10 - Lionel Messi - V6

Kul_z said:

I've been reading a lot of portals today, and suprisingly only few of them reported about the game, and our goat nowhere near the headlines. But ronaldo is everywhere, 'ronaldo debut' 'no goal but all smiles' 'how serie a is getting interesting with ronaldo' etc. I'm starting to think that a lot of them are on ronaldo's pr payroll, for real. I cant even imagine what would it be if diva scores a free kick like leo.

And yes, this ballon d'or shit would be much more fair if the overall rating through season would decide who was the best player in a season. Clearly goat would have 7 or 8 by now for sure



I couldnt believe weeks ago what i was reading here. Everybody deserves a 'spanking' if they are not playing good, are out of form for months and all the little sickness football brings you. This man only had couple of fuckin matches below his standards in 10 years. Not months, games. I cant even imagine what this club would look like if he gets injured now.

Click to expand...

Nah, I think you read too much out of it. I think there are multiple reasons why Ronaldo occupied the headlines:

(1) That was Ronaldo's first official game playing for Juventus, of course people had the focus on him
(2) We played home against Alaves. No disrespect to Alaves (the way the game was carried out showed us they were definitely no push-overs and we fought hard to win it yesterday), but it was Alaves at Camp Nou
(3) People are used to Messi being Messi, scoring a couple of goals or having a couple of assists during a normal league game do not bring out the wows anymore
(4) To the general public Ronaldo has a much more colorful personality (like him or hate him), Messi is bland on the other hand. Ronaldo is taller and has more charming physiques to the average woman compared to Messi. So all in all the non-football public are naturally more drawn to Ronaldo than Messi
(5) Let's face it, Messi is currently going through a low period from the publicity perspective as we once again crashed out the CL and Argentina crashed out of the WC so a lot of people (neutral fans and the public) don't regard Messi as high as before

It doesn't matter to us really. All that matters is that Messi leads us to more victories and more trophies.

I really like Messi's performance yesterday. His goals aside (of course they bailed us out again), it was his focus, engagement, work rate etc. that really impressed me. Whether he scored or assisted does not matter, to me as long as he gives his best I am happy.

te amo barca said:

I do not quite understand why there is so much discussion in this thread. It's like people are surprised at how well Messi played against Alaves. The thing is he has always done this in La Liga against all teams. The main criticism Messi gets lies in high-pressure CL knock-out games.

Click to expand...

Alot of those knockout games came at the wrong time over the last few years. He wasn't fully fit against roma and he was tired and possibly jet lagged after world cup qualifiers a couple of times. And so were his other south American strike partners. Even with all that the whole team has to play at a decent level to help Messi play to his standards and the team playing so badly at Roma especially is to blame not messi. The difference in most la liga games is the team play to a high standard and the games they play to an ok standard Messi playing at a high standard usually wins them. But when the team are ruvmbbish like at Roma what can Messi do especially if he's not fully fit. Against Roma away the midfield was like argentinas against Croatia.

I think Messi on the right is fine against lower level teams but I'm a bit worried about how it will work in the tougher matches. Lower teams sit so deep that the right back can push up really high which frees up Messi to go wherever. But in the big matches, Roberto/Semedo can't push as high which forces Messi to either stay closer to the wing and be further from goal or leave the wing but then we have no right flank again.

some random numbers

-Messi started 53 matches last season (48 Barca, 5 Argentina)
-Breakdown of those 48 FCB matches (32 League, 8 CL, 6 CDR, 2 SC)
-Barcelona has max 61 matches this year (38 League, 13 CL, 9 CDR, 1 SC)

So if Messi sits out Argentina matches for the year and only plays 2-3 CDR matches, that would already be around 10 extra matches rested from last season which should hopefully be enough for him to play all CL matches and almost all league matches without over exerting himself.

With Malcom, Dembele and Rafinha all available options on the RW, he should be able to catch some rest once in a while. We have a great depth across the board this season compared to the last three.

Once we started clicking in 14/15, being able to rely on Xavi and Pedro was pivotal to the longevity of our great streak.

Then I remember the statistic of how many games Messi, Neymar and Suarez were rested dropped dramatically from 14/15 to 15/16. By the time the Arsenal games came around, it was clear that we were burning out our starting 11.

BusiTheKing said:

With Malcom, Dembele and Rafinha all available options on the RW, he should be able to catch some rest once in a while. We have a great depth across the board this season compared to the last three.

Once we started clicking in 14/15, being able to rely on Xavi and Pedro was pivotal to the longevity of our great streak.

Then I remember the statistic of how many games Messi, Neymar and Suarez were rested dropped dramatically from 14/15 to 15/16. By the time the Arsenal games came around, it was clear that we were burning out our starting 11.

Click to expand...

it was really foolish from lucho to keep playing MSN in almost every game, even if we had Sandro and Munir as back ups. They also had to fly from South america for the march international break before facing real madrid in the league when we lost 2-1 at the camp nou and knocked out by ATM in the CL 2016. The departure of Xavi and Pedro and the transfer ban really messed up the 15/16 season where I thought we could have won another treble.

The fact that MSN all started in the league match between Atletico legs in 2016 was one one of the worst managerial decisions in recent history

and we still lost the game anyway

How would you guys feel if EV subbed Messi at the 45 min. mark if we are leading with 5 goals, 60 min. mark if we are leading with 4 goals or 75 min. mark if we are leading with 3 goals?

The departure of Pedro was the end of our CL glory. He was arguably the best bench player in Barcelona history and Lucho's inability to deal with MSN rotation cost him the job and us - some other CL trophy.

[tw]1031520450814337024[/tw]

After many years Messi doesn't even make the nominees, will be the same for Ballon D'or I think, sad times.

Luka Modric will win it though. Pretty obvious. He was talk of the tournament as many people noticed his contribution.

Let's hope Leo scores vs. Valladolid

Origami said:

Luka Modric will win it though. Pretty obvious. He was talk of the tournament as many people noticed his contribution.

Click to expand...

As much as I think Luka Modric deserves it, I think Ronaldo will win it.

soul24rage said:

As much as I think Luka Modric deserves it, I think Ronaldo will win it.

Click to expand...

I thought this was solely for World Cup performance. Kind of went by me that this is UEFA player of the year.

i wouldn't be surprised if leo finishes third in bdor voting,with ronaldo winning and modrić in second place