10 - Lionel Messi - v5

[Shreddy]

Anto looking great as usual. His youngest son is awesome. Always looking funny on their pictures

 

[Pedro]

Enough about the holidays, Leo needs to concentrate on the forthcoming season to win back the Ballon D'or in 2019 and lead Barca to more trophy's. Let's hope Leo scores against Sevilla in the Super Copa in just over 2 weeks.

 

[Alik]

Your postman fetish is kinda starting to creep me out, mate.

It is odd indeed.

 

[GOAT_SUAREZ]

Suarez is so fat that it's sad. The curse of the number 9 forward.

needs to be put on a serious diet

 

[clemente]

bumnaldo sentenced the same way Messi was even though he stole 3 times more, but nobody talking about it, nobody dragging him through mud, media not covering it, this country couldn't be any more biased.

 

[KingMessi]

Your postman fetish is kinda starting to creep me out, mate.

He is the postman.

 

[FCB1987]

(Here's an interesting comment I found on redcafe from a huge Ronaldo fanboy. If you ignore some of the exaggerations and Messi hatred, I think he does make some interesting points about some of the issues with Messi's positioning and big game performances over recent years)

The best part is the people giving such a big importance to dribbling in this thread don’t care at all that every time Messi gets man marked properly his ability to get past players gets neutralized more often than not these days and his impact on the game greatly reduced. It’s only going to get worse as he gets slower and slower too but apparently you guys deluded yourselves into thinking he’s going to turn into a number 8 or a Pirlo style midfielder despite that being the most nonsensical idea in football history since you’ve once again arbitrarily decided that technical ability is the only necessary attribute for a football player.

Let’s see how he gets on with age but there’s a reason the static number 10 is pretty much dead in european football and there’s a reason all teams use the exact same gameplan against Barcelona in the CL and it works more often than not. Good luck trying to find space between the lines by standing there without adding any dynamic to the team both offensively or defensively. I mean, it won’t be a problem for him at all if the midfielders are somehow the ones getting the blame for not being able to find players that don’t move and are being man marked throughout the game but it will be a problem for the team.

 

[Barcaman]

He is kinda right about midfielders taking the blame. But it's not just Messi that is not mobile enough although he is the most glaring example.

Messi creates space for others but you need pace to ultimately exploit those spaces.

 

[soul24rage]

we usually create a lot by using the wings so in the 2nd leg vs roma, iniesta couldn't keep up with the intensity and roberto doesn't have the individual skills to create from the wings while he does have the skills from a fullback position. messi creates spaces for others to exploit by making one or two players marking him so it's up to the others to try to use those spaces. I think with Coutinho and dembele there, let's hope we do better in the CL this season.

 

[Kul_z]

(Here's an interesting comment I found on redcafe from a huge Ronaldo fanboy. If you ignore some of the exaggerations and Messi hatred, I think he does make some interesting points about some of the issues with Messi's positioning and big game performances over recent years)

The best part is the people giving such a big importance to dribbling in this thread don’t care at all that every time Messi gets man marked properly his ability to get past players gets neutralized more often than not these days and his impact on the game greatly reduced. It’s only going to get worse as he gets slower and slower too but apparently you guys deluded yourselves into thinking he’s going to turn into a number 8 or a Pirlo style midfielder despite that being the most nonsensical idea in football history since you’ve once again arbitrarily decided that technical ability is the only necessary attribute for a football player.

Let’s see how he gets on with age but there’s a reason the static number 10 is pretty much dead in european football and there’s a reason all teams use the exact same gameplan against Barcelona in the CL and it works more often than not. Good luck trying to find space between the lines by standing there without adding any dynamic to the team both offensively or defensively. I mean, it won’t be a problem for him at all if the midfielders are somehow the ones getting the blame for not being able to find players that don’t move and are being man marked throughout the game but it will be a problem for the team.

Wrong, messi gets team marked and reduce messi getting the ball in final third. His lack of movement is the only problem with nt and here in barca he quite often drops back to pick the ball. Different story is that in cl we didnt have someone who could make difference besides him, ev fucked that roma game with benching dembele, the only other player who could make the difference. This season, with coutinho, dembouz, malcolm and messi, i'm quite positive of the outcome, and let them mark messi. Now we have other weapons from the other side. Cant wait for this season to start

 

[clemente]

Wrong, messi gets team marked and reduce messi getting the ball in final third. His lack of movement is the only problem with nt and here in barca he quite often drops back to pick the ball. Different story is that in cl we didnt have someone who could make difference besides him, ev fucked that roma game with benching dembele, the only other player who could make the difference. This season, with coutinho, dembouz, malcolm and messi, i'm quite positive of the outcome, and let them mark messi. Now we have other weapons from the other side. Cant wait for this season to start

Implying that EV will play Malcolm/Dembouz/Coutinho instead of Goems/Vidal/Paco

 

[mc_lovin]

Messi as false9 really depends on Suarez - he needs to get more mobile/fitter to play more as a left winger/inverted forward. Otherwise you are stuck with a de facto 4-4-2 again, which will hurt the midfield and Dembele. Dont think Valverde will drop Suarez for 2 playmaking wingers (maybe Im wrong and they have 15-20 goals in them each, who knows).

Regarding Messis position Valverde implied that they are looking at variations in defence (3-4-3 maybe?). Could be the key for Messi to reinvent himself and a good way to not enter the fullback market in the future, which looks bleak. Would really like to test it this season vs weaker teams and if it works go all in next season. Imagine something like that in the future:

Ter Stegen
not Pique - De Jong - Umtiti
Busquets
Arthur - Coutinho
Messi
Malcom - Dembele
Suarez


Key points:
-Suarez can play his best position
-Arthur (judging from highlights) and Coutinho can play as wide midfielders
-Messis lack of defending and penalty box presence is well covered by Suarez and Busquets
-a lot of "ifs" though: Arthur, Malcom, Dembele and de Jong especially (who are still questionmarks).

 

[Mitchell1978]

No way Barca will play with 5 purely attacking players, Rakitic will continue to be a starter also.

 

[Trickykid]

Implying that EV will play Malcolm/Dembouz/Coutinho instead of Goems/Vidal/Paco

Why? Of all the outfield players who were with us the entire season, Gomes, Vidal and Paco played the least, along with Denis.

 

[clemente]

Why? Of all the outfield players who were with us the entire season, Gomes, Vidal and Paco played the least, along with Denis.

Well Dembele played good against Chelsea in CL and next round EV benched him against 3 goal lead Roma, and subbed in Gomes instead of him, so you can't really know how his brain works, I expect deadweights will get more minutes than prospects again.