Lionel Messi - v7

kilian

Senior Member
Unless you contribute financially or in some other way to the club you don't deserve anything.

Well, if you want to go down that road, almost every fan contributes to the club financially because he pays for tv sports packages to watch Barca. And then Barca gets the tv rights money.
Another thing is that tv companies measure how many people watch specific parts of their program (in this case Barca games) and then act accordingly. So, if less people would watch Barca on tv, the club would get less money from tv rights. So we watch it and pay for it. We do deserve something then, huh?
 

eaman

Active member
The most people here dont understand that point. Everybody blames Higuain for the three final losses but nobody mention that Messi also was just bad in these matches. Its like people want always excuse his poorly performances by blaming other players.

People blame higuain because he missed two one on one's with the keeper straight in front of the goal. Also Messi was better in general play than higuain in all those finals
 
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raskolnikov

Well-known member
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVo5eMuYwK4

Messi also missed 1vs1 against Neuer but nobody ever talked about this chance. I dont want to blame Messi for the loss but its wrong to say that Higuain is the reason for all the final losses.
its talked about enough, it was t such a huge chance as higuains or palacio’s though.

What really is never talked about is Neuer needed to be send off for going full schumacher on Higuain in the first half.
 

DonAndres

Wild Man of Borneo
No it was not. It was only a great game if you pretend it is normal for Messi to be excused from having to do work without the ball. Then in this case, yea, he had a good game because in the limited amount of times he was on the ball, he made some nice passes.

But in professional football at very high level, where both what you do with the ball, as well as what you do without it matters, Messi, also considering he was the captain of a team who collapsed like panicked schoolboys, did certainly NOT have a good game.

Basically, the Messi fan speech is Messi is amazing because he does this or that with the ball, but he is not bad because he doesn't do this or that WITHOUT the ball, because he is Lionel Messi and others have to carry his shit and make up for his flaws. And then they pretend that the flaws and the bad stuff he does on the pitch do not exist.

We just got beat 4-0 by a bunch of hardworking inspired Liverpool players, with average technique and average talent, and here we are saying our captain had a great game. :lol: It was a match where our best players put in a 4/10 performance. Even if you say Messi was our best player, he was still mediocre, which is the most generous adjective you could use to describe his performance as a Barcelona captain (again something the Messi fans completely ignores, his responsibility as the captain of the team).

I'm sorry, but this is just stubborn nonsense. Just hammering away repetitions of Messi was "poor, lazy, limited" does not make it true.


It is just being willfully dishonest or too stubborn to look at evidence to be able to look at this performance and call it a 4/10.

If I didn't bring up the video of those killer passes, none of you would've acknowledged that it happened either. You would've swept it under the rug and kept saying Messi did "nothing". And now it went from "nothing" to "not enough effort off the ball".

What about the fact that he had more touches than every "hardworking Liverpool player" except for 2? What about the fact that he was burning Fabinho all game at Anfield as clearly shown, or forcing great saves out of Allison? He had a shot headed for the roof of the net that was a certain goal but for an incredible save by Allison. Another great volley at the end of the game and a few sharp longshots that barely zipped wide. I already mentioned how he split VVD not once but TWICE with exceptional throughballs. Those are 3 world class players that Messi was either constantly beating or at least testing in this loss.

Messi at Anfield was better than Messi at City away in 2015, Bayern away in 2015, and the CL final vs Juve. Those were all games where he didn't score/assist and yet was rightfully praised for a great performance. At Anfield, Messi was creating more clear cut chances than any of those games and had more dangerous shots that could've been goals. And he was doing it in conditions with FAR more adversity than any of those 2015 games. There were several stretches of the game at Anfield where Barca couldn't even string possession together for 15 seconds to make something out of. Those were the stretches where Messi was "invisible" just as any other attacker in history would be.

Do you think it's just some easy thing for a player to start running around like a headless chicken and suddenly goals/assists start banging in against the best defense Europe has seen in the past 4-5 years even when they have your team pinned back completely? What do you think Ronaldo/Maradona/R9/Ronaldinho/Zidane/etc. would've done under the conditions Messi played at Anfield? The answer, not a damn thing. Zip. Zero. They would've done FUCK all.

Can you seriously call that a 4/10? To me, that's just choosing to be blind/stubborn just to support an agenda. Messi vs Anfield was arguably the BEST individual performance I've ever seen from a player on the losing end of a huge thrashing. You underestimate just how uphill the battle is to make ANYTHING succeed in those games, there just isn't any platform to perform.
 

serghei

Senior Member
Put Semedo at RB and Arthur instead of Rakitic at CM and we would have won the CL. Instead , people don't appreciate the insane season Messi just had. It's a joke really.

Valverde was recently backed by Messi in a very emphatic and public manner. Messi very much approves how the team has been playing.

So, this idea that he is very much against the current manager is probably false. He either likes Valverde, in which case he is clueless, or he doesn't like Valverde and doesn't agree with his methods, but still supports him, and that makes him a puppet instead.

Either way, it doesn't look good on him as a leader of this team.
 
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serghei

Senior Member
[MENTION=12906]DonAndres[/MENTION], I see it differently. I will do a video analysis on the away game vs Liverpool and say what I think are the issues in terms of Messi's positioning during both attacking phase and defensive transition. What he should be doing, but doesn't. And how this hurts the team in attack.

Messi has failed to score or assist in all away games that led to our CL elimination. Since Pep, that is:

0-4 vs Bayern in 2012/13
0-1 vs Atletico in 2013/14
0-2 vs Atletico in 2015/16
0-3 vs Juventus in 2015-/16
0-3 vs Roma in 2016/17
0-4 vs Liverpool in 2018/19

Goal difference in these 6 games? 0-17.

For a player that is supposed to be the main creator and scorer of the team those are terrible numbers. He is surely doing something wrong. It can't be somebody elses fault all the time, while he takes the main credit in great wins.
 
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Mitchell1978

Senior Member
[MENTION=12906]DonAndres[/MENTION], I see it differently. I will do a video analysis on the away game vs Liverpool and say what I think are the issues in terms of Messi's positioning during both attacking phase and defensive transition. What he should be doing, but doesn't. And how this hurts the team in attack.

oh boy, i can hardly wait for you to enlighten us with your vast footballing knowledge :lol:
 

DonAndres

Wild Man of Borneo
[MENTION=12906]DonAndres[/MENTION], I see it differently. I will do a video analysis on the away game vs Liverpool and say what I think are the issues in terms of Messi's positioning during both attacking phase and defensive transition. What he should be doing, but doesn't. And how this hurts the team in attack.

Messi has failed to score or assist in all away games that led to our CL elimination. Since Pep, that is:

0-4 vs Bayern in 2012/13
0-1 vs Atletico in 2013/14
0-2 vs Atletico in 2015/16
0-3 vs Juventus in 2015-/16
0-3 vs Roma in 2016/17
0-4 vs Liverpool in 2018/19

Goal difference in these 6 games? 0-17.

For a player that is supposed to be the main creator and scorer of the team those are terrible numbers. He is surely doing something wrong. It can't be somebody elses fault all the time, while he takes the main credit in great wins.

I'm not saying Messi never has fault, just that it wasn't the case this time.

One thing I find to be completely wrong is how people in this thread are treating Messi's poor performances in those games as independent, mutually exclusive events. As if Rakitic/Cou/Alba/Suarez/Busi/Vidal all dropping 2/10 performances or worse somehow had little to no bearing on Leo dropping his supposed 4/10. You guys are pretty explicitly suggesting that Messi was just "trash" on those days completely of his own accord and his own individual failures, and that his poor performance is just a coincidence of his own making alongside the even worse performances of his teammates.

That's the only way to justify the rationalization you guys make that if Messi were mentally stronger or more determined he wouldn't have dropped a sub 6/10 performance and instead pull out a classic Messi 7-8+/10 performance instead, regardless of how his teammates are performing around him. As if it is in his power to turn the tide like that. Can you name the instances where it was even POSSIBLE for a player to play anywhere near their best level when the team's performance suffers that badly?

The truth is that an individual's performance is a teammate dependent value. Players don't and simply CAN'T look anywhere near their best in conditions where the whole team looks like it's getting drowned underwater.

Let's look at it case by case:

-Bayern: Team didn't show up at all , Messi didn't show up at all. Even if he did it would've been entirely worthless, nothing Messi did or didn't do could influence that tie at all.

-Atletico 2014, 2016: Team didn't show up in 2014 but did show up in 2016. Messi didn't show up for either game. Those seasons, especially 2014, were injury riddled and nowhere near his best form. 2016 Messi vs Atletico is his true worst CL showing IMO because Messi stepping up would've made the difference and his teammates weren't that bad.

-Roma 2018: Team didn't bring any quality performance, neither did Messi.

-Juve 2016: Same as above, but Leo did have moments here and there that were quality. Even then it's like vs Bayern where him showing up wouldn't have made the difference.

-Liverpool 2019: Team didn't show up, Messi DID show up. I have little doubt that if even 1-2 starters were switched out we would've made it through and Messi probably would've scored/assisted, he was looking very sharp in the final 3rd with many of his actions and just barely didn't succeed. Even if Messi had the EXACT performance he gave IRL at Anfield, people probably would've praised it if the scoreline was 0-2 instead of 0-4.




All of these games except possibly 2016 Atletico were games where none of the team brought it on the day. Messi was able to be active/dangerous in attack in 1, arguably 2 of all of those games which is a really bad look on the surface. But to that, I ask you when have any players EVER been able to consistently show up in 0-3/0-4 beatdowns and perform better than their team allows them to? The answer is probably never. The likes of Ronaldo certainly never even looked like he was on the pitch in games where RM wasn't comfortably mounting offense on their opponents, he even looked invisible in plenty of games where his team was great.

So unless you think it was Messi who was largely responsible for the conditions of the game being 0-3/0-4 in the first place, idk what you expect of him. And to claim that opinion is to completely ignore the systemic team collapse that happened from minute 1 in every one of those games, regardless of Messi "not moving" or "not pressing".
 
[MENTION=12906]DonAndres[/MENTION], I see it differently. I will do a video analysis on the away game vs Liverpool and say what I think are the issues in terms of Messi's positioning during both attacking phase and defensive transition. What he should be doing, but doesn't. And how this hurts the team in attack.

Messi has failed to score or assist in all away games that led to our CL elimination. Since Pep, that is:

0-4 vs Bayern in 2012/13
0-1 vs Atletico in 2013/14
0-2 vs Atletico in 2015/16
0-3 vs Juventus in 2015-/16
0-3 vs Roma in 2016/17
0-4 vs Liverpool in 2018/19

Goal difference in these 6 games? 0-17.

For a player that is supposed to be the main creator and scorer of the team those are terrible numbers. He is surely doing something wrong. It can't be somebody elses fault all the time, while he takes the main credit in great wins.

His overall goalscoring in away CL Knockout matches is shocking. Even in his best year (2015) since 8 years he didnt scored away against Man City, PSG, Bayern and Juve in the Knockout stages.
 

soul24rage

Senior Member
Serghei I dont think anyone will disagree with you that Messi could have done more in the previous CL campaigns. But that's just not the case in the last CL campaign.

My thoughts exactly. He should have done better in other campaigns but the game in Anfield, Messi and Vidal should be the least blamed imo.
 
You are biased. You said that you are a Messi fan first, Barca supporter second. Whatever we say you will never be convinced.

The same way your biased against Messi and biased towards Ronaldo. Let's not forget your one of the only people on the planet who thought that Ronaldo had a ' good game ' against Holland. We know where your loyalties lie.
 
[MENTION=12906]DonAndres[/MENTION], I see it differently. I will do a video analysis on the away game vs Liverpool and say what I think are the issues in terms of Messi's positioning during both attacking phase and defensive transition. What he should be doing, but doesn't. And how this hurts the team in attack.

Messi has failed to score or assist in all away games that led to our CL elimination. Since Pep, that is:

0-4 vs Bayern in 2012/13
0-1 vs Atletico in 2013/14
0-2 vs Atletico in 2015/16
0-3 vs Juventus in 2015-/16
0-3 vs Roma in 2016/17
0-4 vs Liverpool in 2018/19

Goal difference in these 6 games? 0-17.

For a player that is supposed to be the main creator and scorer of the team those are terrible numbers. He is surely doing something wrong. It can't be somebody elses fault all the time, while he takes the main credit in great wins.

Forget the video analysis, all we asked for was a comparative player to Messi, in his 30's who runs more than him. That's all. These mythical players who are perfect and score all the goals, create all the chances, playmake, do all the dribbling and run around like James Milner on crack.

I even gave some examples here. Some of the greatest players in history and they all RAN LESS than Messi in their 30s. Maradona , R9, Rivaldo, Pele, Ronaldinho. Yup the same Ronaldinho you have in your profile. The same one that ran less and played much the free role that you are hating on Messi for playing - now how's that for hypocrisy?
 

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