Lionel Messi - v7

[Sailor Mars]

Pretty good game by Messi. Of course he is going to lose the ball because he is the only one trying and capable of creating something(along with Pedri). The rest of the team isnt capable of creating any consistent offence.

 

[evilhita666]

He seems to be overwhelmed by seeing others do good and I think he's trying too hard to prove he is the boss...

 

[Givenchy]

Pretty good game by Messi. Of course he is going to lose the ball because he is the only one trying and capable of creating something(along with Pedri). The rest of the team isnt capable of creating any consistent offence.

I guess Griezmann, Ansu, Pjanic, Frenkie, Trincao, Dembele etc etc are all at fault when Messi ignores them to dribble into a crowd of players and lose the ball

 

[BBZ8800]

Yeah, his dribbling more than his finishing is what concerns me the most. I have faith the goals will come. As for the rest, I hope he adapts and learns when to release the ball.

He didn't learn for 5 years not drop deep and that he needs to be rested often.

I don't believe that he will change his game.

This is what we will watch from now on:
Dribbling through 4 opponents
Dropping to a false "6" position
Hero balls attempts

Except that his dribbles will be weaker each new Month + he'll be slower and even easier to dispossess.

 

[serghei]

how did he get a 9.4..??

Because these sites are operated by IT guys who click some buttons. In their head, a guy who has 5 successful dribbles in 6 attempts is worse than one that has 7 in 20.

 

[te amo barca]

Pretty good game by Messi. Of course he is going to lose the ball because he is the only one trying and capable of creating something(along with Pedri). The rest of the team isnt capable of creating any consistent offence.

It's not that simple. We scored only one goal against a 10 man Alaves with Messi shooting like a madman and being the focal point of all attacks. His efficiency rate is too low to be beneficial, too costly. It's just not a good pay-off. It's not a good game by any means.

 

[serghei]

He can get the most out of his last years if he learns to be patient, and get used to having minutes without touching the ball. Trust his teammates, work to find spaces as advanced as possible. Stay away from super-heavy traffic which all teams block like crazy these days with 4-5 men. Drift a bit wide. He had a crazy good action a bit on the right with a prime-reminding dribble. His area is still right side forward. Even his shot came from there.

All that talk that he drops because nobody can create is bullshit. At some point he was going into Pjanic bothering him with his position, and that was while Pjanic was running hot pulling the strings. It's clear he doesn't want to give up his role as a playmaker, even though he is not a very good playmaker anymore.

That touch he missed at Pjanic's pass. That's Messi losing the touch of a forward. He needs to get that back or nothing will improve. A player of his quality should always shoot on target from that.

 

[Luftstalag14]

He is in a bad shape from pretty much every perspective. Understandably, he is getting old and he can't sustain what is required of a game any more. He should only play no more than 60 minutes per game but we know Koeman won't sub him out.

One thing is clear, regardless whether he is staying beyond this season (I hope he doesn't) or not, our attacking play needs to start getting away from entirely being built around him, we need to have a concerted effort to psychologically rid ourselves off Messidepenencia and trying to feed almost every ball to Messi. Yes he still creates for us a lot but increasingly he is getting worse and worse and we simply can't rely on him to be the primary attacking outlet anymore. Come up with a plan B and explicitly instruct players to not always look for Messi. Think of other ways to create without involving Messi. Take that shot themselves.

 

[te amo barca]

He can get the best out of his last years if he learns to be patient, get used to having minutes without touching the ball. Trust his teammates, work to find spaces as advanced as possible. All that talk that he drops because nobody can create is bullshit. At some point he was going into Pjanic while he was pulling the strings. It's clear he doesn't want to give up his role as a playmaker, even though he is not a very good playmaker anymore.

Exactly. I was screaming at him to get higher up the pitch. Him dropping deeper is not a bad thing if we are being pressed, but dropping deep against 10 players behind the ball... I'm tired of seeing that every time.

 

[Sailor Mars]

I guess Griezmann, Ansu, Pjanic, Frenkie, Trincao, Dembele etc etc are all at fault when Messi ignores them to dribble into a crowd of players and lose the ball

None of them are any consistent at creating anything. Pedri has shown a bit and so has Fati, but they are young and still not too consistent.

Given how slow this team is and its lack of true world class wingers as well as a striker, Messi is really the best option. He isn't efficient, but its our the best chance. All the other options just don't have enough output.

 

[Givenchy]

He is in a bad shape from pretty much every perspective. Understandably, he is getting old and he can't sustain what is required of a game any more. He should only play no more than 60 minutes per game but we know Koeman won't sub him out.

One thing is clear, regardless whether he is staying beyond this season (I hope he doesn't) or not, our attacking play needs to start getting away from entirely being built around him, we need to have a concerted effort to psychologically rid ourselves off Messidepenencia and trying to feed almost every ball to Messi. Yes he still creates for us a lot but increasingly he is getting worse and worse and we simply can't rely on him to be the primary attacking outlet anymore. Come up with a plan B and explicitly instruct players to not always look for Messi. Think of other ways to create without involving Messi. Take that shot themselves.

I'm noticing and especially in the first few games under Koeman, we were moving away from him more.. he was alot less involved and we looked better for it. in recent weeks we are going back to the same old 'pass Messi the ball' shit. Pjanic came on today and was running the midfield yet Messi was STILL stood in the Busquets position dropping deep. it seems if players start to play more for FC Barca than FC Messi, he will force himself into the game by dropping deep to touch the ball

 

[te amo barca]

None of them are any consistent at creating anything. Pedri has shown a bit and so has Fati, but they are young and still not too consistent.

Given how slow this team is and its lack of true world class wingers as well as a striker, Messi is really the best option. He isn't efficient, but its our the best chance. All the other options just don't have enough output.

As BBZ said, give Puig or Ansu 100 attempts to do something and they will provide the same number of chances. Messi does not score at all. His job as arguably the best goalscorer of all time is to score fucking goals. He takes a shitton of shots in every game. He is holding the team back atm.

 

[BBZ8800]

He can get the most out of his last years if he learns to be patient, get used to having minutes without touching the ball. Trust his teammates, work to find spaces as advanced as possible. Stay away from super-heavy traffic which all teams block like crazy these days with 4-5 men. Drift a bit wide. He had a crazy good action a bit on the right with a prime-reminding dribble. His area is still right side forward. Even his shot came from there.

All that talk that he drops because nobody can create is bullshit. At some point he was going into Pjanic bothering him with his position, and that was while Pjanic was running hot pulling the strings. It's clear he doesn't want to give up his role as a playmaker, even though he is not a very good playmaker anymore.

That touch he missed at Pjanic's pass. That's Messi losing the touch of a forward. He needs to get that back or nothing will improve. A player of his quality should always shoot on target from that.

I am not sure why should he play upfront.
He has 39 shots this season for Barca and 3 penaldo goals.

So, 36 shots.
I don't know whether Whoscored is counting free kicks as shooting attempts.

What will happen with Messi upfront?
He is slow, he doesn't move off the ball, he is dispossessed all the time and he hasn't scored for 10 matches in a row.

 

[serghei]

Exactly. I was screaming at him to get higher up the pitch. Him dropping deeper is not a bad thing if we are being pressed, but dropping deep against 10 players behind the ball... I'm tired of seeing that every time.

Thing is, and I'm pretty sure about that, he wants to have the ball the maximum amount of times possible. Which is understandable, but not how modern football works. Just needs to understand that keeping your position is many times more important and more valuable wandering about in deep areas just to play with the ball. This is not schoolyard football. This shit maybe works when you're 24 and unplayable. Doesn't work when you're 33.5 and nearly all players you face are stronger, fitter, faster, and more motivated than you.

 

[Sailor Mars]

It's not that simple. We scored only one goal against a 10 man Alaves with Messi shooting like a madman and being the focal point of all attacks. His efficiency rate is too low to be beneficial, too costly. It's just not a good pay-off. It's not a good game by any means.

I agree that his efficiency is much lower, but its still the best opportunity. All this talk of how Messi shouldn't drop back and stick to his position would just result in another impotent sterile performance from Barca.

This squad isn't good enough and built well to allow that.