Now it's your reading/comprehension skills again.Lionel Messi - Performances
- Thread starter Rado_N
- Start date
Now it's your reading/comprehension skills again.A skill mastered by Giggs many times...
He's a special one.
Only Maradona has been this good with 18 yo. My goodness..
except Ronaldo was better than both at that age.
Messi was like a wild beast his first couple of seasons, relentlessly going for goal - there was no hesitation, he just attacked with ferocity. Pep refined & toned that game down but extended his playing career considerably as he wouldn't have been able to sustain that style longterm. He just pulls out his mazy runs every so often to remind us he can
Ronaldo wasn't that great at 18. Rooney was better than him.
You must be referring to fatty. Did you see much of him in his debut season at PSV then?
Oh, that one. No idea then.
It felt like everytime he had the ball, he just wouldn't care how many defenders were infront of him. You can see he had only one thing on mind, attack! His game vs Juve (2005) was great to watch.
When he was in the youth team what was the hype like? Did people realise he was going to be one of the best ever? I was young at the time but amongst us school kids it was Bojan who everyone had heard all the great things about and not Messi.
Erm, Messi was already Barca's most important player and talisman before Bojan even made the first team. Are you sure you're not thinking of somebody else?
Really? I honestly thought that they came through at the same time. My childhood playing tricks on me.
Messi had already scored his Maradona-esque goal against Getafe, a hat-trick against Real Madrid and that amazing twenty-yard lob against Mexico in the Copa América semifinals by the time Bojan made his first-team debut. Couple months later he came 3rd in the old Ballon d'Or (for 2007).
I remember a FourFourTwo "watch out for" article that named Leo Messi as the number one Wonderkid and I specifically remember the line "he's the reason Barcelona will be happy to cash in on Ronaldinho at some point, yes, he's that good".
You can clearly see, how much he has changed the way he plays from his youth days, maybe Barca fans can fill me in, from what i see now as compared to before, when he was young he used to attack players all the time, he game was like a winger and he played on the Right wing, he would receive the ball and run at defenders and their's more, the way he used to go past players was different as well, before it was a combination of sheer pace and dribbling, along with great passing ability and average finishing.
Since Guardiola years and maybe injuries have taken the toll on it, he has changed his style of play a lot, he uses body feints, change of direction alot now, similarly his use of body to shield the ball has come to more use, now he uses his burst of acceleration but not everytime like he used to, but in moments when he feels like, but he still has that ability, he has channeled it brilliantly. Lastly he has obviously mastered the art of through balls and finishing, the chip through passes should be named to Messi through ball in Fifa, and the level of Finesse he has in finishing, i can only think of, in my life, i have seen RVN, Henry, Ronaldo and Eto with the same class in finishing, the inevitability when he gets a chance only these players comes close to him. Such a complete player and obviously the best of his generation.
P.S I love his nutmegs too
Since Guardiola years and maybe injuries have taken the toll on it, he has changed his style of play a lot, he uses body feints, change of direction alot now, similarly his use of body to shield the ball has come to more use, now he uses his burst of acceleration but not everytime like he used to, but in moments when he feels like, but he still has that ability, he has channeled it brilliantly. Lastly he has obviously mastered the art of through balls and finishing, the chip through passes should be named to Messi through ball in Fifa, and the level of Finesse he has in finishing, i can only think of, in my life, i have seen RVN, Henry, Ronaldo and Eto with the same class in finishing, the inevitability when he gets a chance only these players comes close to him. Such a complete player and obviously the best of his generation.
P.S I love his nutmegs too
[On receiving the Ballon d’Or in 2006] “This award says I’m the best player in the world, but I’m not even the best player at Barcelona.”
- Ronaldinho in allusion to Messi
I think that sums it up.
The thing I love the most of Messi are his body feints. Especially the ones against Marcelo and Roberto Carlos in this video, which are out of this world.
I remember when Rooney had joined us aged 18/19 and seemed like the best thing since slice bread having had that debut in the CL, Euro 2004 and all that (yes he was considered better than Ronaldo), a friend of mine of mine told me about an ex-English player's(David Batty maybe?) comments that there's this Messi kid at Barcelona who will be better than Rooney. And I laughed it off like some joke in a "as if that's possible" manner.
Massive, from day one. The Bojan hype followed Messi, not preceded by it
When Cesc was poached, it came at a time of political upheaval within the club and Laporta et al were ushered in 2003. The big thing on the agenda after losing Cesc was to ensure 16 year old Messi was tied down because his reputation was growing among scouts who watched his youth matches. All you have to do is watch his vids from 5 years of age, Messi has been Messi since he was a child.
It was unprecedented for a player of that age to move up as many youth levels as he did (Still a record at the club, btw - 5). The Brasilians at the club, particularly Ronaldinho, took the player under their wing because his talent was plain to see for everyone. That quote of his after winning the Ballon D'Or, actually happened earlier when he trained with Messi for the first time when Leo was just 16
I think muscle and knee injuries have changed his game more than anything Guardiola has done. Even until 2012, he was regularly driving at defenders every game. That's reduced significantly in the last two years especially since the start of MSN. He can still do it obviously but why put your body they that punishment when you have Neymar and Suarez as teammates.
He relies more on his playmaking attributes these days. Even at playmaking, he's head and shoulders above everyone on the planet.
He relies more on his playmaking attributes these days. Even at playmaking, he's head and shoulders above everyone on the planet.
Seems most guys cannot dribble as well as guys in earlier years... Everyone or most guys that are brilliant dribblers are usually small/compact guys
The assist for the 1-0 by Higuaín (brilliant finish as well)...
I'm not really impressed anymore by performances against smaller countries. He'll be 31 at the WC in Russia which is still an age that allows you to peak at a tournament. It's the last chance for him to deliver Argentina the WC. At 35 it's not as realistic anymore.
GOAT.
It all needs to fall into place. Key players need to be fit etc
i hope he never wins it, just to keep hearing/reading same bullshit how he isnt the best because he didnt win it....
2018 will be the third WC in which he's a key player. Whether he's still the best despite not winning a WC, I can't really judge yet. But I do feel it's a fair criticism, although with nuance, to judge him for not winning in 3 World Cups in which he was at an acceptable age and physical level (maybe not in 2014 as he had injuries or was sick?).
In 2014 he was like 60% phisically. After the WC he went to the italian dietist Giuliano Posser and changed a lot of things. Then in 2015 we saw the best version of Messi.
TBH I think the world cup is supplementary and not the be all and end all. His performances in 2014 were top notch and he created so many chances for his team. He had a great WC in 14, but people rightly or wrongly compared it to his Barcelona form which for me makes no sense as he has a completely different role.
To win the WC or anything you need to be optimal in 2 things: Tactical and Talent. Ideally you want to be optimal in both.
Di Stefano didn't get a chance in his prime to win with any of his NT
Pele with perhaps the most stacked WC teams in football history the 3 times he won it. Gaarincha, Vava, Didi, Tostao, Gerson, Rivelino, Carlos Alberto, Zito, Djalma and Nilto Santos, Zito, Gilmar, Zagallo. The list is just mouth watering and they fit together tactically. They had the highesttalent edge in WC history and a good enough talent edge.
As a Dutch man, Cruijff is the most disappointing for me. The team we had in 1970 is one of the best teams in NT history and we played like a club side because Rinus Michels used totaalvoetbol tactics that my club Ajax had used for 4 years and Cruijffs role never changed. He did have an outstanding world cup and still holds the record for the most chances created in a single WC I think. I have rewatched the final like 7 times and you can just see the arrogance in our side when we scored within the first minute. My father still brings it up till this day. The team had the great talent edge and the highest tactical edge which is what made that loss all the more dissapointing.
Mardaona is 1986 was the oustanding perfromance and his team had the tactical edge but he compensated for the lacking talent edge. That is why for me he is the best WC performer by a large margin.
Messi at WC 10 had almost no tactical edge but good talent edge but with Maradona at the helm it was no surprise. At WC 14, Argentina had a 7/10 tactical edge and a 6/10 talent edge as most of their key talents were injured at different times and Higuain was still a choker. Had he won the WC for me it would have been one of the most outstanding WC performances, not on par with Diego's but better than anyone simply because of how much he had to compensate for the lack of talent edge.
He's simply the best all-round footballer there's ever been. Not only is his goal scoring record phenomenal, but he seems to have morphed in to Iniesta, making his general team play also phenomenal. If he's not scoring he's creating chance after chance, and if he's not creating goals he's scoring a hattrick every other week. Just amazing really. If I see another player as good, or even better in my life time then we will all be very lucky. I honestly don't care whether he wins the world cup or not; his talent is there for all to see and it's undeniable. Trophies aren't the be all and end all of individual greatness; trophies are a team effort. Great players will obviously have more influence and impact, but no one has ever won one single handedly...no, not even Maradona. But anyway, Messi, what a player.
great post, man.
Yeah, he's grown a decent beard, no doubt.
Don't say that, you're negatively affecting Messi's fanboys ability to get an erection till early September.
He's talking about El'Fenomeno, not the 1 I think you think he's referring to
This Dreadnought guy is funny