10 - Lionel Messi - v5

[DonAK]

It is time Messi raised his game especially in the cl. Best player I've ever seen but his shit shows in cl exits are wearing on my.

Ronaldo can have shit games like tonight and the SF and go through.

Messi has a bad game and the rest of our team is clueless. What does it tell you?

 

[MessiCam]

Ronaldo can have shit games like tonight and the SF and go through.

Messi has a bad game and the rest of our team is clueless. What does it tell you?

That messi is rubbish. According to some...

 

[Total-Football]

sometimes one feels more sorry about messi not winning CLs than barca itself. i dont know if a barca fan is supposed to feel that way but im sure many do.

 

[DonAK]

Perhaps it's time some people start looking at the team too instead of always pointing their fingers at Messi underperforming whenever we go out. Somehow he's the only player in the World whose team cannot help him out when he has a bad night.

Perhaps we just have too many overrated and average players in the team? We used to be able to cope if Messi didn't do well before. Now, we're not even close.

People get happy with Rakitic making a switch to the other side of the field or playing a short pass sideways like he's the midfield Jesus or something while you have other teams midfielders you know, actually creating chances and controlling the flow of the game even when their attacking players are doing bad.

When Lewandowski and Muller were stinking up the night, you still had James and Thiago creating chance after chance, always getting them close to the goal line.

At Barca if our forwards have a bad day you have our midfielders stand there confused and pass the ball over to someone else because they simply. are. not. good. enough.

Same with Alba who might be the most overrated Barcelona player in recent memory. Take his pace away and he wouldn't even be playing for a La Liga team. Not a great defender. Cannot cross to save his life(unless it's a cutback to Messi). Can only play simple passes. Cannot shoot or finish 99% of the chances he gets, can barely dribble past a man unless he got space to use his pace through the good old kick and run method, cannot make a dynamic play to create a chance, etc.

 

[bodi16]

Perhaps it's time some people start looking at the team too instead of always pointing their fingers at Messi underperforming whenever we go out. Somehow he's the only player in the World whose team cannot help him out when he has a bad night.

Perhaps we just have too many overrated and average players in the team? We used to be able to cope if Messi didn't do well before. Now, we're not even close.

People get happy with Rakitic making a switch to the other side of the field or playing a short pass sideways like he's the midfield Jesus or something while you have other teams midfielders you know, actually creating chances and controlling the flow of the game even when their attacking players are doing bad.

Exactly, get Messi off our team and we would look lost against quality opposition like Liverpool did tonight against RM. Simple as that.

 

[MessiCam]

sometimes one feels more sorry about messi not winning CLs than barca itself. i dont know if a barca fan is supposed to feel that way but im sure many do.

I don’t feel that way because the Champions League is not the be all and end all for a player. I feel bad that Messi, individually, has been made a scape goat for the failures.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

I don’t feel that way because the Champions League is not the be all and end all for a player. I feel bad that Messi, individually, has been made a scape goat for the failures.

Exactly. Messi is what makes this team great. He is blamed because everyone regards him one of the best players in the world, but even he can't do it himself.. He needs help.

 

[serghei]

Perhaps it's time some people start looking at the team too instead of always pointing their fingers at Messi underperforming whenever we go out. Somehow he's the only player in the World whose team cannot help him out when he has a bad night.

Perhaps we just have too many overrated and average players in the team? We used to be able to cope if Messi didn't do well before. Now, we're not even close.

People get happy with Rakitic making a switch to the other side of the field or playing a short pass sideways like he's the midfield Jesus or something while you have other teams midfielders you know, actually creating chances and controlling the flow of the game even when their attacking players are doing bad.

When Lewandowski and Muller were stinking up the night, you still had James and Thiago creating chance after chance, always getting them close to the goal line.

At Barca if our forwards have a bad day you have our midfielders stand there confused and pass the ball over to someone else because they simply. are. not. good. enough.

Same with Alba who might be the most overrated Barcelona player in recent memory. Take his pace away and he wouldn't even be playing for a La Liga team. Not a great defender. Cannot cross to save his life(unless it's a cutback to Messi). Can only play simple passes. Cannot shoot or finish 99% of the chances he gets, can barely dribble past a man unless he got space to use his pace through the good old kick and run method, cannot make a dynamic play to create a chance, etc.

Off games is not the issue for me. Lack of effort is. Very hard to play in CL when 2 players walk around and don't help the team unless they have the ball at their feet. Everybody can have off games, but you have to try all the time. That's how winning is done at this level.

Rest him in some easier games and ask him to run more in CL and give more in terms of effort. Nobody expects him to dribble half the team every game, but when the ball is 2m away from him and he walks unbothered and unwilling to put even a bit of pressure it is upsetting.

I don't think Messi is the first to blame, but he's one of the players who massively underperform in CL quarters in the last 3 seasons.

 

[DonAK]

Off games is not the issue for me. Lack of effort is. Very hard to play in CL when 2 players walk around and don't help the team unless they have the ball at their feet. Everybody can have off games, but you have to try all the time. That's how winning is done at this level.

Rest him in some easier games and ask him to run more in CL and give more in terms of effort. Nobody expects him to dribble half the team every game, but when the ball is 2m away from him and he walks unbothered and unwilling to put even a bit of pressure it is upsetting.

I don't think Messi is the first to blame, but he's one of the players who massively underperform in CL quarters in the last 3 seasons.

Sure, I'll be the first one to tell you Messi could have exerted more effort and has underperformed in our CL exits, but look at the state of our team when Messi doesn't play.

It's simply not good enough. Our team is deeply flawed. Barca have been blessed with some great midfielders throughout their history. Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Deco, Pep Guardiola, Michael Laudrup and more, and somehow we've managed to put a decent midfielder like Rakitic at that pedestal.

Somehow we've managed to rate Alba so highly when the only reason he's even a footballer is his pace. Take two of our other FBs pace away in Alves and Abidal and they would still be very good. Do that with Alba and you're left with the most useless player in the squad.

The squad is so flawed and overrated that it's unbelievable. On top of that we have players like Suarez who are past their best if you're trying to win the CL that we're still hinging on while contemplating selling or loaning a prospect like Dembele.

Messi can improve his performance and lack of effort, but in games where it doesn't work out for him, everyone else will be left exposed. That wasn't a problem before because the World Class players we had were actual World Class or very good. We've managed to give that tag to decent or average players at best and wonder why everything fall apart when one player is off.

 

[serghei]

Sure, I'll be the first one to tell you Messi could have exerted more effort and has underperformed in our CL exits, but look at the state of our team when Messi doesn't play.

It's simply not good enough. Our team is deeply flawed. Barca have been blessed with some great midfielders throughout their history. Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Deco, Pep Guardiola, Michael Laudrup and more, and somehow we've managed to put a decent midfielder like Rakitic at that pedestal.

Somehow we've managed to rate Alba so highly when the only reason he's even a footballer is his pace. Take two of our other FBs pace away in Alves and Abidal and they would still be very good. Do that with Alba and you're left with the most useless player in the squad.

The squad is so flawed and overrated that it's unbelievable. On top of that we have players like Suarez who are past their best if you're trying to win the CL that we're still hinging on while contemplating selling or loaning a prospect like Dembele.

Messi can improve his performance and lack of effort, but in games where it doesn't work out for him, everyone else will be left exposed. That wasn't a problem before because the World Class players we had were actual World Class or very good. We've managed to give that tag to decent or average players at best and wonder why everything fall apart when one player is off.

We were slow to replace the midfield. Basically our midfield is the one from 2009 but with Rakitic instead of Xavi. That's 10 years ago. Managers were actually very short minded. Valverde being the last one. Here is a man who basically won the league with 5-6 games to go, and he still didn't call a single talent from the B team. Even more, he left Dembele as a sub vs Madrid in the clasico. Didn't call Alena, not even once with the league sealed. Man is totally wrong for a club trying to rebuild. So was Lucho btw.

But we're still winning big titles, so things aren't that bad. I think Madrid has something like 4-5 domestic doubles in their history. We've won 3 in the last 4 years. The big issue is the CL. We need to think about approaching CL better and play Barca football, stop fooling around with wannabe Mourinho tactics and stop giving time to mediocre players as opposed to promising talents who might explode if trusted more.

 

[DonAK]

We were slow to replace the midfield. Basically our midfield is the one from 2009 but with Rakitic instead of Xavi. That's 10 years ago. Managers were actually very short minded. Valverde being the last one. Here is a man who basically won the league with 5-6 games to go, and he still didn't call a single talent from the B team. Even more, he left Dembele as a sub vs Madrid in the clasico. Didn't call Alena, not even once with the league sealed. Man is totally wrong for a club trying to rebuild. So was Lucho btw.

But we're still winning big titles, so things aren't that bad.

We're winning titles because of this man's thread. If Messi for some reason was not to be able to play an entire season then these League and Copa trophies would disappear too with the way we're playing and our squad whereas before I would be confident we would be able to keep the ship sailing until he'd come back, like RM are able to do without CR.

 

[serghei]

We're winning titles because of this man's thread. If Messi for some reason was not to be able to play an entire season then these League and Copa trophies would disappear too with the way we're playing and our squad whereas before I would be confident we would be able to keep the ship sailing until he'd come back, like RM are able to do without CR.

This is not because the lack of quality outside Messi, but because our game plan is built on Messi, it's by design. This is mostly down to managers seeking the easy option - we have Messi so let's give him the ball and it's job 3/4 done.

 

[DonAK]

This is not because the lack of quality outside Messi, but because our game plan is built on Messi, it's by design. This is mostly down to managers seeking the easy option - we have Messi so let's give him the ball and it's job 3/4 done.

There is a clear lack of quality too.

 

[serghei]

There is a clear lack of quality too.

Don't think it is. Not when you have teams like Roma and Liverpool playing CL semifinals. Our team without Messi is like 2 times better than either of those, we just took Liverpool's best player last winter. It's also better than Atletico who finished above Madrid this season.

For me we are choosing to be Messi dependant, by giving him too many freedoms on the pitch and running everything through him. Again, something the manager should make sure it doesn't happen.

 

[xXKonan]

The Midfield needed to be addressed for awhile now and there's ways we can fix that hell even Real managed to solve that problem by looking at what we did right.

yet here we are with a Midfield that is slow and uncreative that has the mobility of a dump truck. Give Busi two proper CM's and it will not only help him but it will also keep messi far forward where he's dangerous.

Rakitic cannot play in the 4-3-3 anymore and he was never some technical wizard either. He's good down deep as he's not being tasked with creative duties but that still not good enough to build the Midfield around him and leaving our most talented Midfielder out to dry because of it.