per game in the greater matches. Basically, a beast in moving without the ball. Messi runs around 8 at best these days. He just isn't making himself available enough to be able to play in midfield, that's the thing basically. Off the ball movement was one of the best things in Xavi's game. With Messi, it is the biggest flaw. It's RW for Messi.

 

[Kuchi]

Geez the way we played that string of matches while Messi was injured, how the fuck did our form drop that bad? It's starting to haunt me that this off form Messi, clearly strugling is impacting our team negativelly, as some tend to leave it all to him, Raki for example, even Ney.

 

[BBZ8800]

Basically, I don't want Messi to move around covering a large amount of space, because great workrate is not really his thing. That's why the idea of Messi playing as a midfielder, in a Xavi role is fiction. Xavi was a player who used to run an average of 10.5-11 km per game. He even reached 12 km per game in the greater matches. Basically, a beast in moving without the ball. Messi runs around 8 at best these days. He just isn't making himself available enough to be able to play in midfield, that's the thing basically. Off the ball movement was one of the best things in Xavi's game. With Messi, it is the biggest flaw. It's RW for Messi.

Yes.
Messi at Xavi's position would bring us back to Tiki-Taka in post Pep's era.
When Tiki-Taka was figured out and sterile.

Let's hope that our coaches won't allow Messi to play there (if he will want to play there).

 

[JamDav1982]

One bad game and everybody forgets who you are, I think many of us are so spoiled by the galactic level of form displayed by Messi 9 times out of 10 the 1 time he returns to human levels of performance we immediately bring the knives out

Not been 'one bad game'. He has been quite average To poor quite a bit since coming back from injury.

Whisper it quietly because people will go off their nut but.... The team has probably played better while he has been missing this season.

Does that mean he should be sold or is no longer the best player in world? No!

But for whatever reason the team has looked better with him out of it this season in my opinion.

 

[Truthist]

Let's hope Neymar doesn't go back into his shell again. We need him linking up with Suarez too not just looking for a static Messi all the time.

 

[Ritchie]

If only Espanyol just let Barca and Messi walk all over them like they do Penaldo.

 

[Barcaman]

Bench vs. Espanyol in Copa would be good for him.

 

[dakt]

Bench vs. Espanyol in Copa would be good for him.

But wouldn't be good for Lucho.
I'm not so sure. He needs more playing time after the injury, but at the same time it feels like he doesn't put much effort to come back GOAT ready.
After 10 years, all the trophies and records...what is his motivation that will push him over the edge? Enjoying the football is not enough that's for sure.