The Official Barcaforum.com MoM-thread award
Champions League, Spartak Moscow, away (3-0)
1.
Messi (55,5%)
head, shoulders and a country mile ahead of anyone else. 2 goals, 1 assists and on top of that could have had 4-5 assists easily had other players knew how to take a shot. So many brilliant passes ~ Bojan
2.
Busquets (17,2%)
Such a hero! Really brings calm and peace to the midfield and just is so unnoticingly important to our team ~ CF4 1899
2.
Mascherano (9,4%)
Made some crucial tackles, and looked solid alongside a proper CB ~ aki13
Ladies and gentlemen, history was made tonight. For the first time in
The Official Barcaforum.com MoM-thread history we have a player who was voted best of the game by every single participant of the thread. 20 voters, 5 points each, one man. Messi. The breaker of records.
Not only did he destroy the poor Russians, but he also destroyed his competition within the team for the top spot on the podium. 55,5% of the votes were throws his way, which resulted in yet another shattered
The Official Barcaforum.com MoM-thread record, as Messi now has 4 consecutive top spots in a row. The previous record for 3 in a row, was set during the month of October by, yeah I suppose you’ve guessed it already; Messi himself.
Superlatives are wasted on the argentine wizard, so I’ll be quick and skip to this rounds number 2.
While we’re more than used to seeing Messi in these rankings, we have somewhat of a curiosity in second spot. For just the second time this season we see the best holding midfielder in the world, Sergio Busquets on the podium. CF4 1899 summed it up nicely in his quote on why Busi is so seldomly seen amongst the best of the best, as much of his brilliance goes rather unnoticed during his 90 minutes on the field. He doesn’t care though, as he himself, the team, coaching staff, and the hapless opponents facing him, knows so very well that he’s an absolutely indispendible cog in the Barca machine.
Busquets secured just above 17% of the votes, which doesn’t seem like a lot initially, but take away Messis points, and you’ll suddenly see an entirely different picture of a commanding top spot performance with plenty space down to number 3. This rounds podium spot marks his second appearance in the rankings, as we last saw him in the La Liga 2-2 draw against Real Madrid, where he was bested again only by Messi.
Just like our second spot tonight was a nice surprise, third spot is quite the oddity too. A staggering 12 matches this season has ended with zero points in
The Official Barcaforum.com MoM-thread to show for his efforts, for what must be the most severely criticized player in the current Barcelona squad. That’s easily the worst stats for our regular players, and Mascherano certainly hasn’t had his easiest season so far in the blaugrana, as he has struggled as the sole truly regular presence in a constantly shifting back line, and just like Busquets above him, he’s only been deemed worthy of one single top3 placement prior to this one. Last time was against Granada in La Liga nearly exactly 2 months ago, where he also scraped a third spot. This time around wasn’t exactly impressive in terms of percentages either, as he scored just over 9%. His performance was rock solid though, and he will be elated to know that the hugely influential people of
The Official Barcaforum.com MoM-thread appreciated his efforts in the freezing temperatures of Moscow.
Shoutout of the day goes out to Cesc Fabregas, who was the only player from the starting XI who didn’t get a single point tonight. He’s now gone 6 matches in a row without a top3 spot, and it seems he’s far from his brilliant period during late September through October where he stepped onto the podium no less than 4 times in 5 matches. This just goes to show how fast fortunes may change, and just as it changes for the worse at times, surely it’ll change for the better again soon for Cesc.
Curious fact of the day:
As Fabregas lost out on the votes, it marks the first time in the history of these rankings that just one single player from the starting XI didn’t receive any votes. That must be a clear as day indication that the team played very well as a whole last night in Russia.
That’s it for this round, but please do make sure to vote again after this weekend’s perilous trip south down the eastern coast of Spain from Barcelona to Valencia, where we’ll face Levante on Estadi Ciutat de València.
