10 - Lionel Messi - v4

[RMU ReBorn]

Who knowes why assists were never counted properly before 2000 to 2005 when they started recording assists properly.
His record for most assists in a season is 29 in all club competitions and 34 for club and country (both 2011-12 season) i think only Özil and Xavi have had seasons with those kind of assist-numbers

Recently i had a look at career-assists numbers for all big players over the last 20 years or so, only Henry still has more career assists then Messi and Messi is close to that number already.

Xavi and Giggs Should be having more number of assist's than Henry ?

 

[LordLichtenstein]

Who knowes why assists were never counted properly before 2000 to 2005 when they started recording assists properly.
His record for most assists in a season is 29 in all club competitions and 34 for club and country (both 2011-12 season) i think only Özil and Xavi have had seasons with those kind of assist-numbers

Recently i had a look at career-assists numbers for all big players over the last 20 years or so, only Henry still has more career assists then Messi and Messi is close to that number already.

33 assists.

 

[Mitchell1978]

Xavi and Giggs Should be having more number of assist's than Henry ?

I've counted 235 for Henry, 217 for Messi, 192 for Giggs (without his assist-stats for Wales which i didn't find) & 174 for Xavi.
Please note that assist-stats from the 90s and early 2000s are for shure not 100 % accurate (maybe even far less then that).

 

[Mitchell1978]

Yeah Thierry Henry got awful number of direct assists.... Ozil beat it last year I think, for a single season in the league

Özil had 19 last season in the PL, falling just short of Henry's league record.

 

[RMU ReBorn]

Leo has 37 assists for Argentina as well. Close second is Diego Maradona @30 . would have been much more had Aguero and Higuain were much better for NT

 

[LordLichtenstein]

Sorry for my bad English. I just created account to answer this question because people here keep complaining about his running and pressing for years. First of all Messi doesn't run much since.. forever. And he will never change. The only time he was running and pressing more was when he was very young,hungry and willing to prove himself. Tell me just one player right now that runs more than Messi and is better and more useful than him? Well there is none. He offers so many other things that are better than running. I don't think lazy is the right word for him because in my opinion hes not lazy. Every time when he is injured there are reports about him training and staying all day(even in his day offs) in the sporting center just to get better faster and many times when he is not injured he cut his vacations to join the team. It's just not in his qualities to run as much as other players. I will give Ronaldo as example. He is scoring goals because he runs all the time to get in good position. Take his running off and he won't be able to score goals(ok he will score with his head few goals but you get what i mean). He can't take 1v1s, he can't dribble past 3+ players like Messi, he can't make passes like Messi .. basically he is obliged to run if he wants to offer something. Im almost sure that if there was another player with qualities like Messi and won the same amount of trophies like him he would walk on the pitch too. Anyway just because some players can run for 90 mins and press like crazy doesn't mean he can do it too maybe he doesn't have much energy. If he is exhausted and his other abilities are suffering because of that .. well its not worth for him to run as much then. I'm not saying that running is totally overrated .. we need some players to run and press but Messi is not one of them. Barcelona can always sell Messi and buy someone from EPL who runs all the time. Would that make us stronger? Obviously not

Football is a game of offense and defense, that is how it has always been.

Players who think, that they can justify not contributing to the defensive aspect of the game, simply because their contribution to the offensive aspect is overwhelming are wrong.

Suárez is a great example of this. He scores left and right and assists loads of goals, but he also runs tirelessly after the opposition, when they are in possession of the ball.

Why shouldn't Messi be able to help his team both offensively and defensively?

 

[LordLichtenstein]

I've counted 235 for Henry, 217 for Messi, 192 for Giggs (without his assist-stats for Wales which i didn't find) & 174 for Xavi.
Please note that assist-stats from the 90s and early 2000s are for shure not 100 % accurate (maybe even far less then that).

Messi got 213

 

[Bran the Greenseer]

Football is a game of offense and defense, that is how it has always been.

Players who think, that they can justify not contributing to the defensive aspect of the game, simply because their contribution to the offensive aspect is overwhelming are wrong.

Suárez is a great example of this. He scores left and right and assists loads of goals, but he also runs tirelessly after the opposition, when they are in possession of the ball.

Why shouldn't Messi be able to help his team both offensively and defensively?

Cause he's messi

I don't know why this argument always ends up coming up like we havent won multiple trebles with him not being a defensive workhorse, its been what? 8 years since he's taken on the no 10? Time to let it go.

 

[LordLichtenstein]

Cause he's messi

I don't know why this argument always ends up coming up like we havent won multiple trebles with him not being a defensive workhorse, its been what? 8 years since he's taken on the no 10? Time to let it go.

Are you seriously of the opinion, that him pressing wouldn't help the team defensively and could possibly improve our overall results?

Sure things are going well, but it doesn't meaning it can't get better.

 

[Mitchell1978]

Football is a game of offense and defense, that is how it has always been.

Players who think, that they can justify not contributing to the defensive aspect of the game, simply because their contribution to the offensive aspect is overwhelming are wrong.

Suárez is a great example of this. He scores left and right and assists loads of goals, but he also runs tirelessly after the opposition, when they are in possession of the ball.

Why shouldn't Messi be able to help his team both offensively and defensively?

It has been repeatedly said on this forum that Messi because of his short, explosive muscles has to pick his spots when to go full throttle and when not , because of this (and of course his status) he is allowed to rest more/participate less in defence/pressing. If he didn't he would probably be less effective on offence. It has been like this since the early Guardiola days, time to let it go.

 

[BarcaOG]

what is work rate , running like stray dog for useless tapins and sneak in's against hopeless opponent's when the game is already done and dusted ?? if so Yes Ronaldo's work rate is phenomenal ,he does lot of that .. No one need's to tell Messi to run extra yards every single match. By playing like this he has helped Barcelona Win 28 trophy's . Are you happy with that or you just wanna Messi to run behind every thing and get exhausted .

No, that's not 'work rate'. That's wasting energy and reading the game poorly. Work rate is willingness to contribute to an overall tactical set up. To be blunt about it-- work rate is giving a fuck. Now obviously I am not saying that Messi doesn't--only that his intensity could increase without wasting his energy needlessly. It is easy to overlook now, but there have been periods during which Messi looks uninterested. The many pages of this thread attest to that. Incidentally, Barca has played some of its best football precisely when Messi is motivated, energized and hungry.

 

[Egert]

Leo Messi will make his return to Argentine's national team and will be called up for upcoming World Cup qualifiers [olé] #fcblive

 

[serghei]

Good.

 

[Luftstalag14]

From what I read it is nothing but pure speculation on Ole's part. No one from Messi's camp has indicated such.

 

[Vlom]

I hope this fucker starts running a little bit and finally gives something to the club that feeds him.

What a lazy ungrateful prick.