Lionel Messi - v7

[te amo barca]

david silva, who is a poor man's messi without the striker instincts, run the league ragged. and we're contemplating if he'll do well with the best team in the league and best manager.

where are Birdy's xG maps when you need them?!

David Silva played as a CM under Pep and his workrate was high. Messi can't do that.

 

[Vilarrubi]

He’s not gonna play CM ffs he’ll float around the edge of the box and start attacks from RW. City will have players who can finish chances and get the ball to him with ease.

Slot Messi in this seasons City team and attacking output would be ridiculous.

 

[Vilarrubi]

Messi’s lack of pressing last night was bad.

But I found it stranger that the rest of the team didn’t press either. Been many games this season where rest of team presses, Messi stayed up top not pressing much and it worked pretty well. This is on Koeman imo. Whole team was fully static without the ball at times.

 

[The Observer]

This team under Koeman without Messi would be lingering somewhere in lower midtable in La Liga as it did at the beginning of the season before Messi hit form again. If he doesn't get subbed in against Betis the game ends 3-0 in Betis' favour easily, that's only 2 games ago.

Fati is still top 3 scorer of the squad and he played 6 games all season. So imagine where Barca would be without Messi.

He's not running enough? Your blaming the guy who keeps the life boat afloat for not paddling hard enough to keep up with the Titanic. Good luck next season with Braithwaite and Griezmann winning marathons upfront.

Even in his prime he looked lost in a dysfunctional team, nothing new. If Suarez can be the MVP and league top scorer for a likely title winning team, imagine what Messi can also still do in a proper, functional team like City.

Barca haven't even hit rock bottom yet. Has beens like Alba, Busquets, Pique, Griezmann are still here and above average talents like Dest or Pedri, every team in Europe has those. Not to mention that Koeman is a coach who was deemed not good enough for Everton who adds nothing. Pulls a 34 year old Pique out of his hat who was supposed to be out for the season. KOMMANDER indeed.

Still going backwards, not a single bit of progress has been made. Next season without Messi the team is out of top 4. Any bet takers?

 

[serghei]

Messi’s lack of pressing last night was bad.

But I found it stranger that the rest of the team didn’t press either. Been many games this season where rest of team presses, Messi stayed up top not pressing much and it worked pretty well. This is on Koeman imo. Whole team was fully static without the ball at times.

The whole team looked tired and jaded tbh. But Messi was embarrassing, almost no effort at all.

 

[serghei]

Still going backwards, not a single bit of progress has been made. Next season without Messi the team is out of top 4. Any bet takers?

It's ridiculous if you really believe that. You think Villareal has a better team than us without Messi? Nonsense.

 

[te amo barca]

He’s not gonna play CM ffs he’ll float around the edge of the box and start attacks from RW. City will have players who can finish chances and get the ball to him with ease.

Slot Messi in this seasons City team and attacking output would be ridiculous.

Nah he won't play RW, last time he did that was 6 years ago. He can appear there occasionally but would mostly play in the central areas. He would actually slot quite nicely at City as a false 9 given that Pep prefers to play without a real 9 since Aguero is injured and Jesus is shit anyway. If Sterling, Foden and De Bruyne can play there, Messi can too, but he would need to really up his defensive output. Sterling-Messi-Foden is a great front 3. Bernardo will struggle however because he is basically a poorer Messi with the workrate of a Kante.

 

[SmilerBam]

It's ridiculous if you really believe that. You think Villareal has a better team than us without Messi? Nonsense.

I don't think Villareal will get spanked to the point of **** this often as Barca did in the last years.We are fuckjing shit.Time for people to acknowledge how shit we are.Our defence is not even midtable quality,the midfield has only one great player in De Jong,and the attack...well,with Griezzyboy,Dembouz and Braitwaithe,i'd rather not speak.Messi is regressing,naturally,but this team is absolutely pathetic.Well see next year if Messi can thrive in a better team,be it PSG or City.My money is that he has at least one great season in him.But not at Barca.

 

[serghei]

I don't think Villareal will get spanked to the point of **** this often as Barca did in the last years.We are fuckjing shit.Time for people to acknowledge how shit we are.Our defence is not even midtable quality,the midfield has only one great player in De Jong,and the attack...well,with Griezzyboy,Dembouz and Braitwaithe,i'd rather not speak.Messi is regressing,naturally,but this team is absolutely pathetic.Well see next year if Messi can thrive in a better team,be it PSG or City.My money is that he has at least one great season in him.But not at Barca.

We are shit man, but frame it properly. Shit for what? Messi played like shit in the first game, and Ansu Fati and Coutinho fucking dicked around Villareal with ease. 4-0 in the first half. Shit for CL knockouts =/= won't make top 4 in Spain ffs .

Maybe if Deportivo had Irureta at the help and a collection of players like Valeron, Luque, Fran, Tristan, and Valencia had Aimar, Lopez, Mendieta and so on.

La Liga ain't good enough to push a badly performing Barca or Madrid off CL places. And neither are CL groups, with likes of Ferencvarosi and Kiev. So, what this means... is get ready for a few more CL beatdowns in the next years. Because we'll find our way to meet the best in the world without having the team to go to war with them.

 

[Xaviniesta]

City has 70% of possession because they press without the ball.

If you have Messi, you can't press so you won't have the ball for 70% of time.

Furter, City's actions have several attacking options.
If you add Messi, he will play slow ass hero ball type of football through the middle and all ball need to be passed to him.

Messi can shine against Cadiz and Alaves.
That's more or less it.

this is hilarious and accurate

 

[serghei]

If people want to avoid gettting spanked hard in CL, pray for group of death in CL next year. Only hope. If you get out of that, then you are surely improving, if you don't, you avoid another humiliation. Win / win.

 

[Birdy]

This team under Koeman without Messi would be lingering somewhere in lower midtable in La Liga as it did at the beginning of the season before Messi hit form again. If he doesn't get subbed in against Betis the game ends 3-0 in Betis' favour easily, that's only 2 games ago.

Still going backwards, not a single bit of progress has been made. Next season without Messi the team is out of top 4. Any bet takers?

Bet.
You Messi fanboys are so deluded to the point of irritation.

With only Messi gone, and Koeman getting transferred in only Winaldum and Depay, with Ansu and Dembele starters, this team will be miles ahead.
But only on one condition: that both Busi, and Pique will not by anywhere close to the starting XI.

 

[JohnN]

Bet.
You Messi fanboys are so deluded to the point of irritation.

With only Messi gone, and Koeman getting transferred in only Winaldum and Depay, with Ansu and Dembele starters, this team will be miles ahead.
But only on one condition: that both Busi, and Pique will not by anywhere close to the starting XI.

So you are saying that a 50% different lineup without the true problems of this team and without Messi, could be better than current line up with Messi.
Are you high again? You are talking about a completely different team than the one that played yesterday.

 

[Ripsta]

Sheer fuckwittery here is astonishing.

Messi walking about is nothing new, in his very early career he pressed hard and initially did it under Guardiola, there's a reason he's been lucky with his injuries since then. It's magnified now because the team is so abhorrently bad.

Fact is, he's still miles ahead of anyone in the world in terms of raw talent, but his inability to hustle and bustle has proven it will not cut the mustard for a team that struggles off the ball, now proven with Argentina and Barcelona in the last few years.

The club are pure scum for keeping their greatest player ever there against his will, if he was at City or PSG they'd piss the Champions League, they have the quality and legs to accommodate Messi doing mass damage up front, not drifting into midfield to make up for everyone elses deficiencies.

This will only push him further out the door, the Club have been run into the ground, with mounting debt and likely a mass exodus in the summer, wouldn't surprise me if Barcelona have AC Milan mediocrity for many years to come, and the blame lies on the doorstep of Bartomeu, the man who started it all and ultimately saw over the breadown in relationship with the player who has glued the team together ever since Xavi and Iniesta faded away.

EDIT - Also, anyone slagging him off is a complete cunt, and should be banned for doing so.

 

[Birdy]

So you are saying that a 50% different lineup without the true problems of this team and without Messi, could be better than current line up with Messi.
Are you high again? You are talking about a completely different team than the one that played yesterday.

I said take out Pique, Busi, and Messi. These are the 'real problems of this team'. Not only because they are Amigos, but because they are the damn spine of the team.
Unless you think that the real problems are that we didn't have Suarez to finish off the tons of chances created in the box... LOL
Peripheral players can also be a problem, but minor ones. Alba can't defend for his life, but can at least run and cover ground.
Lenglet is also a problem, but I don't see him as starter. If Araujo was fit, he wouldn't have started.
Winaldum yesterday instead of Busi immediately fixes 1/3 of the problem. A fast CB next to Araujo, and suddenly you don't have the sad situation of veteran-like runners Pique-Lenglet trying to catch Mbape in open space. Someone that presses consistently and instensively instead of Messi fixes permanent pathogenies.
We need personnel that can address the needs of modern football.

Messi is part of the problem, not the solution. Deal with it.