10 - Lionel Messi - v5

[Ousmane Dembélé]

Hope he starts moving off the ball again, he's been pretty stagnant without the ball for a couple seasons now, both in attack and defense.

People like to complain about our midfield and deservedly so, but Messi makes no effort to move and make himself available for an open pass, he seems more than content with just sitting between two lines of defenders.

Don't give me the excuse he is "saving energy" either. He is a 30 year athlete that's been playing at the top level for over a decade now and brings nothing to the table in terms of defensive contribution. I doubt he will burn himself out by making a couple off ball movements every few minutes.

He either completely isolates himself from the game by staying anchored to that pocket of heavily manned space behind Suarez or he drops all the way down to Busi's position to try and create something. The perfect medium for him would be to play on the RW, but unfortunately he doesn't want to do that anymore.

 

[Aryagorn]

Why don't you tell him directly Ousmane? You scared?

 

[Altomonte]

Hope he starts moving off the ball again, he's been pretty stagnant without the ball for a couple seasons now, both in attack and defense.

People like to complain about our midfield and deservedly so, but Messi makes no effort to move and make himself available for an open pass, he seems more than content with just sitting between two lines of defenders.

Don't give me the excuse he is "saving energy" either. He is a 30 year athlete that's been playing at the top level for over a decade now and brings nothing to the table in terms of defensive contribution. I doubt he will burn himself out by making a couple off ball movements every few minutes.

He either completely isolates himself from the game by staying anchored to that pocket of heavily manned space behind Suarez or he drops all the way down to Busi's position to try and create something. The perfect medium for him would be to play on the RW, but unfortunately he doesn't want to do that anymore.

Are you referring to the ARG match against Venezuela? If you watched I cannot understand your comment. He definitely did not 'preserve energy', was working hard, providing great passes and almost scoring. However, Venezuela's goalkeeper - 19 years old - is amazing. Barça should sign him!

 

[Ritchie]

Sad to watch his career go down the pan like this.

 

[BrazilBrazilBrazil]

However, Venezuela's goalkeeper - 19 years old - is amazing. Barça should sign him!

Nope.

 

[dakt]

 

[springfield]

He either completely isolates himself from the game by staying anchored to that pocket of heavily manned space behind Suarez or he drops all the way down to Busi's position to try and create something. The perfect medium for him would be to play on the RW, but unfortunately he doesn't want to do that anymore.

Why RW? He was great central when Barcelona was dominating world football.

 

[booge]

Why RW? He was great central when Barcelona was dominating world football.

Spends half of the time pulling captains armband up. Is not even a leader.

 

[Mitchell1978]

Hard to believe Argentina reached 3 finals in a row, apart from Messi and Dybala that team seems devoid of quality.

 

[JamDav1982]

Are you referring to the ARG match against Venezuela? If you watched I cannot understand your comment. He definitely did not 'preserve energy', was working hard, providing great passes and almost scoring. However, Venezuela's goalkeeper - 19 years old - is amazing. Barça should sign him!

In the last half hour or so he was barely moving off the ball. Which was frustrating as he was obviously by far best on pitch when got it at his feet.

 

[Alik]

Spends half of the time pulling captains armband up. Is not even a leader.

?

What does that have to do with his comment?

 

[kilian]

I watched only first half yesterday and he was pretty bad, like the rest of the team. Had glimpses of brilliance, but in general a performance to forget. His off the ball movement was shocking. They constantly tried to use him as their main attacking outlet, but his lack of movement meant that every ball he received was when he was surrounded by 2 or 3 players.

I sincerely hope he won`t play like that for Barcelona, because we won`t win shit.

 

[Barcilliant]

I wonder if he's still motivated or not?

I wouldn't be surprised if Messi just quits out of the blue.

Carrying both Barca and Argentina has burnt him out to a certain degree.

Last season especially was ludicrous. We have two other world class forwards but Messi was the one baling us out repeatedly.

 

[clemente]

I watched only first half yesterday and he was pretty bad, like the rest of the team. Had glimpses of brilliance, but in general a performance to forget. His off the ball movement was shocking. They constantly tried to use him as their main attacking outlet, but his lack of movement meant that every ball he received was when he was surrounded by 2 or 3 players.

I sincerely hope he won`t play like that for Barcelona, because we won`t win shit.

Are you fucking retarded? He was the only player in that sorry ass "team", everytime he got the ball he was immediately marked by at least 4 players, and still made the best passes and was dangerous, what the fuck do you even want him to do? This is a team game, and he has nothing to work with, same as in Barcelona.

 

[JamDav1982]

Are you fucking retarded? He was the only player in that sorry ass "team", everytime he got the ball he was immediately marked by at least 4 players, and and still made the best passes and was dangerous, what the fuck do you even want him to do? This is a team game, and he has nothing to work with, same as in Barcelona.

Feels like you didn't watch it. Messi was easily marked as he didn't move all that much. Never had four player on him each tine though.

It wasn't a case of Messi playing well and rest being shit, they were all poor and had little impact. The best player for Argentina was Di Maria in his 20 mins on the park.