Lionel Messi - v7

to all people who disrespect Messi - what would the Elche match outcome have been without him? The first half was barely watchable because he did not work hard at all.
When the TV commentator complained about him being mediocre today, he suddenly turned it on.
Still not a great performance, but better than playing a 0:0 tie ...
BTW, there were 4 defenders trying to stop him when he scored the 2nd goal. What would Griezmann have done? Probably place the ball high above the crossbar or hitting a defender.

I think he did well vs Liverpool. Team messed up though.
What can you do when the team is much weaker and concedes goals easily.

KingLeo10 said:

I think his most iconic performance in the face of adversity was the 3-2 win at the Bernabeu (16-17) where he scored 2 and the last second winner against the RM who was folding teams like Bayern, AM, and Juve in the CL.

If he had a couple more of those and we never won the CL from 2016-2021 like right now, I don't think anyone would blame him. Of course, he's not he main culprit by any means but it is a blemish on his resume that he hasn't had more of those game changers when we are the weaker team.

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That 18/19 cl campaign is one hell of a run, considering the total shitshow of a team we had it seems.

Altomonte said:

to all people who disrespect Messi - what would the Elche match outcome have been without him? The first half was barely watchable because he did not work hard at all.
When the TV commentator complained about him being mediocre today, he suddenly turned it on.
Still not a great performance, but better than playing a 0:0 tie ...
BTW, there were 4 defenders trying to stop him when he scored the 2nd goal. What would Griezmann have done? Probably place the ball high above the crossbar or hitting a defender.

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Both his goals are of the highest world class, maybe he is the only one able to score these.
More and more, he needs to score these kinds of goals regularly though, starting from this season or maybe last season, he loses the ball a bit too much and is a bit too static. This season he also missed a lot of chances, he takes almost Ronaldo level of shots...

But without him yesterday I think Barcelona would drop points.

BBZ8800 said:

Hasn't scored a single goal this season against top5 teams in La liga.

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What is your point? If he didn't score yesterday we would have dropped points against fucking Elche. I honestly don't think we can compete against Real, ATM or even Sevilla this season. Unfortunately, those teams are just better and more compact than we are at the moment. It's not like he can take the ball, dribble past 4 defenders and score against stronger opponents. No one can do that. Some of you should try to remember that football is a team spot.

Unfortunately our attack is just Messi and that's it. Strong and compact teams can defend against one player without struggling too much. Try to remember that we have spent 400 mil to strengthen our attack but those 3 signings failed miserably. Some people are still hoping Demebele can deliver but this guy is just pathetic, he can't even score against teams like Elche or Huesca.

With all that in mind, I can't believe people are blaming Messi for not scoring against ATM or Real. If football was that simple than Borrussia would be able to win Bundesliga just by playing Haaland and 10 average players. This is not how football is played.

Raketa10 said:

I honestly don't think we can compete against Real, ATM or even Sevilla this season. Unfortunately, those teams are just better and more compact than we are at the moment. It's not like he can take the ball, dribble past 4 defenders and score against stronger opponents. No one can do that.

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if he tries to dribble past 4 players he gets skinned alive for being selfish messi.

if he passes to his bum colleagues and they don't finish, it is because messi didn't perform at a high level.

not denying his finishing is not what it used to be, but he didn't waste so many clear cut chances against big teams either. yeah, ideally he would get 1-2 chances against a big team and finish them.

Blaugrana Bull said:

Has nothing to do with the other players.
Messi's finishing is abysmal this season in general and he is mostly invisible against good opponents. I do not expect him to win games like vs PSG on his own or something.
But score his chance vs Sevilla e.g. Even we still lose 2:1 then, would have been still been an important goal in a knock out tie.

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so messi didn't score the only clear cut chance he got. even tough the shot was not bad and keeper pulled a very good save there with his leg. but somehow the blame is on messi that we haven't scored a single goal in that whole match.

messi2140 said:

How about finishing the chances that get created for him ? I can remember against each of those teams that he had a clear cut chance that he missed. No one is asking him to dribble 4 players.

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There is a weird "victim complex" here over Messi right now. I'll strongly admit, and I'll be the first one to do so, that 18/19 he was let down by the team. However since 2008, there have been numerous occasions in which he disappeared throughout the match whereas others shone through. Especially in 2015-2017. It's weird seeing people bringing this revisionist narrative where Messi was constantly surrounded by bums he had to carry, when in reality he had plenty of disappointing performances during crucial matches surrounded by elite players.

messi2140 said:

How about finishing the chances that get created for him ? I can remember against each of those teams that he had a clear cut chance that he missed. No one is asking him to dribble 4 players.

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Take Messi out of this team and we would be positioned somewhere around 7th or 8th place. He already scored 23 goals and he scored more than Haaland in 2021. Even with those few chances missed he outscored majority of young and top class players. Imagine if Griezmann scored only 50% of those sitters and Lenglet had a brain, we would probably be on top of la Liga at the moment.

ONE player can make a difference but ONE player can't win games on his own against strong opponents. That was never the case!

Laplacian said:

It's weird seeing people bringing this revisionist narrative where Messi was constantly surrounded by bums he had to carry, when in reality he had plenty of disappointing performances during crucial matches surrounded by elite players.

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Well how do you call players like Arda Turan, Gomes, brainless Dembele, Griezmann, Martin, Lenglet, broken Umtiti, or aged Busi? Can you honestly claim that we had a strong team during the last couple of years? When Neymar left he was literally left alone in our attack. His only partner was Suarez who hasn't scored in away CL match since Lucho left.

Our opponents know the only thing they have to do is to close down Messi and we are doomed. They usually put 2 or 3 players on Messi and close the middle of the pitch. High quality wingers would probably exploit all that space on flanks but unfortunately we have Griezmann and Dembele there. Leo can score on his own against Elche as he can dribble past 3 low quality defenders. In contrast, when we play against Bayern or Lpool ONE player can't dribble past the entire team without the help of his teammates. I will repeat once again: THIS IS A TEAM SPORT.

Laplacian said:

There is a weird "victim complex" here over Messi right now. I'll strongly admit, and I'll be the first one to do so, that 18/19 he was let down by the team. However since 2008, there have been numerous occasions in which he disappeared throughout the match whereas others shone through. Especially in 2015-2017. It's weird seeing people bringing this revisionist narrative where Messi was constantly surrounded by bums he had to carry, when in reality he had plenty of disappointing performances during crucial matches surrounded by elite players.

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dumbest shit i've read on here in a while. it's like saying "since the start of maradona's career there have been numerous occassions in which he disappeared throughout the match".

Raketa10 said:

Take Messi out of this team and we would be positioned somewhere around 7th or 8th place. He already scored 23 goals and he scored more than Haaland in 2021. Even with those few chances missed he outscored majority of young and top class players. Imagine if Griezmann scored only 50% of those sitters and Lenglet had a brain, we would probably be on top of la Liga at the moment.

ONE player can make a difference but ONE player can't win games on his own against strong opponents. That was never the case!



Well how do you call players like Arda Turan, Gomes, brainless Dembele, Griezmann, Martin, Lenglet, broken Umtiti, or aged Busi? Can you honestly claim that we had a strong team during the last couple of years? When Neymar left he was literally left alone in attack with Suarez who hasn't scored in away CL match since Lucho left.

Our opponents know the only thing they have to do is to close down Messi and we are doomed. They usually put 2 or 3 players on Messi and close the middle of the pitch. If we had a proper wingers than they could exploit all that space but unfortunately we have Griezmann and Dembele. Of course ha can score on his own against Elche as he can dribble past 3 low quality defenders. In contrast, when we play against Bayern or Lpool ONE player can't dribble past the entire team without the help of his teammates.

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You take Messi out and we might be able to afford a decent striker. Can't just take out the goals he scores and not assume someone else could of maybe scored them. That's just faulty logic.

Respekt_III said:

You take Messi out and we might be able to afford a decent striker. Can't just take out the goals he scores and not assume someone else could of maybe scored them. That's just faulty logic.

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Are you honestly claiming that having a "decent" striker instead of Messi would make this team stronger? Let's assume that "decent" means good but not great. So if Messi leaves and we buy for example Gabril Jesus or Aubameyang this team would be better than with Messi? Did I got you right?

I guess our attack formed around a "decent" striker paired with Demebele and Griezmann would rock this world...

Raketa10 said:

Are you honestly claiming that having a "decent" striker instead of Messi would make this team stronger? Let's assume that "decent" means good but not great. So if Messi leaves and we buy for example Gabril Jesus or Aubameyang this team would be better than with Messi? Did I got you right?

I guess our attack formed around a "decent" striker paired with Demebele and Griezmann would rock this world...

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Don't sweat it mate.They know football as i know cricket.

Catta said:

Its strange seeing a Portugese Barca fan. Rooting for both Messi and Ronaldo. I wonder, who do you think is the better player between those two.

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Prime Messi is the best ever for me but Ronaldo is my inspiration as i am also a right foot player and my position is left wing

Raketa10 said:

Are you honestly claiming that having a "decent" striker instead of Messi would make this team stronger? Let's assume that "decent" means good but not great. So if Messi leaves and we buy for example Gabril Jesus or Aubameyang this team would be better than with Messi? Did I got you right?

I guess our attack formed around a "decent" striker paired with Demebele and Griezmann would rock this world...

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Typical strawman argument from you.

Not hard to understand two very basic points.
Removing Messi's salary will allow us to bring in let say 3 players - means we can potentially fix a lot of issues in the squad.
Having a decent squad potentially means having better players and a more clinical forward then what is available to us now.
This means that we can potentially concede less goals and score enough to be in a better overall situation.

Removing Messi's goals doesn't automatically mean that no other striker will cover at least some of those goals.

This is why i have an issue with those types of statements.

Also a decent striker is most definitely not Gabriel Jesus who sometimes cant even get ahead of wingers...

Respekt_III said:

Typical strawman argument from you.

Not hard to understand two very basic points.
Removing Messi's salary will allow us to bring in let say 3 players - means we can potentially fix a lot of issues in the squad.
Having a decent squad potentially means having better players and a more clinical forward then what is available to us now.
This means that we can potentially concede less goals and score enough to be in a better overall situation.

Removing Messi's goals doesn't automatically mean that no other striker will cover at least some of those goals.

This is why i have an issue with those types of statements.

Also a decent striker is most definitely not Gabriel Jesus who sometimes cant even get ahead of wingers...

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ok, but u don't consider that Messi means money going out and money going into Barcelona
(many say that the balance is positive).
So if you take away Messi you save his salary but you deprive yourself of the income he ensures you.
And I don't think the financial situation of the team can improve so much to buy and pay salaries to 3 top players.