Lionel Messi - v7

[FinBarcelonafan]

Bench him vs Dynamo, no need to have him play 90 mins twice in a week.

Not to mention would he even care?

 

[serghei]

I think at this point we could be better TEAM without him. Maybe not score as pretty goals or have as nice solo goals but if we defend with ten players and attack with ten, I don't think we will be much worse. Messi is Def. Hurting our overall game now, especially when he is not putting up goals and assists.

I think top teams would have harder time Vs us too, because our defending would improve, collective defending with the whole team. We cant press properly now with Messi.

And it's not like Messi is scoring Vs top teams... No big difference.

His solo goals are a thing of the past. Guy didn't score any decent away goal in La Liga in about a year. He doesn't score, he doesn't run, he doesn't defend, and he doesn't keep a position well. Basically, he does whatever he wants out there.

 

[Rory]

Coutinho started to play left before Ansu injured himself. The only matches where Coutinho played centrally a lot were the best games this season. Villareal, and Celta.

Messi is the problem that doesn't allow Coutinho to play on his positon. Even though Coutinho is a better central attacking midfielder than Messi.

Pretty much everyone including you said Real Betis first half was the best we've played all season except finishing wise. remind me where coutinho was playing again.

 

[FinBarcelonafan]

His solo goals are a thing of the past. Guy didn't score any decent away goal in La Liga in about a year.

He is becoming Suarez. No big goals away.n

 

[serghei]

Pretty much everyone including you said Real Betis first half was the best we've played all season except finishing wise. remind me where coutinho was playing again.

Villareal and Betis's first halves are the best football we've played all season attacking-wise, in terms of cohesion, creating chances, speed of passing, in terms of our shape, and the connection between compartments. In one Messi was the most advanced player, not disrupting the midfield by doing his antics, and in the other, he was on the bench.

 

[malvolio]

He is becoming Suarez. No big goals away.n

are we moving goal posts again? typical serghei/BBZ reasoning.

after he'll score away, against a big team, what will they hate him for?

Villareal and Betis's first halves are the best football we've played all season attacking-wise. In one Messi was the most advanced player, not disrupting the midfield by doing his antics, and in the other he was on the bench.

we played well attacking wise against them because betis and villareal played an open game. not many teams are that stupid. but you keep pedaling this bullshit like we suddenly turned into barca 2011.

 

[Rory]

Villareal and Betis's first halves are the best football we've played all season attacking-wise, in terms of cohesion, creating chances, speed of passing, in terms of our shape, and the connection between compartments. In one Messi was the most advanced player, not disrupting the midfield by doing his antics, and in the other, he was on the bench.

This isn't about Messi, he's been poor all season bar a few halves. Betis second half was probably the second best half we've played all year imo but each to their own. It's this idea that Coutinho playing on the left is the fault of Messi I take issue with. Coutinho has pretty much exclusively been used as a LAM, LCM, LM or LW by all his managers for years now. When he was great under Klopp (best manager in the world who probably knows where to play him) he played LW.

 

[mc_lovin]

Whats the point anyway? We should not have to depend on Coutinho.

 

[serghei]

Whats the point anyway? We should not have to depend on Coutinho.

But somehow we do. Ansu and Coutinho are our best performers this season. Ansu is out, so we might as well play Coutinho properly. Not that it will happen of course...

 

[mc_lovin]

But somehow we do. Ansu and Coutinho are our best performers this season. Ansu is out, so we might as well play Coutinho properly. Not that it will happen of course...

I firmly believe hes still the same old, post Barcelona honeymoon/Bayern version of himself. Even his good games this season have been nothing more than a few nice moments.

 

[serghei]

I firmly believe hes still the same old, post Barcelona honeymoon/Bayern version of himself. Even his good games this season have been nothing more than a few nice moments.

Yea, well, even if he's not amazing or anything, he still showed more than the others and at least he looks like he wants to try and make it work this time. We need to play the guys that want to play for this club and work hard on the pitch.

 

[JamDav1982]

This isn't about Messi, he's been poor all season bar a few halves. Betis second half was probably the second best half we've played all year imo but each to their own. It's this idea that Coutinho playing on the left is the fault of Messi I take issue with. Coutinho has pretty much exclusively been used as a LAM, LCM, LM or LW by all his managers for years now. When he was great under Klopp (best manager in the world who probably knows where to play him) he played LW.

Coutinho wasnt played as LW by Klopp. He played there as an attacking mid with freedom to move inside.

Barca bought Coutinho off of his performances when Klopp played him CM anyway.

 

[serghei]

Coutinho wasnt played as LW by Klopp. He played there as an attacking mid with freedom to move inside.

Barca bought Coutinho off of his performances when Klopp played him CM anyway.

It doesn't matter anyway, since Liverpool is ultra-dynamic with Klopp. In comparison, we're stiff and rigid as a corpse. It's an enormous difference in terms of the overall speed of play and movement.

 

[JamDav1982]

city surely knew that barto wasn't selling him. they're not as stupid as us begging PSG for neymar.

this season, yes there are other players that are performing better than him. best in the world is really debatable after the messi/CR era.

i personally wanted for him to stay, as nothing would have changed in terms of trophies won this year. the naivety to think that past under performers or u20 youngsters will suddenly become good players, faded pretty quickly.

Messi was not the best in the world last season either. He has just been worse this season.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

I often said he is one of the barca problems but i was wrong.......nowadays he is THE problem. His lack of movement killing our offense, he make no runs, just take the ball from the mdfield, tries to dribble 3 players, lose the ball and watching how the opposite team make counter attacks.