10 - Lionel Messi - v5

[Stoichkov1]

Walking per se is not a problem. A lot of players walk. The problem is when the ball is just several feet away from you and you just stand there and ball-watch. Or when your teammates have the ball you walk slowly instead of trying to dash into a position to receive the ball.

Well he could walk to conserve energy but at least he should be sprinting to receive the ball in dangerous positions. Instead according to stats players like Ozil made twice as many sprints.

 

[Jägermeister]

A lot of people (keyboard warriors) underestimate just how hard mentally it is to sustain motivation. It's clear Messi is lacking it. This is what makes CR's form so impressive. He is 33 and still highly motivated with his extreme diet and workout regime.

Messi has won a ton of titles and multiple balon d'ors. Give that much glory to anyone and let me see if they'll still keep their motivation

Concerning Messi it became obvious in the past that he desperately wants a title with the NT. I don‘t believe he isn‘t motivated to win a WC.

 

[Mitchell1978]

A lot of people (keyboard warriors) underestimate just how hard mentally it is to sustain motivation. It's clear Messi is lacking it.

This bullshit again, you don't do what he has done for more then a decade, consistent performances for year after year, goal after goal, trophy after trophy, watching your diet, staying fit almost all the time.

Heck Sampaoli offered to him to go on a holiday after la liga was finished before joining up with the NT but he wanted to join the team straight away and did so.

 

[Shreddy]

If he’s upfront people are not happy and when he goes back to get the ball people say he should stay more upfront. I agree that maybe he should run more but the worst part of it is that the Argentina defence and midfield cannot string a few passes together. They always end up being played to the keeper and he just shoots it upfront and the circle goes on. There is no one in that Argentina team today that actually tried to give leo the ball. Its all sideways and to the back. We as barca fans should support our greatest player of all time instead of cursing him and bashing him.

 

[JamDav1982]

Yeah and most goals were against minnows and he did absolutely 0 in the finals and the semis. Only thing of note was his performance against juve in one leg and that has conveniently changed the narrative that he is a CL specialist.

Be out v Juve if not for him.

 

[Stoichkov1]

Now people are saying Messi should have dropped down deep and created something from there. Last match they wanted him to stay more advanced forward and play like a goalscorer.

Guess everything is his fault. He has some fault which is his shit effort, which is a very fair point and alarming for Barca too, he cannot do that more, someone got to call him out on that, but I don't believe Valverde got the balls for it.

Seems no one got the balls for that. Enrique, Vilanova, Tata Martino and Samapoli don't think it's a problem either.

 

[behindbrowneyes]

His retirement last (?) year was the right decision. National team won't make him happpy in his lifetime.

 

[Gaunter O Dimm]

It's as if they don't know how to play with him, there were many of occasions when he was in loads of space and he didn't get the ball, there's also no rhythm to their attack. Also if your going to pass the ball out of defence being a bit faster helps. Just no urgency.

But he does deserve some blame. There were times where he was so far back when Argentina were attacking you couldn't even see him he was so slow to get up. One occasion Salvio was clearly waiting for him and Messi took an age to get anywhere near the edge of the box.

You can tell the pressure is not the kind that gives a team drive but the one that just paralyses. Just look at Sampaoli on the line, he just oozes nerves and isn't the right manager for them. It can't be enjoyable playing in this team. The players will probably be relieved to be knocked out so they can get a break then go back to their clubs. I've seen a few people mention the similarities to when England had all that pressure, it's true.

Also people saying Ronaldo performs better under pressure. What pressure is he under compared to this? Noone expects anything from Portugal even though the won the Euros. Lets see him or anyone perform in a team like this in these circumstances.

 

[JamDav1982]

If he’s upfront people are not happy and when he goes back to get the ball people say he should stay more upfront. I agree that maybe he should run more but the worst part of it is that the Argentina defence and midfield cannot string a few passes together. They always end up being played to the keeper and he just shoots it upfront and the circle goes on. There is no one in that Argentina team today that actually tried to give leo the ball. Its all sideways and to the back. We as barca fans should support our greatest player of all time instead of cursing him and bashing him.

This argument totally fails in that his poor movement makes it more difficult for players to find him in decent areas.

Seemed like as ball not finding him he was fucked as an influence. The best players and Messi should be able to do more than that.

 

[DonAndres]

Messi was shite. His movement to try and get on ball in better areas was next to non existant and he was an inept non factor on game.

Masch was shite also.

You were calling him shite when he dropped deep to pick up the ball constantly last game and create everything because, as stated previously, THEY CANNOT ADVANCE THE BALL. Period. Nada. No matter the movement, no matter anything, he would not have gotten the ball if he wasn't in the midfield. There's really no winning with you for Messi is there? Maybe if he camped in the box and ran around a ton looking for crosses to finish you'd praise him, but even then Argentina would deliver no crosses at all because they can't get forward in space.

This game was proof that the ONLY approach for Argentina is the one from Iceland where the ball is at Messi's feet at the beginning of every single move. There's no hope for it to work otherwise, no matter how ineffective that is. That is a travesty, and an indictment on the state of the team and midfield.

 

[Mitchell1978]

finally! when did this running km theory take over the minds of idiots in here?!

because they are all jumping on the Messi bashing bandwagon

which frankly discusts me from barca fans after the season he had with Barcelona this year

 

[ThwiX]

This is the first time, in all my years of watching football, that I knew a humiliation was going to occur by watching the way the players looked when they were standing for an anthem before kick-off.

If you watched that, you knew Argentina were broken and lost the match before it even started.

Yeah, Messi was even covering his face with his hand. Didn’t look good.

 

[ebc_99]

Irish tv were defending Messi too, saying that the coach is to blame as the players don't know what they are doing. Messi is still the greatest and the most talented player by far but there is only so much you can do with clowns like that on your team.

 

[JamDav1982]

You were calling him shite when he dropped deep to pick up the ball constantly last game and create everything because, as stated previously, THEY CANNOT ADVANCE THE BALL. Period. Nada. No matter the movement, no matter anything, he would not have gotten the ball if he wasn't in the midfield. There's really no winning with you for Messi is there? Maybe if he camped in the box and ran around a ton looking for crosses to finish you'd praise him, but even then Argentina would deliver no crosses at all because they can't get forward in space.

This game was proof that the ONLY approach for Argentina is the one from Iceland where the ball is at Messi's feet at the beginning of every single move. There's no hope for it to work otherwise, no matter how ineffective that is. That is a travesty, and an indictment on the state of the team and midfield.

Nope I wasnt. I was saying him dropping deep to then just pass ball safe, slow and simple was pointless.

Not looking for him to do that.

You seem to argue that if ball doesnt find Messi in that area he is done as an influence. Totally wrong and there are ways he can influence games and do more than he did tonight.

He will get slaughtered for that game tonight.

 

[NorthernCule]

Sure they would. Can I direct you to the CL semis and final this season or the finals of 13/14 and 15/16?

Don't make it past Wolfsburg in 15/16 without him.

Don't make it past Dortmund in 13/14 without his crucial third goal. Not to mention he was their best player by far against Bayern in the semis.

Don't make it past Juventus in the QFs this season without him.

Sure, he has gone missing in the past and was bailed out by his teammates, but to suggest that Real Madrid would've won their CLs without him is far fetched to say the least.