Lionel Messi - v7

DonAndres

Wild Man of Borneo
Seems to be a step off and a step slow. His through dribbles rarely succeed now and his passes are not as sharp as before. Hopefully he's just out of fitness but it's a bit worrying compared to his astronomical standards.

The fact that he's THIS bad makes me sure it's a big element of form involved. His decline has been happening steadily but right now he's just in a weird mental rut where everything kind of breaks down for him in the final third. Ronaldo as well has had even 3+ month spells for Juve that were totally abysmal.
 

JamDav1982

Senior Member
Barca give up a lot to allow Messi to play his game.

The team balance, variety of play on break are all put aside to some extent to allow Messi to slow down game to his pace and try and get on ball for moments of genius.

When Messi is as bad as tonight Barca wil always suffer massively for it.
 

Givenchy

Senior Member
Our most dangerous attacker and lethal goal scorer is stood next to Busquets. 2 managers now and neither have had the balls to tell Messi: STAY at RW and let the fucking midfield bring the fucking ball forward and don't give me that shit about 'well the midfield sucks thats why' its a total lack of tactical discipline and its destroying our shape and formation

watching him attempt a dribble he'd do in his early 20s from midfield, get easily tackled and then stand there while the team scrambles back really pisses me off also. its okay if he has shit stamina and lacks the speed he once had, cutting in from RW and accepting age and limitations he'd be the best in the world again
 

soul24rage

Senior Member
Our most dangerous attacker and lethal goal scorer is stood next to Busquets. 2 managers now and neither have had the balls to tell Messi: STAY at RW and let the fucking midfield bring the fucking ball forward and don't give me that shit about 'well the midfield sucks thats why' its a total lack of tactical discipline and its destroying our shape and formation

I'd agree with you if we played a 433 with Messi as a RW, but today's game we were playing a 4312 so I didn't mind Messi dropping deep in this case.
 

Daisymorr

Active member
The truth is he needs help at his age, he cant carry Barca every year the way he was because of his age. He needs quality players around him to get the best out of him, ideally fast players which we dont have at the minute. He could still be World Class for another few years given the right midfield and forwards around him.
 

JamDav1982

Senior Member
I'd agree with you if we played a 433 with Messi as a RW, but today's game we were playing a 4312 so I didn't mind Messi dropping deep in this case.

Messi dropping deep to get on ball is fine in this formation.

But when he drops deep he too often slows down play with an irrelevant pass or does the polar opposite and runs at heart of opposition.

Unless he can start to move more and help dictate tempo he should not be dropping so much as it is not good for team as a whole.
 

soul24rage

Senior Member
Messi dropping deep to get on ball is fine in this formation.

But when he drops deep he too often slows down play with an irrelevant pass or does the polar opposite and runs at heart of opposition.

Unless he can start to move more and help dictate tempo he should not be dropping so much as it is not good for team as a whole.

True, this is why we needed someone like Puig to help speed things up in the middle especially against a team that parks the bus.
 

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