Lionel Messi - v7

[JamDav1982]

Btw won La Liga player of the month for February. Shows how good his usual standard is if he’s won it while being clear a level below what we’re used to.

Shows how shit La Liga is as well recently.

Messi stats been good and he has had individual moments but in the bigger games and his overall play it has not been great.

 

[FatSuarez]

Btw won La Liga player of the month for February. Shows how good his usual standard is if he’s won it while being clear a level below what we’re used to.

More of how shitty La Liga has become.

 

[Nazario1985]

People thinking Messi is the Problem

Meanwhile midfield is more slow than grandad Iniesta.

 

[JamDav1982]

People thinking Messi is the Problem

Meanwhile midfield is more slow than grandad Iniesta.

The midfield is slow and old and Messi off the ball impacts the team negatively as a unit.

Both are true.

 

[Ritchie]

Messi really needs to turn it up soon.

His goal ratio is set perfect in terms of it not being to good right now. I would say there should be a few goals to come. lets hope like the above post, they come at the important times.

we got to to beleive.

He never looks like scoring anymore unless it's a set piece (Penaldo or a free kick in ideal posiiton) or an Eibar at home. He can't carry this team anymore, they just aren't good enough and he's getting older.

 

[Ritchie]

something happend since ballon dor final game where he scored hatrick

the goals up to that point were un real. infact it was th ebest messi ive seen for years. it cant be age!!!
its got to be hunger and desire.

got ballon dor and he has slackened off.

Valverde sacking and Suarez injury have deflated him. Look at his performance in the Fraudverde's last game against Pathetico - that was the last time we saw vintage Messi.

 

[Total-Football]

Looked gassed at minute 30. There is low stamina and there is messi stamina. There are amateurs players who have more lungs than messi it's really a mystery.

 

[Richard.H]

At this point I’m 99% sure he’s playing with one or more injuries. His acceleration isn’t there and players catch up to him too easily. We’d be lucky if he can finish the season without missing games

 

[KingLeo10]

Looked gassed at minute 30. There is low stamina and there is messi stamina. There are amateurs players who have more lungs than messi it's really a mystery.

Have you considered he could be carrying an injury on top of having played 900 games of top flight, professional football?

 

[Batistuta9]

He has to be carrying an injury, even the penalty was hit at 50%. Feels weird watching him play like this when he has been head and shoulders above everyone for 12 years. I really hope he is carrying an injury and it isn't the start of his decline

 

[Raketa10]

I am 100% sure he is playing injured.

 

[sickstar]

Valverde sacking and Suarez injury have deflated him. Look at his performance in the Fraudverde's last game against Pathetico - that was the last time we saw vintage Messi.

The last time bar eibar you mean?

Because from 4 goals, 2 were his vintage solo effort/ decisiveness in looking for goal chances. Although, you could argue about eibar's defense weakness, i say we could all agree on the first point.

Also from 6 assists in 3 previous games, three were world class, if i remember it correctly, one in each game.

But i agree after eibar he seems to slow down again. Whatever happened that make his motivation drop or is it pure technical i don't know. Like in this match, shots too weak (that busi's neat pass), or too high (after a good run) though it was his weak foot. Only one decent but slightly miss the post. Also misplaced pass, bad touch, well he always has that but not this much.

Messi has been static off the ball since i don't remember when. It's not new. Sometimes he aid in situation like trying to disposess the ball from enemy like what he did the previous game. When he's still scoring or assisting from not a dead ball situation, that means it's a solo effort or team combination, which will not happen when he's not moving. So, it's only three games now, and three games are not quite enough to make a conclusion. It could be temporary.

Actually i really dont mind for him not to score many goals as long as he's creating chances and assists. Well, he's almost 33 right now and definitely has passed his peak (95% players does), with extreme amount of number of matches he had played, it's an undeniable fact.

In a few years he would be hanging his boots, only the number is debatable, but we know it wont be too long maybe in 2,3 years idk. So, where are the young la masia? If things continue going like this, buy random players, no regeneration, it could be a sign of dry seasons again in the future. No concrete plan.

 

[eaman]

So many people overreacting here. I was worried about him in the first half even though he did a few classic messi things but he showed in the second he still has it with some lovely bits of play. Yes his finishing is off at the moment but he still gets the chances. Also the whole team were bad for most of the game and that's obviously going to bring his performance down

 

[Mitchell1978]

Sociedad targetted RB all night and Barca were lucky they did not get more joy from it.

Messi didn't play as a RW (even though he spent some time there he was clearly mostly playing through the middle), Griezmann was on the right.

 

[BusiTheKing]

Everytime he takes a sprint or is involved continually with the play, you just sense his energy draining.

It's like that with the whole team these days. A good, focused play with lots of runs or an intense burst of pressure and you get the sense that it has a price in the other end. The sense that you know we only get a certain amount of those in a game, so we shouldn't waste it.

Actually playing focused and energetically for 90 minutes seems like an impossibility, a pipedream. But that's what we literally used to do.