Interestingly Messi is the one player who doesn't behave like a member of the team, walking and not supporting his team mates. He doesn't even try to recover the ball after he gives it away trying to dribble in the midfield, he just stops and waits for the team to recover the ball and give it back to him. At the moment it's a team of 10 players + Messi instead of a team of 11 players.
I'm just imagining it, an old Messi doing the midfielders and strikers role then people still want him to do the defensive role and you want him to be captain too. What are you going to ask next year, be a Goal Keeper, Manager then President ? Jordan at Bulls didn't play the defensive duties it's all Pipen or Rodman. PJax and Tez created a role for each players on the floor. Messi, Jordan , Kobe, Cristiano, Maradona or Lebron etc etc can't carry dead weights. It's a TEAM sport
It's a team sport, but in the past he was able to take the ball and decide the match out of nowhere, like RM 2:0 in 2011 or 5:1 (was it 5:1?) against Arsenal.
Nowadays, he is a nonfactor in CL matches, just losing balls like a turnover machine and being easily dispossed due to weak stamina, slow pace and bad decisions (dribbles past 3 through the middle).
Yes, it's a team sport.
But his performances in big matches heavily declined.
And this season, he will reach Titanic levels of low and losing balls.
Your talking about 2011, Messi is already past his prime. Forum De Amigos should have realized that already. After Messi injuries i think 2013, he already changed how he play. He knew his body limitations, he will not force himself to be a headless chicken chasing ball just to look he's defending. Performance against Big matches declined ? Did you ask his teammates, did they improved. Ain't you the one saying that Barca is full of overrated mediocre players. See, this is where the TEAM enters, hope to see a season where Messi being carried by his teammates instead of expecting a past prime Messi carrying these Hype youngsters
Some of the fans here who insist he isn't declining dramatically are ironically doing a disservice to his level from 2008-2015 (and even some patches through 18-19).
He was an actual alien in those days. Averaged 100+ dribbles in some CL seasons and was scoring solo goals left and right.
This dude right now has trouble zipping past Sevilla fullbacks, lol. It's normal. He's 33. Maradona, Cruyff, DiStefano, R9, and Pele at that age were long finished. CR7 is also finished as a dribbler/winger but he can still be a predator in the box. I don't know why it's so hard for his fanboys to admit this and continue complaining about how he has bad/low IQ teammates.
If he needs great teammates to succeed, what the fuck is special about him then?
So Messi should retire, because he can't carry anymore mediocre hype players ? Why not just sell him