10 - Lionel Messi - v5

[NoExpectations]

Stop with the lies and fake news.

So Neymar didnt give ball away 38 times away to PSG.

Want to try again?

You are having a torrid time trying to make your point here.

oh, he did. you can deny that and round earth as you like

 

[BarcaMessi]

Hope he is just rusty from the long summer vacation.

 

[DonAndres]

1:14- Messi creates a quick transition attack, Suarez dummies it to no one for whatever reason
1:37- Through ball to set up Deulo on wing counter attack
3:41- Another through ball to set Deulo on counter
6:12- Creates an attack with 2 good passes to Iniesta/Denis
6:27- Throughball to Rakitic to create an attack
7:30- Creates attack and sets up Denis on wing for final ball
8:25- Hits a powerful shot which creates a rebound for Suarez who fucks it up
9:35- Runs a counter by himself, throughball to Suarez for a chance but he was offisde
10:10- Sets Suarez up in the box with a great ball
10:17- Again solos a counter, plays it to Denis who fucks it up

I wasn't focusing solely on chances created, but actions that show Messi inciting/creating attacks through his sheer skill. Not his fault when players receiving his passes or teammates supposed to engage and attack in counters are consistently fucking up and making bad plays/decisions, that would necessitate him starting every attack from his deep position and carrying it all up by himself to score. We all know Messi's done that plenty before, but it's an absolutely shitty situation to force it out of him. All these great attacking actions, plus his high involvement (touches, passes, dribbles, shots, etc.) show he was indeed one of our best players and put on a good show even if not his best.

Didn't even include plays like at 3:47 where he plays a one-two with Rakitic for the latter to have a 2v2 quick attack and fuck it up, or at 11:01 when he dummies it to Suarez who fucks it up.

He's playing in a deep position by force of our shit midfield, responsible for building up AND creating attacks let alone being in the final third to create chances and score goals. He relies on his teammates playing smart and clinically in these attacks but they can't even offer him that.

If games full of 1000 pointless Neydribbles horizontally across the halfway line or booting mostly inaccurate 'throughballs' forward at a whim until finally getting one can be seen as a good performance, this is certainly one. Messi's playing against the grain here, a losing game against a much better opponent. There's actually no way he could've had a performance of setting up 4-5 clean 1v1 goalscoring chances, it's simply not possible in an uphill battle game.

 

[NoExpectations]

1:14- Messi creates a quick transition attack, Suarez dummies it to no one for whatever reason
1:37- Through ball to set up Deulo on wing counter attack
3:41- Another through ball to set Deulo on counter
6:12- Creates an attack with 2 good passes to Iniesta/Denis
6:27- Throughball to Rakitic to create an attack
7:30- Creates attack and sets up Denis on wing for final ball
8:25- Hits a powerful shot which creates a rebound for Suarez who fucks it up
9:35- Runs a counter by himself, throughball to Suarez for a chance but he was offisde
10:10- Sets Suarez up in the box with a great ball
10:17- Again solos a counter, plays it to Denis who fucks it up

I wasn't focusing solely on chances created, but actions that show Messi inciting/creating attacks through his sheer skill. Not his fault when players receiving his passes or teammates supposed to engage and attack in counters are consistently fucking up and making bad plays/decisions, that would necessitate him starting every attack from his deep position and carrying it all up by himself to score. We all know Messi's done that plenty before, but it's an absolutely shitty situation to force it out of him. All these great attacking actions, plus his high involvement (touches, passes, dribbles, shots, etc.) show he was indeed one of our best players and put on a good show even if not his best.

Didn't even include plays like at 3:47 where he plays a one-two with Rakitic for the latter to have a 2v2 quick attack and fuck it up, or at 11:01 when he dummies it to Suarez who fucks it up.

He's playing in a deep position by force of our shit midfield, responsible for building up AND creating attacks let alone being in the final third to create chances and score goals. He relies on his teammates playing smart and clinically in these attacks but they can't even offer him that.

If games full of 1000 pointless Neydribbles horizontally across the halfway line or booting mostly inaccurate 'throughballs' forward at a whim until finally getting one can be seen as a good performance, this is certainly one. Messi's playing against the grain here, a losing game against a much better opponent. There's actually no way he could've had a performance of setting up 4-5 clean 1v1 goalscoring chances, it's simply not possible in an uphill battle game.

Dude neymar scored vs guingamp he's the best in the world

 

[KingLeo10]

messi taking on real madrid these days gives me the feel of ali v foreman. fighting an uphill battle, and landing punches, even coming out victorious in a much higher stakes game than this last season. he honestly deserves more help from suarez and the midfield.

 

[AlexandruH]

By Messi standards, he had a bad game.

By a random La Liga player standards, I guess he was pretty good. I don't know why would you want to impose such restrictions on his evaluation just for lying to yourself but I guess that's a feature of the millenials - everything I like is perfect, let no cloud darken my mood.

 

[vlad]

messi taking on real madrid these days gives me the feel of ali v foreman. fighting an uphill battle, and landing punches, even coming out victorious in a much higher stakes game than this last season. he honestly deserves more help from suarez and the midfield.

Its really like this barca's only creative player and he has to score a goal at the same time, suarez is in a bad form quite a long time now, question is if he can start play good again

 

[Messi]

What chances?

You know, everytime he passed the ball to someone in a dangerous position. Just because the other players didn't know what to do with the ball doesn't change Messis role in the buildup. If chances had been converted, they would have been more obvios, I gues :-D

 

[Neeraj]

Messi had a bad game? Lol what? It's quite baffling what people expect him to do when the entire team plays like horse shit.Nobody can do anything right, but the one guy who has to literally do all the creative work right from CDM to ST had a bad game?

So basically unless he GOAT's the game and single handedly wins it for us (like 3-2 last season), he by definition, has had a bad game. Just..wow.

 

[Messi]

Dunno about chances, as that's a very narrow stats definition and I wasn't the one to claim he set up a "bunch of chances" as I realize that a 'chance' is very specific and also depends on the actions of the receiver. A great playmaking action doesn't necessarily lead to a created chance in stats definitions, and he had plenty of great actions that were to make plays or to create and attempt to finish attacks on his own.

The high level of involvement, many dribbles, penalty goal, and then video footage of the several great actions he had should be enough to prove that he had an active and good game even if it was mixed and not the highest level Messi himself is capable of.

I should maybe be more specific. I was the one saying "a bunch of chances."
Not talking about "key passes" or any other specific stat, but simply that he was the catalyst for much of
our playmaking, and by chances I meant getting the ball in potentially dangerous positions, that with better performing players around him would most likely have resulted in more goals scored or at least more shots. I that wasn't clear, that's on me, but I will still maintain, that he was far from being shit

 

[Much2soon]

Messi really needs to stop with the card gestures to the REF.

 

[JamDav1982]

oh, he did. you can deny that and round earth as you like

He didn't.

You are wrong again and looking at home game v PSG.

 

[Cule4life]

Come into a thread and see Jamdav vs the world once again....

 

[RevoTeller]

Now maybe you understand why Maradona has 1/4 of the trophies compared to all the other greats but he is still rightfully such an iconic figure in football.

You can individually be the best by far (Messi) but football is a team sport and if your teammates are far weaker than the opposition you are going to sink 4 time out of 5 no matter what.

Yesterday Messi played a 7.5 match for me, Isco did less than him yet he is being praised everywhere. And do you know why is this happening? Because:

1) He plays for the team which won the game. Nowadays people only judge based on the result and the scoresheet, they don't even see and understand matches anymore. If you play in the team which wins the game you played good by default, no matter if in reality you were shit.
2) He has strong, fast, tactically organized teammates around him.

Watching Messi is like watching an Isco who is 3 times faster, 2 times more technical and scores 10 times more, the difference between the two is that Messi plays in a much, much worse context.
Cristiano Ronaldo did an amazing goal but his influence on the team is lower than that proposed by Asensio, who scored a wonder as well and furthermore provides much more to the quality and gameplay of Real Madrid.

Messi has to blend each of these factors (goal scoring like Cristiano Ronaldo, creativity and flare like Isco, fast play and dribbling like Asensio) in only one player, and he has to do it in a much worse and weaker context compared to the Real Madrid team.

I repeat myself: Messi yesterday had a 7.5 performance, which is not a 9 or 10 one, but in football in order to have a 10 performance it is 99% of the times necessary that your teammates don't have a 3 performance (bar Busquets and Umtiti), which is what happened in this game and what makes once again Lionel Messi head and shoulders above the other 21 players on the pitch.

If Messi had Cristiano Ronaldo by his side the latter would finish the season with 100 goals and Messi would once in his life have a satisfaction to see his creativity finished in the net for good.

 

[clemente]

Why is Messi still here.. You are ruining your carrer, I am sorry but you need to contact City NOW