10 - Lionel Messi - v2

[Kerrybai]

Put 2 decent wingers that can beat a defender 1on1, they will drag some defenders from the center and Messi will flourish at his false 9. Mark my words.

Tello Tello Tello. He needs to be prioritised.

 

[Indignado]

Tello Tello Tello. He needs to be prioritised.

He's the only good winger we have at the moment, to be honest. Pedro is completely out of form and Villa is not a real winger. We should give DEULOFEU some more playing time.

 

[CatalinR10]

The thing is that if it weren't for Messi , we wouldn't have been 16 points ahead of Madrid in La Liga. I know that he isn't the same player as he was 2 years before but give him a break. He scored so far 54 goals in all competitions this season and some of you guys say that you would like Cr. Ronaldo to win the next Ballon d'or , a guy who disrespects Barca enough to do the Calma Calma celebration in the face of everybody when he scores against us? What do you guys expect from him , to receive the ball at the middle of the field and driblle 6 opponents in a radius of 10 metres ? He doesn't have the explosion he once had but he doesn't even have the space he needs to make a big contribution agains a great defense.

 

[Doobs]

Yes, yes "beast mode" indeed.

 

[SoMa]

Pedro is completely out of form

has been for 2 straight years. no idea how hes even a starter. oh wait, his back up is alexis. ok. i see.

 

[ammarfcb]

 

[Irish_Cules]

There are some real problems starting to emerge with Messi as a false 9. The whole attack is built around him and against the weaker teams it works fine but against a top side who know how to defend its all to predictable. I am not quite sure whether the lack of goal threat from the other forwards is due to their lack of form or the tactics being designed to suit Messi but it is a huge problem. What is clear is that if Messi is shut out of the game Barca's goal threat is not all that significant. When Barca last won the Champions League we had a much more vibrant Messi and two lethal goalscorers in Pedro and Villa. Villa had that massive goal drought at the end of the season but Pedro was still banging in the goals. Nowadays Messi is much more static and less vibrant. He is still superhuman and perhaps even more ruthless but if he is shut out we have no other goal threat. Just when it looks like Pedro is about to start scoring regularly again he fades away for a couple games and Villa can't get a good run in the team. Either the attack is built less around Messi or we get at least one other consistent goalscorer or else we are doomed to fail against good teams who park the bus.

 

[Jaguar]

Would have been funny if he was still 23...

 

[PearLBLacK]

What surprised me is how over the two legs Varane had him in his pocket...

That says more about Varane than Messi.

 

[Kerrybai]

There are some real problems starting to emerge with Messi as a false 9. The whole attack is built around him and against the weaker teams it works fine but against a top side who know how to defend its all to predictable. I am not quite sure whether the lack of goal threat from the other forwards is due to their lack of form or the tactics being designed to suit Messi but it is a huge problem. What is clear is that if Messi is shut out of the game Barca's goal threat is not all that significant. When Barca last won the Champions League we had a much more vibrant Messi and two lethal goalscorers in Pedro and Villa. Villa had that massive goal drought at the end of the season but Pedro was still banging in the goals. Nowadays Messi is much more static and less vibrant. He is still superhuman and perhaps even more ruthless but if he is shut out we have no other goal threat. Just when it looks like Pedro is about to start scoring regularly again he fades away for a couple games and Villa can't get a good run in the team. Either the attack is built less around Messi or we get at least one other consistent goalscorer or else we are doomed to fail against good teams who park the bus.

The thing is before we say Messi at false 9 no longer works we should at least give him and the team a proper chance, i.e. start tello on the left and pedro or even sanchez on the right. He needs space, iniesta up front doesn't work.

 

[SeloBarca]

It's a team problem. Barça's been underperforming since Tito left. The insistence on doing the same thing, and expecting a different result also is not helping.

Have we really been playing that well even with Tito? we have had many scrap wins, barely winning with a goal in last minutes

 

[frostdude1]

Messi needs to play from the right again. Him in the middle does not work anymore.

 

[darthvader7888]

Have we really been playing that well even with Tito? we have had many scrap wins, barely winning with a goal in last minutes

We were also able to destroy good teams like Atletico and Malaga. We were a bit shaky at the start, but once we got going, we were great.

 

[sukhy]

My, oh my, what has happened? His form has been shoddy for a few weeks, he scored plenty, but he looks off and it's starting to freak me out. The team arent helping and he takes the brunt of it, the team arent playing to his strengths anymore, theyre trying too hard to shoehorn players into the team for the sake of the team and it is taking a huge toll on the team. No Tito means no team, no passion, no fire, no togetherness, no width, no one touch passing and that means no Messi.

 

[tariqo]

The thing is that if it weren't for Messi , we wouldn't have been 16 points ahead of Madrid in La Liga. I know that he isn't the same player as he was 2 years before but give him a break. He scored so far 54 goals in all competitions this season and some of you guys say that you would like Cr. Ronaldo to win the next Ballon d'or , a guy who disrespects Barca enough to do the Calma Calma celebration in the face of everybody when he scores against us? What do you guys expect from him , to receive the ball at the middle of the field and driblle 6 opponents in a radius of 10 metres ? He doesn't have the explosion he once had but he doesn't even have the space he needs to make a big contribution agains a great defense.

He should play like cr7 & dribble 6 players to score ,, cr7 scored 2 amazing goals w/o anyhelp at all