10 - Lionel Messi - v5

[KingLeo10]

looks like he's mailing it in now. he could do without these sluggish ends to the season, but I suppose chasing the ghost of maradona at the WC is on his mind. another 13-14 from the looks of it.

 

[pregra]

Looks gassed. Combined with his injury I fear he will be a non-factor at the WC. Hope not though!

 

[Mitchell1978]

Much better second half.

 

[FCBfan22]

Served that ball to Denis like a waiter in a 5 star restaurant.

But Denis decided that it wasn't worth finishing the meal.

 

[Windhook]

Wasn't in good mood and that reflected his game. I don't expect him to carry this team for the rest of the season. Probably focusing more on the World Cup at this time.

 

[Ripsta]

Cannot believe just how static is game is, he's the most talented footballer of the last 30 years yet has a knack for just walking around for the majority of matches.

May be pacing himself or doing it to avoid injuries, but games like against Roma don't reflect well on him at all. He should be commanding the ball, moving into spaces to help the midfield, not hide behind a cluster of players then do some magic if the ball makes its way to hm.

 

[Afromaticz]

Messi looks a shadow of the player he used to be. Granted on his day he’s still the best but the drop in his overall game is huge

 

[pregra]

It looks like he doesn’t bother, or is physically unable, to go on more than a couple of solo runs each game. And he gets more and more predictable in his play by the game unfortunately. Then again, he has no speed at all around him to create spaces. Our whole team is so, so slow.

 

[Raketa10]

The problem is that he was hugely overplayed during the season (as always) and than in the crucial part of the season he is dead tired. When he has to be at his best he is just dead. Ronaldo on the other hand knows how to preserve his energy, he was shit in the first part of the season but he is fresh and ready now when it matters the most.

I don’t know if this is up to him and he wants to play every single match (including CDR shit) or it was decision of Valverde and Lucho before him but someone is really stupid and stubborn here. During Pep era this was possible since he was in his early twenties but he is now over 30 and he needs to understand he needs to rest sometimes.

 

[Luftstalag14]

If there is one thing that is Messi's Achilles' heel and will fail him is his lack of stamina. If he can't keep up at 30, imagine what the next several seasons will be. There is only one way and it is heading south. People thought he could play midfield, no he really can't.

We really ought to start phasing him out gradually and I think it will benefit us for two reasons:

(1) Messi gets his rest and can continue to be clutch for us when we need him.
(2) we start learning how to playing without Messi, the players should learn not to give every pass to Messi, with Messi still being here so when the time finally comes it will not be as abrupt as it will be if we continue to play Messi in most if not all games.

 

[BarcaMessi]

Heard a few whistles when Messi lost the ball little easily in a half empty Camp Nou today.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

Messi looks a shadow of the player he used to be. Granted on his day he’s still the best but the drop in his overall game is huge

He is obviously injured or fatigued. Something is wrong.

If there is one thing that is Messi's Achilles' heel and will fail him is his lack of stamina. If he can't keep up at 30, imagine what the next several seasons will be. There is only way and it is the south. People thought he could play midfield, no he really can't.

We really ought to start phasing him out gradually and I think it will benefit us for two reasons:

(1) Messi gets his rest and can continue to be clutch for us when we need him.
(2) we start learning how to playing without Messi, the players should learn not to give every pass to Messi, with Messi still being here so when the time finally comes it will not be as abrupt as it will be if we continue to play Messi in most if not all games.

True. We need to start resting him more. We messed up him this season. Not enough rest for him, he looks physically and mentally finished. Valverde and CO ran him to the ground, like rest of our starters..

 

[BarcaMessi]

Barca depends too much on Messi and Camp Nou.

That needs to change to win UCL.

 

[Felipetonelo]

He needs to put more effort at conditioning drills. We don't know what happens in the background, but there's something going on. If you can't run or if you don't want to run, then you should be resting outside the field. For a guy who's only 30, he looks like a grandpa.

 

[Luftstalag14]

True. We need to start resting him more. We messed up him this season. Not enough rest for him, he looks physically and mentally finished. Valverde and CO ran him to the ground, like rest of our starters..

More importantly, we need to start preparing and planning for the post-Messi days early so we can have an as seamless as possible transition. Otherwise it would be like 2/3 of the team doesn't know how to play any more and we drop our level drastically once he is gone.