10 - Lionel Messi - v5

[KingLeo10]

even the greatest narcissist of our time, CR7, recognized that he needs to rest before CL games.

messi needs to re-evaluate things.

 

[Ritchie]

I recently read an interview from Messi and he said the following:

"I FEEL GREAT. I AM PLAYING DIFFERENTLY AT FC BARCELONA. I PREPARE LIKE I ALWAYS DO. THE MORE I PLAY, THE BETTER I FEEL. IT IS VERY DIFFICULT FOR ME TO PLAY ONE MATCH A WEEK. THE WEEK GETS VERY LONG AND WHEN GAMEDAY COMES I FEEL SLUGGISH"

Before I read this, I was always on the opinion that he must rest some time to increase his intensity as we saw vs Chelsea and vs Sevilla Copa Final. Now I don't know what to think as he knows his own body more than any of us combined know. What do you guys think?

http://mundoalbiceleste.com/2018/04/30/lionel-messi-i-think-of-the-world-cup-final-every-day/

I think one of the things he's struggled with in international tournaments is the games come thick and fast and he's exhausted by the time of the final, especially when the semi finals have gone all the way to pens a few days earlier (Holland 2014). Plus all the travelling involved between cities. If only he did have a week between the semi and a final.

When he is well rested as long as he's not nursing an injury he usually comes good with a blistering performance in a big game, but he can't play like that every 3 days due to fitness. Ecuador and Chelsea took a lot out of him physically for the games that followed. Before Chelsea (his best Barca performance this season) he sat out the previous league game. Before Roma he played and scored a hat-trick.

 

[Ritchie]

But the thing is that if he keeps doing that, the other 9 outfield players (or 8 when suarez walks too) have to do a lot of a lot of defensive work and make attacking runs for Messi at the same time. That takes a lot of mental and physical effort for the whole season (Valverde not rotating as much did not help at all) and why I think it is one of the reasons why we keep falling out of the CL quaters as the other team ups their intensity. I'm guessing the only way to solve this is to sell players like Gomes, Vidal and Digne, and buy more quality back ups so that Valverde feels more confident to rotate.

Even with the squad we have you can rotate smartly. The Copa Del Ray did not need to have the A team playing right through Jan and Feb, not before the semi finals at least. It's only in recent seasons we've really prioritised the Copa and it's hurting us in CL.

If you're playing Leganes at home you can rest a couple of players (particularly when you've got the league in the bag and CL in midfweek. It doesn't need to be all or nothing.

 

[soul24rage]

Even with the squad we have you can rotate smartly. The Copa Del Ray did not need to have the A team playing right through Jan and Feb, not before the semi finals at least. It's only in recent seasons we've really prioritised the Copa and it's hurting us in CL.

If you're playing Leganes at home you can rest a couple of players (particularly when you've got the league in the bag and CL in midfweek. It doesn't need to be all or nothing.

Exactly, there were games (especially leganes) that we could have rotated more smartly and because of our lead in la liga, valverde needed to have the balls to think of the bigger picture. Tactically, Valverde messed up against Rome, but some rest earlier in the season to some players could have helped. I hope that Valverde is prepared to get more criticism later as I don't think we'll go unbeaten again next season and both Madrid teams will definetly not mess up as they did this season.

 

[DonAK]

[tw]991003062654373888[/tw]

 

[viper76]

Anyone here have a stats were would we be on the league table without Messi ?

 

[CatalinR10]

Anyone here have a stats were would we be on the league table without Messi ?

sure

 

[Shayan_barca]

sure

So you have the samw stats for real without CR

 

[CatalinR10]

So you have the samw stats for real without CR

of course

 

[Messi983]

 

[George_Costanza]

sure

Is this for real or trolling?!!

 

[Nothanks]

dumb table means nothing.
we wouldn't play 10v11 all season long if messi left lol

 

[DonAK]

Yes, but replace Messi with Hazard, Neymar or anyone else and we're not winning La Liga.

 

[Messi983]

Sorry but these hypothetical "take the best player out of the team and see what we'd won without him" scenarios are stupid.

 

[George_Costanza]

Sorry but these hypothetical "take the best player out of the team and see what we'd won without him" scenarios are stupid.

Think of a more realistic scenario. What if Messi got injured for an extended period of 2 to 3 months? This scenario would be very valid, or at least we would be in top 7 or 8 spot.