Was Koeman saying Messi will literally not rest from now on? If not then what he says kind of makes sense. We're far behind in the league so why would a manager rest what he believes and what is probably our best player for a league game when we're chasing a 9 point deficit? Then the champions league is the last group match vs Juventus which we want to test our strongest side against surely? And then to the knockouts where he wouldn't be rested. He should rest in copa games though and if he doesn't then I'll begin to maybe think there's something to all this.
It's simple. Messi can't play 2 games in 3 days. He can play 1 game per week. Not 2 without him looking like a finished player.
Zidane was resting Ronaldo in La Liga prior to big matches in Europe, to get his best version in CL. And Ronaldo is two times more fit than Messi.
Koeman literally said Messi will not be resting anymore in the future, to look in charge because he's afraid Messi will want to play and he'll not be able to convince him otherwise.
Just another episode of Messi being impossible to manage because he'll have final word on everything team-related. Like in the past.
Hell, I don't know why Messi fans actually want him to be overplayed and look like a 40 year old player out there when it matters most. Don't you guys want him to be sharp and make the difference in the biggest games? You'd rather want him playing all the time vs some crap teams we can beat 4-0 with the reserves (like Kiev), just so he can stat pad and inflate his numbers?
