Lionel "The Greatest of All Time" Messi

[KingLeo10]

OK, BBZ is a special case that reducts an argument to the most negativistic version of it. Messi was a big problem only for the rebuilding process. Which we could no longer postpone. The longer you kept Messi the more you delayed a true rebuilding of this team.

It's very good for the team that Gavi, Pedri, and De Jong can develop and express themselves without feeling the obligation to pass to Messi all the time.

The perfect time to depart with the old guard (including Messi) would have been after a CL/treble in 2019. I wholly agree with you there. Would have been a storybook ending to his Barcelona stint. And for guys like Pique and Busquets.

But as we see, it's insanely hard to get rid of legends...even the ruthless RM is still starting much of the same old guard from their CL 3-peat and getting run over even by dysfunctional teams such as PSG (some of our legends are from the 09 CL so I'm actually surprised they remained competitive in CL till 2019. I know we melted down at Anfield but 3-0 over that Liverpool team at home is very impressive...we might even have scored 4 or 5 had it not been for Dembele missing open nets )

 

[malvolio]

Doesn't matter we had a shittier team after 2018-2019. What is clear is that Messi was the problem all along. Now that we're fighting giants in EL it clearly shows how far we've come without him.

Waiting for 2040 to rejoice at escaping the tyranny of Leo Messi and count the numerous trophies we won without him.

 

[Horatio]

Barca still has way to go though. Napoli one the more disgraceful performances I saw in recent times.

 

[serghei]

Doesn't matter we had a shittier team after 2018-2019. What is clear is that Messi was the problem all along. Now that we're fighting giants in EL it clearly shows how far we've come without him.

Waiting for 2040 to rejoice at escaping the tyranny of Leo Messi and count the numerous trophies we won without him.

Messi was a problem for rebuilding. It made sense to keep him as long as you could bring in top players around him, and go for one more La Liga win. When that was gone and we had to massively cut costs and sell the higher earners, Messi lost the platform to be effective in. He's just not a leader to fight hard and carry a crap team. He is a player who needs quality around him now more than ever since his legs are almost MLS level.

Messi would have made what difference while passing to Demir and Ilias? None whatsoever. Top 4 is still the fight to be had this season. Now, with a fit Dembele, fit Fati, and Griezmann... maybe we win the league. But not with "weapons" like Ilias, Abde, Demir, Jutgla etc.

 

[KingLeo10]

Messi was a problem for rebuilding. It made sense to keep him as long as you could bring in top players around him, and go for one more La Liga win. When that was gone and we had to massively cut costs and sell the higher earners, Messi lost the platform to be effective in. He's just not a leader to fight hard and carry a crap team. He is a player who needs quality around him now more than ever since his legs are almost MLS level.

Messi would have made what difference while passing to Demir and Ilias? None whatsoever. Top 4 is still the fight to be had this season. Now, with a fit Dembele, fit Fati, and Griezmann... maybe we win the league. But not with "weapons" like Ilias, Abde, Demir, Jutgla etc.

His 18/19 season is one of the best carrying jobs (in terms of performances), considering the decayed midfield we had (Vidal, Rakitic, Busquets FFS), no RB, and MATS starting to be the MATS we know today. Basically scored most of the decisive CL KO goals in the games we won that season, and was on fire in the league. Scored 50+ goals that season at over a goal per game.

Agree with him not being a great leader, but he was never that to begin with.

 

[serghei]

His 18/19 season is one of the best carrying jobs (in terms of performances), considering the decayed midfield we had (Vidal, Rakitic, Busquets FFS), no RB, and MATS starting to be the MATS we know today. Basically scored most of the decisive CL KO goals in the games we won that season, and was on fire in the league. Scored 50+ goals that season at over a goal per game.

Agree with him not being a great leader, but he was never that to begin with.

Yea, 18/19 people were too harsh on him, including me. Did pretty great, just couldn't give the killer blow on Anfield. After that, he kind of gave up I felt.

 

[Porque]

I do wonder though, how much or Messi delusion at Barcelona was with the Bartomeu project.

I was one of the few here who called to cull the club de amigos and let Messi move when he wanted to, but with everything coming out about how disastrious Bartomeu renevated the squad, it is easy to see how he could have checked out and not seen a turn around.

And what's really saving this Laporta masterstroke since Xavi arrived is that Messi is performing poorly at PSG. If he wasn't then at the end of the day, we only just won a Europa League tie and couldn't surpass Benfica.

 

[fergus90]

Anfield away was the final nail in the coffin for Messi's chance to lead Barca to European glory and I think he knew that going by the state the club was in under Bartomeu.

That's why it felt more than just a comeback loss, it felt like the last chance had been blown from such a good position. The last dance if you will. I was genuinely depressed as fuck after that loss.

 

[serghei]

Anfield away was the final nail in the coffin for Messi's chance to lead Barca to European glory and I think he knew that going by the state the club was in under Bartomeu.

That's why it felt more than just a comeback loss, it felt like the last chance had been blown from such a good position. The last dance if you will. I was genuinely depressed as fuck after that loss.

Yea, Inter 2010, Chelsea 2012, and Liverpool 2019 were the worst.

Especially Inter 2010.

 

[fergus90]

Yea, Inter 2010, Chelsea 2012, and Liverpool 2019 were the worst.

Especially Inter 2010.

Yeah Inter annoyed me as well, especially Mourinho's shithousery at the end. Game was cursed by that flipping volcano before the first leg

 

[serghei]

Yeah Inter annoyed me as well, especially Mourinho's shithousery at the end. Game was cursed by that flipping volcano before the first leg

Yea, and no Iniesta, and useless Ibrahimovic, and legit goal from Bojan of all players disallowed for a farce hand ball.

 

[BarcaOG]

bbz is the prophet of our times

 

[CatalinR10]

with Messi we played in CL knockouts in recent 15-20 years.


without him we're in Europa League and one win in Europa League and people make anti Messi posts , lol .

 

[Rassvet]

Would prime Messi improve this team? Definitely. Would current Messi improve Barca? Probably not. Messi isnt good enough anymore to focus the attack on him. Messi himself is surely glad to play for PSG as he has a chance to win the cl with them. So both sides are happy.

Tru. Messi would put up good numbers but don't think he would improve the team when our main attackers are fit.

 

[te amo barca]

Post-18/19 Messi was a defensive liability and a big reason team was attacking too slowly.

It is mindblowing to me that Messi fans would really rather have him back and watch every single player on the pitch look for him instead of playing like a team.