10 - Lionel Messi - v4

[Luftstalag14]

One must take the possibility of him being extra cautious since the injury (and the discomfort) into consideration that he is trying to avoid injuries.

Injuries might have inadvertently changed his game and his approach to most of the games.

 

[lessthanjake]

Because it goes against his recent performances. He was amazing against River Plate and showed no signs of age. If he was consistently poor for 3-4 months then we could talk about his age ( Example Rooney a while back or this season Ronaldo )

There is nothing to suggest his recent sluggish games have anything to do with age. He isn't quite himself but still in 2016 he has 7 goals and 4 assists which make him our number 1 attacker statistically.

I think it's too low a sample size of matches to really say Messi is at some new, lower level. But don't players who age often just become less and less consistently great? That is, they still can have great matches, but those great matches get rarer and rarer. That's not inconsistent with Messi right now. With that said, again, we're just talking about a handful of matches, and those matches have come after a significant injury, so I think we're far away from actually concluding that Messi is at a permanently lower level.

 

[Co0ter]

He's not old. He's 28...ffs

 

[Jombi]

He's not old. He's 28...ffs

I agree it is far too premature to conclude it is age, as it could just as likely be a temporary slight blip in form like all players have. And he's been pretty good lately. With that being said, remember 28 year olds like Sneijder, Falcao, Torres and Raul...Their level had dropped precipitously. Then we have 38 year olds like Luca Toni, Giggs and Zanetti. We just can never know.

 

[Kuchi]

He's not old. He's 28...ffs

Sell now, when he's still young? That's what you're implying.

 

[Gamegod]

I agree it is far too premature to conclude it is age, as it could just as likely be a temporary slight blip in form like all players have. And he's been pretty good lately. With that being said, remember 28 year olds like Sneijder, Falcao, Torres and Raul...Their level had dropped precipitously. Then we have 38 year olds like Luca Toni, Giggs and Zanetti. We just can never know.

In terms of acceleration he is declining since 2012. He is a player who peaked early. Anyway he adapapted very well to it, changed his way of playing. He got so much better in other areas of the game for example his passing.

 

[JamDav1982]

Messi paces himself through games now clearly.

That can be frustrating when he doesn't run much or have any impact on game but that wasn't the case for me last night.

Messi like the whole team looked off the pace in first half. Probably a combination of missing some important players and having one eye on Atletico game three days later.

But when Barca needed it in the second half Messi and Neymar upped the pace/intensity and they couldn't handle it.

Not much came off for Messi in terms of finishing or final ball but he worked hard when needed and those things will come.

 

[KiX7777]

Messi was uninterested yesterday, nothing else

 

[Vlom]

Here we go again

 

[DonAK]

Messi's lawyers are suing ARA for libel over their report about his salary allegedly increasing to close to 40m.

[tw]692804504983576576[/tw]

 

[kollegah]

his dribbling is far worse than neymar atm

 

[KiX7777]

If he tried to dribble as much as Neymar it would be much different, Ney got dispossesed too many times yesterday

 

[Flavia]

[tw]692833361845293056[/tw]

 

[Kerrybai]

his dribbling is far worse than neymar atm

Dribbles per game La Liga
Neymar 4.8
Messi 4.5
Halilovic 2.9

Far worse is an exaggeration, also the use of the word worse is very negative. Neymar is the best dribbler in the world right now though. No one else in La Liga comes close to those 2.

On the other side of the coin he is dispossessd more than Messi and his control is also well behind Messi. Whoscored keep track of everything. https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/2...2647/PlayerStatistics/Spain-La-Liga-2015-2016

 

[Interlop]

Messi's lawyers are suing ARA for libel over their report about his salary allegedly increasing to close to 40m.

[tw]692804504983576576[/tw]

So that huge salary increase that we cannot afford is a lie? Good.