Lionel Messi - v7

Sorin

Well-known member
Don't forget the worst one: Pep with Tata and Valverde.

Although that is partly on Messi, given his support for Valverde. But his on the pitch performances are the least of our problems. If everyone else put up 10% of the performance Messi did at Anfield, we’d have gone through.

What a fraud! He can't even coach this team as good as Pep or Klopp. He's not my GOAT.

The gall of some people to blame the shitshow that we are in the middle of the pitch on Messi dropping back too much.
 
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FCB1987

Banned
What a fraud! He can't even coach this team as good as Pep or Klopp. He's not my GOAT.

The gall of some people to blame the shitshow that we are in the middle of the pitch on Messi dropping back too much.

The shitshow in midfield is largely because we have four players trying to do the work of six. Just compare our defensive shape to Liverpool's. Croatia's midfield wasn't a shitshow with Rakitic. Juve and Bayern's weren't shitshows with Vidal. But they magically become shit players as soon as they put on a Barca jersey?

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Sorin

Well-known member
The shitshow in midfield is largely because we have four players trying to do the work of six. Just compare our defensive shape to Liverpool's. Croatia's midfield wasn't a shitshow with Rakitic. Juve and Bayern's weren't shitshows with Vidal. But they magically become shit players as soon as they put on a Barca jersey?

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That has nothing to do with what I said. I was talking about the attacking phase and how our mid can't seem to get the ball out of our half without Messi having to drop back to relieve the pressure. Not one player from our mid can carry the ball forward past players to create imbalance or pass and move fast enough to create passing options. It's just slow, lethargic football spearheaded by Rakitic and Busi, two goddamn turtles with the speed of a gimp snail.
 

Marshall D Teach

Well-known member
If Messi's doing anything wrong, it's him seemingly being content with the shitshow around him.

Not that it's his job to pick the coach or anything, but he could at least not come out and publicly throw his full support behind Valverde.
 
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FCB1987

Banned
That has nothing to do with what I said. I was talking about the attacking phase and how our mid can't seem to get the ball out of our half without Messi having to drop back to relieve the pressure. Not one player from our mid can carry the ball forward past players to create imbalance or pass and move fast enough to create passing options. It's just slow, lethargic football spearheaded by Rakitic and Busi, two goddamn turtles with the speed of a gimp snail.

and you think our attack has nothing to do with our midfield's struggle in the attacking phase? Almost any midfield would struggle to build up against Liverpool's pressing if they were playing with a donkey of a striker that could barely move, nobody on the right wing, and a central midfielder with no pace playing on the left wing.

If we had an attack of Dembele-Messi-Griez in that match, I guarantee our midfield looks a ton better. Maybe not world class, but at least good enough to hold their own against Milner, Henderson, and Fabinho.
 
and you think our attack has nothing to do with our midfield's struggle in the attacking phase? Almost any midfield would struggle to build up against Liverpool's pressing if they were playing with a donkey of a striker that could barely move, nobody on the right wing, and a central midfielder with no pace playing on the left wing.

If we had an attack of Dembele-Messi-Griez in that match, I guarantee our midfield looks a ton better. Maybe not world class, but at least good enough to hold their own against Milner, Henderson, and Fabinho.

Aye, it's Messi' s fault Rakitic and Busquets are both done. Messi should stop dropping back and trying to do the job of playmaking. We all know, given half the chance, that Raki And Busi are prime Zidane levels when Messi is not there. As they showed against Chelsea.
 

eaman

Active member
Aye, it's Messi' s fault Rakitic and Busquets are both done. Messi should stop dropping back and trying to do the job of playmaking. We all know, given half the chance, that Raki And Busi are prime Zidane levels when Messi is not there. As they showed against Chelsea.

Busquets is certainly not done. If Arthur was playing instead of rakitic or Vidal, Busquets would have looked alot better and we would have probably created more. Saying that we created enough to score at least one. Well Messi created nearly all the chances
 

FCB1987

Banned
Aye, it's Messi' s fault Rakitic and Busquets are both done. Messi should stop dropping back and trying to do the job of playmaking. We all know, given half the chance, that Raki And Busi are prime Zidane levels when Messi is not there. As they showed against Chelsea.

Because that's clearly what I said.

Anyways, you lost all of your limited credibility after saying Rafinha is better than Thiago.
 

FCB1987

Banned
To expand on my point above, I'm not claiming that we have a legendary midfield that is being held back by our attackers' movement. Over the last three seasons, our midfield has mostly been around the average mark. It's been very good at brief times like when Arthur was in great form for a few weeks and it's been shit at times like when Gomes was starting, but mostly it's been around the average mark for one of the top teams.

Our midfield of recent seasons was never good enough to dominate big games or drive us towards a CL title. However, there are plenty of other teams who have had similar or worse midfields than us that don't get overrun and schlonged in every big away match. Just look at the midfielders that Roma and Liverpool started against us: Strootman, De Rossi, Nainggolan, Milner, Henderson, and Fabinho. If all those players were available last summer, I doubt you would be calling for Barca to sign them because they're so much better than the ones we got. That's where I feel our lack of pace and movement in attack screws us over. I think our midfield has been good enough to at least hold its own against those players, but our attack doesn't offer any width or penetration and then we get pinned by their pressing and the shitshow unfolds.
 

FinBarcelonafan

Well-known member
To expand on my point above, I'm not claiming that we have a legendary midfield that is being held back by our attackers' movement. Over the last three seasons, our midfield has mostly been around the average mark. It's been very good at brief times like when Arthur was in great form for a few weeks and it's been shit at times like when Gomes was starting, but mostly it's been around the average mark for one of the top teams.

Our midfield of recent seasons was never good enough to dominate big games or drive us towards a CL title. However, there are plenty of other teams who have had similar or worse midfields than us that don't get overrun and schlonged in every big away match. Just look at the midfielders that Roma and Liverpool started against us: Strootman, De Rossi, Nainggolan, Milner, Henderson, and Fabinho. If all those players were available last summer, I doubt you would be calling for Barca to sign them because they're so much better than the ones we got. That's where I feel our lack of pace and movement in attack screws us over. I think our midfield has been good enough to at least hold its own against those players, but our attack doesn't offer any width or penetration and then we get pinned by their pressing and the shitshow unfolds.

Exactly and our problems become real when the opponent can press our midfield and cause counter attacks because we had the slowest midfield in the world. Busi, Raki etc. This is how Liverpool owned us. They ran over us, simple. But the problem is not only midfield but also offense. Lack of movement from Messi and Suarez hurts us as well. Liverpool puts pressure with every player and looks for open space when they are free. Our players laçk of movement is costing us the CL titles. Not pressuring the opponents or finding open space for their teammates to pass into.

Busi,Raki are just too old for high intensity games. Same happened to Iniesta. When you get older, it's tougher to keep up with fast pace.
 

shadows

Member
Exactly and our problems become real when the opponent can press our midfield and cause counter attacks because we had the slowest midfield in the world. Busi, Raki etc. This is how Liverpool owned us. They ran over us, simple. But the problem is not only midfield but also offense. Lack of movement from Messi and Suarez hurts us as well. Liverpool puts pressure with every player and looks for open space when they are free. Our players laçk of movement is costing us the CL titles. Not pressuring the opponents or finding open space for their teammates to pass into.

Busi,Raki are just too old for high intensity games. Same happened to Iniesta. When you get older, it's tougher to keep up with fast pace.

First of all, the result against Liverpool flatters us. It was mostly Messi who kept us in the tie in the first leg but otherwise Liverpool mostly flat out battered us across both legs and the result of the first leg was a lot harsh on them only thanks to dumb luck on Valverde`s part and the genius of Messi and i did feel Messi did press quite a bit and played quite well in both the legs. Second our players especially the midfield is Rakitic, Vidal and Busquets, 2 of them cannot handle any press, two of them at any point play without any intensity and all 3 of them are slow and not very good at defending. And with this, we sat back and invited pressure on Pique and Roberto back, two defenders who can barely cover themselves let alone cover for others. With a good midfield our possession stats should be a lot higher than what it is now where even scrub teams go toe to toe with us. Of course, having a press resistant midfielder and a quick player to help counter attacks on the bench and a clueless coach with his predecided subs who introduced after going down 0-4 didnt help.
 

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