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Which is why it's laughable when people imply this clown should have won the 2021 BD over him. Goes to show how unfairly popular he is. Anyone who thinks Robert Lewandowski should ever win a football award over Lionel Messi - or that Messi somehow 'robbed him' - should immediately cease watching...

True, that's a skill. I just take issue with people calling them clinical finishers. They're not - they just have a knack of getting many chances. Messi on the other hand IS clinical. The end result is the same but he's much more efficient.

Yeah they were, I am being pedantic implying he should score all four. My point is it's evidence of him being an erratic finisher that he scores the two difficult ones and misses the easier ones.

Never denied that. I complimented him at the time for it. The point is he's an inconsistent finisher. Like Haaland and Ronaldo. They score loads of goals because they get loads of chances. Messi is the best finisher of the 21st century. This is backed by statistical evidence. And obviously, in...

He missed two sitters vs Madrid after that in the same game. He gets loads of chances.

Are you joking? He can hardly run and his first touch and hold up play are abysmal. Says a lot more about the dearth in quality of contemporary strikers than anything about him aged 37.

I wouldn't even put him in your top 5 players of last season. Maybe not even top 7.

So often players who aren't that great get exaggerated stats. We see it with Bruno Fernandes at Man United too. It's often strength of team, or style of play, or everything going through the player, that accounts for stuff like that.

You are like most football fans - cannot see beyond stats. He was woeful in a lot of games. And clearly Barca's system and exaggerated attacking potential inflated his stats. Raphinha's too. It's a lot less black and white than you make it look.

That was one tie over a decade ago, and he's come nowhere close to that since. He scored 40 goals because of Flick's system - I watched you a lot last season and he had loads of bad games - he's the type of footballers whose stats are much greater than his performances. He also missed a lot of...

Like Lewy then? One CL trophy during COVID and generally invisible in big CL knockout games (other than that one Dortmund-Real tie). he's hardly been ultra-decisive himself. At least apply the criteria consistently.

It's just strange how people constantly slag the Bundesliga and call it a single team league (which I agree with) but somehow the guy who is by far the biggest beneficiary of that in historical legacy gets a free pass. If Messi had played 8 years at Bayern you just know Temptation would never...

For me he's below them both, and Zlatan on talent too (but not body of work). I also much prefer watching guys like Aguero to him but acknowledge he has a greater body of work than him. I think Kun had more talent, though. David Villa had more ability too, imo.

That's true. It's probably a stylistic bias. I just find it strange that people rate him above them when - usually - fans and people in football prefer dribblers, playmakers and game changers. Rather than hold-up forwards and finishers in the box.

Never liked him as a player. Talented, but Incredibly boring to watch. Robben and Ribery (different positions but the same team) were much more talented footballers than him - I think anyone who has played football would agree with that, it is staggeringly obvious to see. Yet bizarrely aren't...

Why can't he just accept he's been an excellent player, but someone else was more exceptional? It takes a true narcissist to not be able to accept not being the best at something. To grapple with that for almost two decades. I could understand it if he had a point and Messi was overrated, but...

It's a real shame because clubs like Dortmund, Monchengladbach, Hamburg (gone right off the map for a few years but back now), Cologne, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Bremen are big clubs in their own right, with a lot of history in their own right. But now they just exist as punching bags for Bayern.

@soul24rage Could be like a game of mutually assured destruction. Both of them refusing to retire first, neither blinking, so they both play on til they're 85 lol.

That's extremely petty. Especially given he's 28 months older than Messi. There would be zero shame in retiring first.

We all know he's been a great player, but surely it is time to retire? After the World Cup, certainly? The guy will be 41 in February so summer 2026 is the perfect time to give it up. Why is he scared of leaving the game? He has enough money for 10 lifetimes, a wife and children (not sure on...