Is Neymar about to overtake Ronaldo

sullydnl said:
Remember when people thought he was overrated?
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I still think he's overrated. Very good player, but overrated anyway.

He's playing very well, he's part of a very succesful partnership, he's the one scoring most of the goals, and he has scored one special goal, and now people start talking about him beeing the best player in the world. That's what I call overrating.
 
I'm taking Neymar over Ronaldo everyday. He is going to be the best player in the world one day but only once Messi declines. For now the little genius holds the title comfortably.
 
Dr. Funkenstein said:
I still think he's overrated. Very good player, but overrated anyway.

He's playing very well, he's part of a very succesful partnership, he's the one scoring most of the goals, and he has scored one special goal, and now people start talking about him beeing the best player in the world. That's what I call overrating.
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Are you talking about Vardy? Jamie Vardy?

At 23, Neymar is the 5th best top scorer for Brazil. Last season, he was top scorer of the CL without taking pens. He scored 40 goals for Barca from the left flank. That's just "playing very well"? Seriously?
 
Treble said:
Are you talking about Vardy? Jamie Vardy?

At 23, Neymar is the 5th best top scorer for Brazil. Last season, he was top scorer of the CL without taking pens. He scored 40 goals for Barca from the left flank. That's just "playing very well"? Seriously?
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Not to mention this season he's stepped up in terms of the service he gives back to his teammates. Yesterday for example he gave Iniesta that delicious back heel flick for the 3rd and it was only Marcelo's goal line clearance at the end of the first half to deny Suarez and that Munir sitter that prevented him from claiming 3 assists. Against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu.
 
His pass to Munir with his left foot was something I didn't know he could pull off already.
 
Ozio said:
I used to think he was, but that's way back when he was still playing in Brazil.
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Even after his first season at Barca, quite a lot of people seemed to think that.

He was hated for some reason and people were almost wishing him to fail, but he's really shut up quite a lot of people. He's a fantastic talent that could potentially get even better.
 
Great footballer this guy. Loved watching him play yesterday. That front 3 of Barca is so scary.

It hurts to see what Ronaldo has become. I hope he has the wisdom in himself to adopt his game. I believe the talent is still there, its just his will to change his game that is needed.
 
Treble said:
Are you talking about Vardy? Jamie Vardy?

At 23, Neymar is the 5th best top scorer for Brazil.
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They even think Fred is WC-winning material there. Every Brazilian is hyped, there's always commercial interest and besides that is just a nation of 200 million people who are always whining and nagging about a Brazilian beeing the best. They have no international perspective to their patriottic prejudice. They're so persistent and annoying in that that foreign media tend to go along. I'm a great fan of Ronaldinho, Romario and Ronaldo, but Neymar is from the category below, just below, but still below. That means he's also in a category below Messi.


Last season, he was top scorer of the CL without taking pens. He scored 40 goals for Barca from the left flank. That's just "playing very well"? Seriously?
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It's a great team with a great partnership where his teammates want him to score and help him score. Who cares who scores the goals? He's a world class player, among the best attacking players right now, but could we please do without the exaggeration?
 
K2K said:
Even after his first season at Barca, quite a lot of people seemed to think that.

He was hated for some reason and people were almost wishing him to fail, but he's really shut up quite a lot of people. He's a fantastic talent that could potentially get even better.
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I can see why. It was probably the diving, and the fact that his price tag was so high. Plus he was playing alongside Messi, the thought of them becoming a world class duo wasn't anything to look forward to for non Barcelona fans.
 
VorZakone said:
His pass to Munir with his left foot was something I didn't know he could pull off already.
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He is pretty much ambidextrious. He can control and shoot comfortably with his left, like his goal yesterday, against villareal and ucl final for example.
 
Escobar said:
I can see him overtaking Messi soon
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He could score 20 goals more than Messi in a season and still be the inferior player. Neymar has taken on more responsibility creatively recently but he's still largely a final third player. Messi's a supreme playmaker and goalscorer in one. There's a huge gulf in class, for me.
 
He's Brazilian. There's every chance he'll start his own decline soon.

I guess that's wishful thinking more than anything.
 
Brwned said:
He could score 20 goals more than Messi in a season and still be the inferior player. Neymar has taken on more responsibility creatively recently but he's still largely a final third player. Messi's a supreme playmaker and goalscorer in one. There's a huge gulf in class, for me.
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He reminds me of Djokovic to Messi's Federer. There is something intangibly majestic about Messi that you can't teach.. a unique way of playing which is sheer artistry and beautiful to behold.

As great as Neymar becomes he has a long way to go before he comes close to Messi in that respect. Neymar does remind me of Djokovic in the sense that they're so complete and mentally so strong, skinny as feck too and super effective.

Neymar can do anything with a football and that will make him incredibly difficult to mark out of big games in years to come.. he can surpass Messi in that respect.
 
Raees said:
He reminds me of Djokovic to Messi's Federer. There is something intangibly majestic about Messi that you can't teach.. a unique way of playing which is sheer artistry and beautiful to behold.

As great as Neymar becomes he has a long way to go before he comes close to Messi in that respect. Neymar does remind me of Djokovic in the sense that they're so complete and mentally so strong, skinny as feck too and super effective.

Neymar can do anything with a football and that will make him incredibly difficult to mark out of big games in years to come.. he can surpass Messi in that respect.
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Surpassing Messi in the big games? He has a looong loong way to go, the list of Messi's great performances in big games is near endless as he has had a big head start to Neymar as well (he was about 19 or 20 when he started to become amazing). Just last season he was the one who stepped up vs Bayern, set up the 2-1 in the final, scored that majestic goal in the cup final, massacred City, he basically made Neymar and Suarez his puppets on strings to finish alot of easy goals as well... they even looked ordinary compared to him in full flow.

Nah Neymar is amazing but not a chance he will surpass what messi did on a football field. Messi has everything the best and most skilful of attackers in the history of the game had, and on top of that he has the playmaking vision, passing and skills of Iniesta level. Amazing. Forget the Djoko vs Federer comparison. It's doing Messi a disservice: it's djoko vs Federer, Sampras and Agassi rolled into one.
 
Kevin said:
Surpassing Messi in the big games? He has a looong loong way to go, the list of Messi's great performances in big games is near endless as he has had a big head start to Neymar as well (he was about 19 or 20 when he started to become amazing). Just last season he was the one who stepped up vs Bayern, set up the 2-1 in the final, scored that majestic goal in the cup final, massacred City, he basically made Neymar and Suarez his puppets on strings to finish alot of easy goals as well... they even looked ordinary compared to him in full flow.

Nah Neymar is amazing but not a chance he will surpass what messi did on a football field. Messi has everything the best and most skilful of attackers in the history of the game had, and on top of that he has the playmaking vision, passing and skills of Iniesta level. Amazing. Forget the Djoko vs Federer comparison. It's doing Messi a disservice: it's djoko vs Federer, Sampras and Agassi rolled into one.
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I think yesterday's game proves Suarez and Neymar aren't puppets on his strings. Messi is one of the GOATs, ok. But lets relax a bit. He also sees way more of the ball than others, and rightfully so, but you can't criticize other players for playing off of him, if basically the team is built around him and he demands the responsibility of being the creator. Everyone benefitted from that in the treble, he probably doesn't win it with Pedro and Sanchez doing Suarez and Neymar's role.
 
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fontaine said:
I think yesterday's game proves Suarez and Neymar aren't puppets on his strings. Messi is one of the GOATs, ok. But lets relax a bit. He also sees way more of the ball than others, and rightfully so, but you can't criticize other players for playing off of him, if basically the team is built around him. Also, Barça looked more exposed on defense when he came on.
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Yup, was never the case. The hyperbole last season was cringeworthy, as if those two were some scrubs off the street he was lifting well beyond their levels. Any team with both of them stands a chance of doing very well in any competition, just adding Messi to complete that trio makes them (almost) unstoppable.
 
Skills said:
Yup, was never the case. The hyperbole last season was cringeworthy, as if those two were some scrubs off the street he was lifting well beyond their levels. Any team with both of them stands a chance of doing very well in any competition, just adding Messi to complete that trio makes them (almost) unstoppable.
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Some posts from the back end of last season:

Too much is made of this msn, greatest front 3 in history, 116 goals, etc.

It's a front 1 with a top supporting cast. Messi with Kane and Benteke would still be the best front 3 in the world.
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I think if Heskey and Kevin Davies played in a front three with Messi they'd bag a few goals as well. It does Messi a disservice when people talk about how great the three of them are, he carries that front line and entire team.
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:lol:
 
adexkola said:
:lol:

To be fair I didn't rate Neymar until this season.
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I think the World Cup, when he played well with the nation's expectations on his shoulders was when he started to go up in my estimation and I think that's probably true for a lot of people that didn't see much of him in Brazil. In his first season at Barca he had injury problems and with the team not playing at the same level as they had under Guardiola I felt like he hadn't really lived up to the hype. Last season he really impressed me although I felt like he needed to provide better service to Messi and Suarez despite all the goals. This season he's done that and more, becoming the creative hub in Messi's absence and showing that he can drive the team on.
 
Brwned said:
He could score 20 goals more than Messi in a season and still be the inferior player. Neymar has taken on more responsibility creatively recently but he's still largely a final third player. Messi's a supreme playmaker and goalscorer in one. There's a huge gulf in class, for me.
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Of course there is. But in 2-3 years, Messi might not be as good as he currently is and Neymar could only get better
 
Roman Bellic said:
Been more influential since last season.
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Ronaldo scored 61 goals last season. Neymar was good but not that good. This season he is benefiting from his teammates whilst Ronaldo struggles with his, but its much closer now.
 
Brwned said:
He could score 20 goals more than Messi in a season and still be the inferior player. Neymar has taken on more responsibility creatively recently but he's still largely a final third player. Messi's a supreme playmaker and goalscorer in one. There's a huge gulf in class, for me.
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Huge???

I wouldn't say that there is a gulf in class let alone huge.

Messi's better, obviously, but not by that much.

If there were a huge gulf in class between them, Barca would have struggled without Messi the last 6-7 weeks. They didn't. Actually, their results were better and they were murdering Real without Messi. I find it curious that so many people are still blind about Neymar's class. He's incredible.
 
Treble said:
Huge???

I wouldn't say that there is a gulf in class let alone huge.

Messi's better, obviously, but not by that much.

If there were a huge gulf in class between them, Barca would have struggled without Messi the last 6-7 weeks. They didn't. Actually, their results were better and they were murdering Real without Messi. I find it curious that so many people are still blind about Neymar's class. He's incredible.
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He's not blind by Neymar's class. It's just that Messi is still a cut above everyone. He has what Neymar's got but has a far more refined all round game, is the best passer in the game, far better playmaker etc. Good teams can go on a good run. Liverpool did it with Suarez, hardly surprising that a team having two of the world's 5 best footballers can do that. Bayern can also go on amazing runs and they don't have Messi. Does that mean Lewandowski is as good as Messi? I don't think so.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
He's not blind by Neymar's class. It's just that Messi is still a cut above everyone. He has what Neymar's got but has a far more refined all round game, is the best passer in the game, far better playmaker etc. Good teams can go on a good run. Liverpool did it with Suarez, hardly surprising that a team having two of the world's 5 best footballers can do that. Bayern can also go on amazing runs and they don't have Messi. Does that mean Lewandowski is as good as Messi? I don't think so.
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The comparison with Bayern sucks, they are a different team and do not have a star player like Barca's trio up front. They rely much more on the strenth of the team as a whole, not on brilliant individual actions.

Messi's absence wasn't obvious at all. Why? Because Neymar stepped up and was brilliant.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
He's not blind by Neymar's class. It's just that Messi is still a cut above everyone. He has what Neymar's got but has a far more refined all round game, is the best passer in the game, far better playmaker etc. Good teams can go on a good run. Liverpool did it with Suarez, hardly surprising that a team having two of the world's 5 best footballers can do that. Bayern can also go on amazing runs and they don't have Messi. Does that mean Lewandowski is as good as Messi? I don't think so.
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Agreed. Some overhyping of Neymar here. He is incredible, just like there have been other incredible players now and in the past. Incredible but not mercurial.
 
Kevin said:
Agreed. Some overhyping of Neymar here. He is incredible, just like there have been other incredible players now and in the past. Incredible but not mercurial.
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Or, alternatively, some are a bit slow in recognizing a goat in the making.
 
Treble said:
The comparison with Bayern sucks, they are a different team and do not have a star player like Barca's trio up front. They rely much more on the strenth of the team as a whole, not on brilliant individual actions.

Messi's absence wasn't obvious at all. Why? Because Neymar stepped up and was brilliant.
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Both Neymar and Suarez were brilliant. So if we win 7 matches in a row it means Martial is as good as Messi? When Liverpool went on that run in 13/14 it meant Suarez was as good as Messi and Ronaldo? Logic.
 
Treble said:
Or, alternatively, some are a bit slow in recognizing a goat in the making.
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Sorry to break it to you but you're not ahead of the curve at all. Everyone recognizes Neymar as the future best player in the world. He can possibly be among the greats as well, and given his ability, whether that's top 10 or top 20 or top 30 remains to be seen.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
Both Neymar and Suarez were brilliant. So if we win 7 matches in a row it means Martial is as good as Messi? When Liverpool went on that run in 13/14 it meant Suarez was as good as Messi and Ronaldo? Logic.
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You keep comparing different players in different teams in different circumstances.

If we beat City 3:0 away without Martial, then come up with that comment. Not now. Even then the comparison would be pretty shallow.

Over the course of this calendar year, the difference in class betwen Messi and Neymar hasn't been huge. Neymar has contributed in the big games at least as much as Messi, if not more.
 
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