Lionel Messi - v7

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

“What I saw was that they got along very well,” he told El Pelotazo on Canal Sur Radio in quotes carried by Marca. “I got along wonderfully with [both] Antoine and Leo. The two drink mate together and spend a lot of time together in the dressing room.

“If the both of them start to score goals there will be no more talk – that’s the requirement and expectation of a great team like Barcelona. I don’t worry, though, because they’re two spectacular guys. I wish them all the best.” - Rakitic

Raki

 

[Andresito]

So bad, he wants to play like Xavi but he is nothing like Xavi never was never Will be, doesnt has xavis intelligence...he is not playing with his strenghts at all...loses more balls than any player

I feel you might be a bit biased in this.

 

[Messi983]

I feel you might be a bit biased in this.

He's not totally wrong though. Messi has been playing way too deep for my liking for years now. He should've been closer to the goal.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

He's not totally wrong though. Messi has been playing way too deep for my liking for years now. He should've been closer to the goal.

Good point. The team will never learn to play forward when Messi always comes back to get the ball. He should wait near penalty box.

 

[sikkboy]

There's just no point in hsving him hanging around up front if you can't get him the ball in dangerous postions, neither of the teams he plays for have been able to do that for years. He's just not a #9 capable of playing with his back to the goal. So if he doesn't come back to initiate play he rots. If you don't have the supporting cast to take advantage of his skills in and around the box then it ain't going to happen. You know other players can be instructed to take up his role when he drops, problem is Barc have Braithwaite and Griezmann.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

There's just no point in hsving him hanging around up front if you can't get him the ball in dangerous postions, neither of the teams he plays for have been able to do that for years. He's just not a #9 capable of playing with his back to the goal. So if he doesn't come back to initiate play he rots. If you don't have the supporting cast to take advantage of his skills in and around the box then it ain't going to happen. You know other players can be instructed to take up his role when he drops, problem is Barc have Braithwaite and Griezmann.

According to your logic we wouldnt create any chances when Messi doesnt play. Last match against Betis without Messi we had created 7 chances in the first half. Now imagine Messi instead of Griezmann would have got the chances to score.

 

[serghei]

There's just no point in hsving him hanging around up front if you can't get him the ball in dangerous postions, neither of the teams he plays for have been able to do that for years. He's just not a #9 capable of playing with his back to the goal. So if he doesn't come back to initiate play he rots. If you don't have the supporting cast to take advantage of his skills in and around the box then it ain't going to happen. You know other players can be instructed to take up his role when he drops, problem is Barc have Braithwaite and Griezmann.

Not true. If he drops deep the players in the zones he appears in need to take a forward position, in order to maintain a good shape. The problem when he appears near Busi or De Jong is that neither Busi nor De Jong can activate as forwards. Not only that but when you dispatch them from their position to make a run for a Messi pass, every time the ball is recovered they will be too far out to intervene in time and protect the central area. Which leaves us with Messi as a temporary defensive CM needing to have a big role in the defensive transition phase. And he's just terrible defensively.

For that to work, Messi would need to have an absurdly high pass success ratio. And he tries far too many complicated things for that to happen. Because he is not a Xavi who builds the game brick by brick with movement and high workrate. He tries to play nearly every ball decisive. You can't do that in a deep position and go missing defensively.

 

[sikkboy]

It was Betis. You're kidding yourself if you think we've created much without Messi dropping deep.

 

[sikkboy]

Not true. If he drops deep the players in the zones he appears in need to take a forward position, in order to maintain a good shape. The problem when he appears near Busi or De Jong is that neither Busi nor De Jong can activate as forwards. Not only that but when you dispatch them from their position to make a run for a Messi pass, every time the ball is recovered they will be too far out to intervene in time and protect the central area. Which leaves us with Messi as a temporary defensive CM needing to have a big role in the defensive transition phase. And he's just terrible defensively.

For that to work, Messi would need to have an absurdly high pass success ratio. And he tries far too many complicated things for that to happen. Because he is not a Xavi who builds the game brick by brick with movement and high workrate. He tries to play nearly every ball decisive. You can't do that in a deep position and go missing defensively.

Right so Messi leaves his CF position and drops deep so AG moves into that role keeping CB occupied RickyP (if he was ever played), or JA pushes up moves up left to occupy AG's role, etc. It's simple rotation, it's allowed in football! Xavi was building brick by brick when Barca had near complete domination of the game, the likes we'd never seen before. And Messi was peak untouchable requiring 2/3 players to stop him haf the time. Barca also had peak Alves hitting the byline probably more than Dembee ever has, and Abidal who'd mop up counter attacks for fun. Messi is forcing a lot of his passes, I suspect because he has to the space aint there anymore, quite ossibly because of the standard of the forwards he plays with.

 

[Rory]

Messi should be more patient in barca tbh. We actually have the players in the team now to be creative without him. Pedri/Coutinho when fit and Pjanic when given the chance play passes forward quite regularly. With Argentina it's a different story, Lo Celso is the only half decent attack minded midfielder so messi dropping deep is inevitable.

Koeman needs to start Coutinho, Pedri and Pjanic when they're all available and we'll see a much more fluent attacking side

 

[George_Costanza]

JUST IN: Barcelona must pay Messi a €33M loyalty bonus next summer as part of the contract he signed in 2017, sources inform. Messi has received half of the €66M bonus in February, with the second half due next June.
@moillorens

 

[CatalinR10]

VAR is amazing when it comes to offside goals and penaldos , i totally agree with it .


When it comes to dumb decisions like this , it's just a joke.



He got his goal dissalowed because of a foul that happened like 2 minutes before , fucking pathetic.




What's next ? Some team plays and scores against RM but their goal gets dissalowed because of a foul they did last week against a different team ?




PATHETIC.

 

[sikkboy]

 

[raedkuwait]

VAR needs to be abolished. Brings way more retardation and frustration, which isn't outweighed by the errors it fixes. No way you go back 2 minutes and 20 passes to chalk off a goal. And it's not like ref didn't see the foul initially, he just allowed it, but some annoying agenda driven vartard just had an axe to grind.

Var is the best thing that happend to the game ever
Imagine the last game for madrid against valencia
Without var madrid would have won that game!!
It just need to be tweaked and not to go
Back 1 min or 2 min before the goal for a foul
Or count the touches 10 touches or something
Like that.

 

[Messi983]

Var is the best thing that happend to the game ever
Imagine the last game for madrid against valencia
Without var madrid would have won that game!!
It just need to be tweaked and not to go
Back 1 min or 2 min before the goal for a foul
Or count the touches 10 touches or something
Like that.

While you're at it also imagine all the games they wouldn't have won without VAR.