And in "certain key areas" he is 1,5x the player he was at his peak...so there...why look only at the dark side, with random statements.
The only decline one can prove without any prejudice is that of his mental aproach. That s it and it s obvious. Stats vise, last season was his best in the last 3 years. So, that obvious decline is lost on me.
Perhaps there has been a little physical decline, but not in a way, that would influence his productivity.
Most things [MENTION=16942]BBZ8800[/MENTION] is mentioning (lack of movement, defence) are there because his aproach is not as hungry as it used to be.
Now if you ppl only watch and remember CL matches, than i understand this notion of decline. But it s still team sports and he is not a superman.
Surround him with mobile, effective team and he will deliver CL.
He hasn't lost the talent or the ability, but he declined in most other aspects that are directly related to effort and motivation though, which at this level are pretty important. Bear with me a bit here.
Basically every footballer (probably true for most sports) has to get 3 parts right. 1) Access (movement) , 2) Decision making (so called football IQ), 3) Skill and talent (more in the brazilian sense of the word). Many things influence these 3 areas. Some you can control and have a firm hold on (discipline, right mentality etc.), and others you can't (genetics mostly, but also bad luck). The idea is that most things that shape a football player are meant to give that footballer an edge in at least one of these 3 directions.
1) Access basically means procuring the opportunity to do something. As an athlete, you need to make sure you arrive very often in the situation to make the best use of your skills. This is the part that is very very much influenced by hunger and physical level, both collectively and individually. Both have to be very very high in order to win the best games. Of course, the whole has to work to provide access to its members, but it is also done individually. Some players are better at gaining access in a football game. It means that they absorb instructions better, they are more energetic than others and play with more intensity than others. This doesn't mean that they are great players, because you still need to figure out what to do with that access. We see a lot of players who somehow are very active in games and easily found by their teammates, but take all the wrong decisions.
Access in football is harder and harder to come by as the opponents get increasingly difficult. In football, there are many cases in which you can find a player easily with a pass, because the other team is doing a poor job. Either they mark players the wrong way, or they are not compact, or they commit many individual errors in defense. Because of this, many lesser teams end up basically giving access to dangerous players like Messi on a silver platter without them doing something special to obtain it. This happens less and less as the teams you meet get increasingly better and are prepared by better managers.
Beyond a certain level, free access is rarely available, and it becomes a pretty difficult and stressful job to procure it, you as a player and as a team too. This is the part Messi has declined in a lot, as did Barcelona overall. It is becoming increasingly easier to block Messi and stifle our progression. It doesn't even take something special, because what Roma did was not that special let me tell you. We rarely show we have that extra edge that allows us to gain access on the ball in good positions while good teams try to stop us. This is most visible on Messi as he is our most important player.
In the past, it took a monumental heroic performance to block him, Inter and Chelsea ties, and even then he and us had chances, but we kind of lucked out on those nights and failed to convert. This is different from recent seasons, where we had games in which we barely had any serious chance. This has happened with two different managers btw, which indicates it might be a bigger problem that can't be fixed with changing the managers (though it would surely help as EV seems the wrong choice). Every team has a plan to block Messi and Barcelona and they do it very well in recent years, while neither Barcelona as a team, nor Messi as a player show they have any response. Just sulking and failing to adres the problem frontally.
2) After access, it comes the decision making. People think decision making counts only in midfield but it's not true. Look at Suarez and his poor decision making hurting us while he's playing an attacker. Messi has great decision making, which is visible with ease, because, once he is in the proper spot (access is ensured) he will make the right pass with great efficiency. I'd say he has declined in his decision making but this is mostly in regards to scoring. He was more lethal in the past.
I also disagree that Messi is better now than he was in 2011 at playmaking. Although 2011 Messi spent more time in the attacking third, when he dropped deep I personally saw the same eye for a pass and the same jaw dropping openings. But because he was better and creating danger in more advanced areas, and because we had Xavi and Iniesta at their peak, his play making potential was not as talked about as now, when we lack this kind of elite playmakers.
3) The skill and the talent are mostly there in the same degree. He can still pull off a great dribble, and he can still show the incredible talent he has on game by game basis. This is not going to allow him to decide the biggest games because he lacks access, and he still needs to look for space, access it and receive there to create real danger. Chelsea gave him access by making dumb errors. And he scored 3 goals. Roma didn't, and he didn't have too many chances, scoring 0 goals. Juventus didn't either in the previous year in the quarters. Result was the same, Messi was not that visible. Had few touches.
If we are to play a game and assign some numbers to legendary footballers, it would look something like this:
Xavi would rank something like 96/100 in terms of access, 95/100 in terms of decision making, and about 82/100 in terms of skill and talent. Basically an expert mover and thinker, but not the type of player people would regard as naturally talented as say Zidane or even Iniesta. Although he was better than both imo.
Ronaldo would rank something like 90/100 in terms of access, 94/100 in terms of decision making, and about 88/100 in terms of skill and talent. Basically a great mover and thinker in his specialized way, and one with generous talent.
Messi would rank something like 82/100 in terms of access, 96/100 in terms of decision making, and about 97/100 in terms of skill and talent. Not the best mover, but once in position, lethal in terms of how he interprets the game and with all time great level of talent and skill (on par with Maradona probably).
I'd say Messi has declined to an about 65/100 in terms of access, while the decline in the rest are natural and have to do with age. The decline in access is, as I said, down to a big drop in hunger and motivation. He's not willing to do whatever it takes to win anymore.
I don't have a problem with this decline as long as we're willing to not treat Messi as untouchable anymore. If he can't work as hard as the other players, then give him some reduced roles in defense and in transition. But you still need to make sure he does those things, and ffs, just don't make him a focal point in build-up. Because without proper movement, the only positions that you will receive the ball in are the positions that the opponent deems as safe.
Messi in build-up, against any serious team, receives 99% of the time in the positions that are handed to him by the other team. He gets the ball where they let him get the ball. Not positions that are guarded with intensity and closed down with priority. Only 2-3 times per match does Messi get the ball in a way that destabilizes the other team's defensive structure. With this rate of getting access to positions, he won't influence the big games like he used to, even if he has the talent and ability to do just that. A big reason for why he doesn't get enough access is because he is poor off the ball. He has himself to blame for much of it.
