Lionel Messi - v7

[CatalinR10]

The goat

 

[Alik]

As stylish as ever.

 

[booge]

As stylish as ever.

At 32 years of age, surprising his agility is holding up so well.
You can see in C-dogs play, he has aged, can't do half the things he used to.

With Messi I still yet to see severe ageing.
Players are usually over the hill 30-31 ready to move to MLS etc

God forbid we see this in Messi this year.

I Hope his unusual physique, bone structure , the way he was developed as a youngester comes back as a blessing in disguise and sets him apart from the usual trend of physical decline.

I am not ready to see a old man messi.

 

[michelco]

these footballers are another breed, they all dress like trash white rappers from rural alabama

 

[Ritchie]

Sarri (Juve coach):"Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player of juventus, we just have to organize the defensive phase of the 10 players behind him. He can really play anywhere, he's the best ever and you have to let him express himself."

I think the same about our GOAT.
That doesn't mean that we have to build the team around him: first of all we have to build a Team, a well functioning team. With Messi being "only" an added value.
With an exception: Messi having marginal defensive work.

Ronaldo has had teams built purely around him - and for him as a goalscorer - since Zidane took over first time around.

Over the same period Messi has had to do everything, especially post-Neymar and Iniesta and the sharp decline of Suarez.

At 32 years of age, surprising his agility is holding up so well.
You can see in C-dogs play, he has aged, can't do half the things he used to.

With Messi I still yet to see severe ageing.
Players are usually over the hill 30-31 ready to move to MLS etc

God forbid we see this in Messi this year.

I Hope his unusual physique, bone structure , the way he was developed as a youngester comes back as a blessing in disguise and sets him apart from the usual trend of physical decline.

I am not ready to see a old man messi.

The main decline in Messi has been his fitness, while at the same time his team becomes more reliant on him.

The decline in Ronaldo's overall abilities has been facilitated by turning him into a striker getting loads of service every game.

 

[JerseyAddict]

ver the same period Messi has had to do everything, especially post-Neymar and Iniesta and the sharp decline of Suarez..

This... Instead of providing assitance this team pushes the ball to him and waits for a miracle. Pass to Messi...

 

[Kul_z]

Ronaldo has had teams built purely around him - and for him as a goalscorer - since Zidane took over first time around.

Over the same period Messi has had to do everything, especially post-Neymar and Iniesta and the sharp decline of Suarez.



The main decline in Messi has been his fitness, while at the same time his team becomes more reliant on him.

The decline in Ronaldo's overall abilities has been facilitated by turning him into a striker getting loads of service every game.

Messi needs to be involved in the match, like alves said, and he was right. But that does not mean that he needs to do everything from build up, scoring and assisting. This team is heavy reliant on messi last three seasons that is one of the world wonders how on hell on earth did we managed to get 2 liga's in a row under this fuck up of a manager.

He is playing his best football last couple of years and i was wondering if someone can pull up the stats of messi posession on the ball from 2009-2012, 2015 and from 2016-19.

I believe that there is a huge gap in percentage, because messi before was like a shadow, nowhere, and then blitzkrieg and match is solved, he consumed his energy all the time and suddenly boom. He was the main man in final third, but xavi, iniesta, alves, busi, toure, ffs even neymar, all of them had more posession on the ball then him.
Nowdays it seems like he gets too much balls in the areas where he cant be properly used. I still saw couple of his runs nowdays, he was never fast in open space, but his burst of speed, agility in thight space's is still second to none.
If we have a system that puts this version of messi at the top of the cake, like ronaldo is used, im pretty sure he would go unplayable, devastating horror mode against everyone.

 

[booge]

if messi can just do what he did last year i would be happy with it.
last year was th ebest messi ive seen for years.

with a slightly better team this year if messi plays like he did last year then it should bode well

 

[Arizona Scott]

....

The decline in Ronaldo's overall abilities has been facilitated by turning him into a striker getting loads of service every game.

And only having to perform for maybe 6-10 matches a year to keep the sponsors and club happy from a marketing perspective.

 

[Never_Forget40]

if messi can just do what he did last year i would be happy with it.
last year was th ebest messi ive seen for years.

with a slightly better team this year if messi plays like he did last year then it should bode well

Then you havent seen Messi from 2011, that was by far the best player I have ever seen.

 

[Ernesto GOATverde Tejedor]

Then you havent seen Messi from 2011, that was by far the best player I have ever seen.

That's why he said 'for years ' ie. Implying the best Messi he has seen the last few years, or recently, not 8 years ago.

 

[Never_Forget40]

That's why he said 'for years ' ie. Implying the best Messi he has seen the last few years, or recently, not 8 years ago.

Well 2015 was also better than 2019 Messi

 

[Mitchell1978]

Well 2015 was also better than 2019 Messi

14/15 Messi was his peak not 10/11

 

[serghei]

The Messi from the Madrid semifinal in 2011 and Wembley final is peak Messi imo. He just rise up big time to the occasion against the two best teams in the world, after Barca at the time.

 

[Mitchell1978]

Both the stats and the team results are slightly better in 14/15 with just as much consistency, big game performances and more overall impact in a team that has a far weaker midfield.