Lionel "The Greatest of All Time" Messi

[malvolio]

Love how every contradicting opinion is labelled trolling.

Messi has visibly declined this season whether you like it or not.

Butthurt about the truth.

I labelled that as trolling because it was a dumb argument to make. If you want I can label it for what it is and just assume you don't know anything about football.

Messi has declined, but circumstances are different for him. He made a big change late in his career and it didn't turn out as he expected.

You don't turn from a 30+ league goals a season player into some bum just because you decline.

 

[Temptation]

I labelled that as trolling because it was a dumb argument to make. If you want I can label it for what it is and just assume you don't know anything about football.

Messi has declined, but circumstances are different for him. He made a big change late in his career and it didn't turn out as he expected.

You don't turn from a 30+ league goals a season player into some bum just because you decline.

At Messi's age sudden decline isn't a surprise. Even if the decline seems bigger because of the change, it's still considerable enough.

He just looks more sluggish and less sharp this season even in his general play. You being aggressive in replies on a football forum won't change that.

 

[Andresito]

We wouldn't have dropped into the EL, that's for sure. And also we would have fared better in LL, in the first months.

There is absolutely everything that indicates results would have been better under Koeman.

I think people tend to mix up Messi's struggles with PSG, Koeman's ineptitude and Xavi turning things around(albeit with some signings that turned the tide).

The only thing that you can say 'there's absolutely nothing that indicates' is how Xavi would have played Messi and how Messi would have impacted the team play under Xavi.

After all Messi would have been and still is better than any forward we have right now. If things would have went better for him at PSG opinions would have been different.

I don't doubt we would've been a better side during the start of the season with a highly motivated Messi after winning Copa. He would probably have carried us to a couple of wins.

But in the long run we needed to crash, we needed to rip the bandaid off. Board reacted in January and did some much needed moves.
A better start to the season wouldn't have seen Koeman get sacked and it would've lead to an inevitable disaster sooner or later anyway.

The positive in this is that we got Xavi early as we can still salvage some positives from this season.
Messi would've done more damage than good in this current side, unless he played as false 9. But then again, we'd be back to having players make up for his lack of workrate, one of the reasons why our defence has been solid under Xavi.

 

[feggydinho]

We wouldn't have dropped into the EL, that's for sure. And also we would have fared better in LL, in the first months.

There is absolutely everything that indicates results would have been better under Koeman.

I think people tend to mix up Messi's struggles with PSG, Koeman's ineptitude and Xavi turning things around(albeit with some signings that turned the tide).

The only thing that you can say 'there's absolutely nothing that indicates' is how Xavi would have played Messi and how Messi would have impacted the team play under Xavi.

After all Messi would have been and still is better than any forward we have right now. If things would have went better for him at PSG opinions would have been different.

It's possible but I think Messi wasn't able to adapt to PSG style of play and even declined a bit (he'slower), PSG used to be a team that defend well and counter and they even got to a CL final recently with Di Maria, Neymar and Mbappe as their forward. You need forwards that are always mobile for a counter system and I think a Dembele kinda forward would've suit them better than Messi so people need to consider different things before signing players.

 

[OGbarca]

Fati, Auba, Messi, Puig, Busi, Alves, Alba this year would've killed it. Fati probably wouldn't have reinjured either.

absolutely not

 

[OGbarca]

I labelled that as trolling because it was a dumb argument to make. If you want I can label it for what it is and just assume you don't know anything about football.

Messi has declined, but circumstances are different for him. He made a big change late in his career and it didn't turn out as he expected.

You don't turn from a 30+ league goals a season player into some bum just because you decline.

terrible logic

malvolio always on hand with the easy cop out: any criticism of messi (like pointing out the brute fact that his statistics this season are abysmal by any standard) is trolling

what else is new

 

[OGbarca]

barca forum messi thread: the football equivalent of flat earth theory

 

[Temptation]

barca forum messi thread: the football equivalent of flat earth theory

That analogy is spot on. 😂

 

[Rassvet]

We wouldn't have dropped into the EL, that's for sure. And also we would have fared better in LL, in the first months.

There is absolutely everything that indicates results would have been better under Koeman.

I think people tend to mix up Messi's struggles with PSG, Koeman's ineptitude and Xavi turning things around(albeit with some signings that turned the tide).

The only thing that you can say 'there's absolutely nothing that indicates' is how Xavi would have played Messi and how Messi would have impacted the team play under Xavi.

After all Messi would have been and still is better than any forward we have right now. If things would have went better for him at PSG opinions would have been different.

This overhyping of the Xavi effect seems to be the latest Messi PR strategy. Instead of admitting that the team has improved because Barcelona is finally able to play a 433 again with a front three that works off the ball and maintains their positions which wasn't possible with Messi, the new spin is to put it all down to Xavi's doing while ignoring that Koeman had few of these players available in the first half of the season and Xavi himself didn't really make a difference until the new signings came in and injured players returned.

I'm not sure you can say Messi is better than all of Barcelona's forwards right now either given that he wouldn't get into the starting XI.

 

[OGbarca]

whats even funnier is that you know that, had messi stayed this year and failed (once more), the messi supporters would be screaming at the top of their lungs:
"messi should have joined psg. can you imagine how well he'd be doing with mbappe, ney, and verrati? he'd have 100 goals in L1 and would be fighting for the CL"

 

[malvolio]

This overhyping of the Xavi effect seems to be the latest Messi PR strategy. Instead of admitting that the team has improved because Barcelona is finally able to play a 433 again with a front three that works off the ball and maintains their positions which wasn't possible with Messi, the new spin is to put it all down to Xavi's doing while ignoring that Koeman had few of these players available in the first half of the season and Xavi himself didn't really make a difference until the new signings came in and injured players returned.

I'm not sure you can say Messi is better than all of Barcelona's forwards right now either given that he wouldn't get into the starting XI.

Koeman was dealt a losing hand, no doubt about it. And yes, Xavi wouldn't have the success he had if not for those January signings in attack.

On an individual level, why not? Messi is still a better player than Auba, Dembele, Ferran or Depay. If he would get into the current Xavi starting team? I don't know. Maybe Xavi would try to accommodate him somehow.

Thing is Messi would have benefited also from having better teammates than what he had last season.

 

[Messigician]

This overhyping of the Xavi effect seems to be the latest Messi PR strategy. Instead of admitting that the team has improved because Barcelona is finally able to play a 433 again with a front three that works off the ball and maintains their positions which wasn't possible with Messi, the new spin is to put it all down to Xavi's doing while ignoring that Koeman had few of these players available in the first half of the season and Xavi himself didn't really make a difference until the new signings came in and injured players returned.

I'm not sure you can say Messi is better than all of Barcelona's forwards right now either given that he wouldn't get into the starting XI.

Not wrong

 

[Messigician]

Historical justice forces me to admit

Auba Dembele Adama

Are way faster than Suarez and Messi

 

[OGbarca]

Koeman was dealt a losing hand, no doubt about it. And yes, Xavi wouldn't have the success he had if not for those January signings in attack.

On an individual level, why not? Messi is still a better player than Auba, Dembele, Ferran or Depay. If he would get into the current Xavi starting team? I don't know. Maybe Xavi would try to accommodate him somehow.

Thing is Messi would have benefited also from having better teammates than what he had last season.

more shameless denial of truth

auba and ferran have had better seasons in a stronger league playing against tougher opponents

while messi who can draw from verrati, neymar, and mbappe has done comparatively much worse


tell me more about your fanciful theories mate did we really land on the moon? or was messi the first to do it

 

[feggydinho]

This overhyping of the Xavi effect seems to be the latest Messi PR strategy. Instead of admitting that the team has improved because Barcelona is finally able to play a 433 again with a front three that works off the ball and maintains their positions which wasn't possible with Messi, the new spin is to put it all down to Xavi's doing while ignoring that Koeman had few of these players available in the first half of the season and Xavi himself didn't really make a difference until the new signings came in and injured players returned.

I'm not sure you can say Messi is better than all of Barcelona's forwards right now either given that he wouldn't get into the starting XI.

True, I think Koeman would've still had his job if he had a fit Dembele, Fati, Depay and Aguero to work with, the January signings boosted us