MagIX
Senior Member
No one would want to stand up to be the first to sub Messi, since they'll receive hates from so many directions (the Truth is Messi is more of a god figure to many barca/messi fans - You'll notice that all the coaches apart from Guardiola have been blamed for not knowing how to fit Messi, and it's funny how one sided the blame game has been before). Messi tends to always play how he wants and it has really worked for a long time until age caught up with him and we now see it affecting the team chemistry sometimes. The challenge now should be that no one has the balls or power to talk or bench him if needed for the team (probably because of his status).
Yes, the age caught up with him and he said, if I remember well, in the interview that the team needed to be rejuvenated...
As i remember Messi recognized this and wanted to leave the club.
For me, despite being a Messi fan (and despite not liking the word fan=fanatic), I do not pretend that he plays every game in every competition.
He's getting old, he's not the same but that's normal, we all knew that this would happen sooner or later. No problem.
I hope that he will be bench (not as exception), even in big matches, because we have to look ahead, thinking to use him in every match it's really beyond any understanding of soccer. It's not good for the team and even for Messi.
But If we are able to use him cleverly, he can still give us a lot.