10 - Lionel Messi - v5

[El Flaco]

 

[Truthist]

It's like we are playing with 10 men when he's like this..

 

[Horatio]

fun fact: that picture of Messi facing the crowd holds some record for most browsed picture. Probably timeframe specific but can't remember what exactly.

 

[NotInHere]

It's crazy how unpredictable Football is, awhile back we were talking about how Messi was saving Barca many times from losing games and he was, but today he decided not to show up and Barca most likely lost the league, all that hard work gone to waste.

 

[snowy]

k, here's a better vid -->

He tried a few of those yesterday... any of these 4 lob/chips could’ve been readily converted into goals:
2:27 // 3:00 // 4:22 // 11.00
+
3:30 good turn followed by a header - easy bounce for Suarez but Luisito passes it back and Leo’s volley get blocked by Celso. Still, good action.
10:00 smart pass to Bob which leads to Suarez almost scoring.

That’s 6 potential goals. Still below par relative to his usual GOAT performance but it wasn't for lack of trying or being lazy -->
1:50 // 3:09 // 8:24 // 11:36 //
IMO, he did show up. Lady Luck was out getting a perm, that's all

 

[BarçaBarça]

Well, Messi with a bigger workrate would also mean he'd be tired way more, and also injured more. He's a special player, and any coach should try to make his career as long as possible.

Yes, but how about 1 motivated half then? The loss is not only on Messi, we expect more of him, therefore is more disappointed when he doesn't deliver, but he insist on playing all the time himself. Imo it would be better to play him 1 half, where he plays with intensity, or simply rest him, if he isn't motivated.

I know that he can score from nowhere, from a freekick etc., and that is why it is not an easy decision.

 

[MagIX]

As usual, it is not allowed to criticize him, for some people it is like to sleep with their wife, it's like to insult their religion....

For me sometime he need a kick in the ass. Sometime his workrate is beyond ridiculous... if I check the workrate of Neymar or Suarez, i think that Messi really need a kick in the ass.

Said that, I absolutely do no change my opinion about him, he is the best player I have ever seen.

 

[Tiny Kim]

People need to leave him alone. So what if he wasn't his usual GOAT-self? Okay, he's only human, even if he's the best of the best. He's allowed to have bad performances occasionally. He's not a machine. People are now talking like he cost the team the league title? A month ago, most of you had given up on the league. Its not his fault that the other players can't contribute enough when he hits a bad patch of form. Why are they playing for Barcelona in the first place? To simply be carried all the way to glory on Messi's shoulders?

 

[Truthist]

It's not the poor performance, it's the obvious lack of effort. He was walking around ffs.

 

[Messi]

There was something off about him yesterday imo. It wasn´t a bad performance (although for Messi´s standards it was) and I don´t think he put in less efford than usual, but his first touch and passes for much of the game were far from his usual level. His bursts of energy then had to be used to get out of difficult situations created by initial sloppyness. On top of that he was unlucky with the good actions he did have so yeah, it was an off day for him. That should be okay though. The team should be good enough to beat Deportivo without goat-mode Messi

 

[Potroh]

The team should be good enough to beat Deportivo without goat-mode Messi

That's true.
However there seemed to be a different an important factor for him in the 1st half and most of the 2nd, namely that he received every ball either too long, too strong or too short. Messi couldn't start from clear balls, he first had to fight to save them for himself. I think after some time he lost his mental balance due to these ill fated efforts.
Ah and Messi has a Neymar dependency lately, specially that Suarez forgot how to control the easiest balls...

 

[ATLBarcaFan]

total non-factor yesterday and with no Neymar to pick up the slack spells disaster for Barca

 

[FlaFCB]

As usual, it is not allowed to criticize him, for some people it is like to sleep with their wife, it's like to insult their religion....

For me sometime he need a kick in the ass. Sometime his workrate is beyond ridiculous... if I check the workrate of Neymar or Suarez, i think that Messi really need a kick in the ass.

Said that, I absolutely do no change my opinion about him, he is the best player I have ever seen.

Criticizing him is obviously allowed. The amount of shit some people write when he has a bad own awful game isn't, though. Saying that he's finished, he doesn't care, or worse stuff, isn't criticism. It's overreaction or just taking the chance to dump one on him. Those same people also only appear when he has a bad game.

 

[MagIX]

Criticizing him is obviously allowed. The amount of shit some people write when he has a bad own awful game isn't, though. Saying that he's finished, he doesn't care, or worse stuff, isn't criticism. It's overreaction or just taking the chance to dump one on him. Those same people also only appear when he has a bad game.

Ok. Let me undersand: saying that it is not a question of poor performance (can happen), but a question of lack of effort, or that his workrate is below the minimum, or he is walking around on the pitch, what is this ? criticizing him or shit about him ?

 

[FlaFCB]

Ok. Let me undersand: saying that it is not a question of poor performance (can happen), but a question of lack of effort, or that his workrate is below the minimum, or he is walking around on the pitch, what is this ? criticizing him or shit about him ?

Criticizing his performance in a game is valid. There's nothing wrong in saying so when he has a bad game. Saying that's he's finished, a choker, that he doesn't care, or stuff like that, taking advantage of a bad game, isn't. This happens here consistently at least since 2014. When a good part of the forum were overreacting like crazy, and wanted him sold in the summer. As if Messi hadn't done enough for everyone to know we shouldn't doubt him.

Also, his workrate was always like that. He plays pretty much every game, so unless if you want him to be more tired than he looks to be now, or injured, others have to run for him. Messi's been playing an average of around 45-50 matches per season since he started. Without counting his nt's matches.

This posts here nails the situation:

IMHO people are blinded by Messi's decisive genius and whenever he just plays an average game, they start criticizing him much more than it is necessary.
Messi did NOT have a bad game against PSG, he made up 1 1/2 goals but whenever he is not an "alien" people start this BS.

His shots, free-kicks sometimes avoid going in, his dribbles are sometimes unsuccessful, his clever balls are intercepted, that's the nature of this game, but a good team is a good team if at certain games others take his shiny role, just as Neymar did recently.
Neither at the PSG game nor today Messi wasn't worse than many other team members. He was decisive enough at many games this season to merit the "right" not to be his best each and every game...