i obviously exaggerate for comedic effect but my general point still stands: you can't keep calling messi GOAT and all that but hide and make excuses whenever he fails to turn up in decisive matches. that just doesnt work.
of course he cant do it alone--and of course our relatively weaker side doesnt help. im not saying he should score a hattrick every game. all im saying is that to deserve the praise he gets (and the boat load of money that is sinking our club that he is paid) he needs to try harder in the big matches (CL KOs and clasicos) and make a difference.
now, if were going to accept he is no longer GOAT not even among the worlds best anymore then fine. but you cant have it both ways: you dont get to scream GOAT when he scores against cadiz but talk about what he did 5 years ago in 2015 when he doesnt impress in our annual CL humiliations.
edit: THAT SAID he was very good today and helped us get an important 3 points, plus gave us the energy to face sevilla midweek hoping for a remontada. more of that please
there are 2 things you don't put into perspective.
1) Even the great players are human, they have ups and downs, and often if an entire team is inferior to another (for example Barcelona compared to Bayern) they cannot make a the difference.
Because it is a team sport, and I don't remember examples, in 30 years of watching football, of a player who manages to shine when his team loses 4 or 5 to 0. It also happened with Maradona for example.
Messi has had his "no matches". But his consistency throughout his career remains out of the ordinary.
2) Football is not tennis, where there is a number 1.
In some periods some very fit players may appear stronger than the great champions. A 34-year-old man does not have the physique of a 22-year-old. This does not mean that a player's genius fails.
Maybe at 34 this Messi isn't the strongest player in the world (maybe).
But the very fact that I can write "maybe", it means that a 34-year-old player is still up there, giving flashes of magic, and this is the only objective fact with respect to the spasmodic and slightly nerdistic search for the number one at all costs.
This is why I never agree with those on this forum who look for the smallest details to criticize Messi, because they seem to have in mind a playstation football - a virtual sport that does not exist - rather than a sport made by fallible human beings, in which Messi, with his (few) faults, is on the verge of perfection (possible Goat, in fact)
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