Yeh I’m not getting sucked in to this. Enjoy your fandom.
Lionel Messi | PSG Watch
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
His level was very good in an international tournament just a few months back and he scored nice goal v Man. City a few weeks ago. Just don't think he's that motivated playing likes of Lens and Stade Reims. At least in La Liga you have the Madrid games, Valencia, Sevilla etc that are teams Barca had good duels with home and away, really only Marseille domestically that will probably rouse him.
So I guess this answers the age old question,it’s not that he couldn’t do it on a rainy night in Stoke, he’d just be too bored or unmotivated to do it.
It is a bit weird, isn’t it? Let’s just tell it how it is and stop beating around the bush.
We will see when the trophies are being handed out next year.
Doesn’t say a lot about him, happy to go to PSG and collect a massive wage after leaving his boyhood club, but not happy to put the effort in?
I wonder if Messi is like Pogba in the sense that if you don't play them in the correct set-up they look very average.
Messi seems like a square peg in a round hole at PSG and he might too old to adapt his game PSG's style.
Messi seems like a square peg in a round hole at PSG and he might too old to adapt his game PSG's style.
Isn't that applicable to all players? What player do you know that isn't inferior in a set up that doesn't suit him?
Well most players are inferior but the best players are able to still play quite well.
Ronaldo for one still seems to bag goals even when the system doesn't suit him.
When has Ronaldo played in a team with a system that didn't suit him?
I think age, settling into a new city after a lifetime in another place, pressure, the front line not set up to maximise him. It’s a perfect storm. It’s football though. In 3 months time we could all be sitting here saying he’s back, he’s the goat etc. you’re only as good as your last few games. He’s still class as seen in the CL but does he really still have that hunger to do it all again with a new club? If I was that rich and successful I don’t think I would to be honest!
He wasn’t happy to leave, he was forced out due to financial mismanagement. And he had to go to one of the few (potentially only) clubs that could afford him at the time. Most players who are forced to move to a club they don’t care much for do struggle to motivate themselves. We have experience with that too.
I'm sure Messi, fresh off receiving a record extending 7th Balón D'or, is worrying about what some detractors think about his goal scoring in December in League 1. Some hilarious takes from the usual suspects.
Did anyone say he would be??
Could he not have taken a paycut at Barca? It says a lot that PSG are one of the only clubs with a fat enough wage to tempt him. I’d be embarrassed signing for a club for money and not putting the effort in.
Arguably here under Ole, moreover, Ronaldo has played under different systems due to moving clubs and working with many different managers. Messi has worked with different managers but they held up the Barca philosophy.
I'll say it again. The players in Psg right now have not been playing up to the level as they were before Pochettino's set up . They are disjointed right now and it seems like the players are playing with their own knowledge of the game and not the coach's.
He and Veratti in the first half yesterday basically showed a bit of what would happen if the coach can get these players to start clicking
He knows though PSG will still win league by 10 + points even if he's 50% (obviously different mindset needed in CL). Whereas Barca in recent times only won league or got close to it with him being at full pelt.
His CL performances in recent times have been pretty underwhelming so actually interested if he can step it up for PSG when it matters.
Literally under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The tactics were shit. He was playing as a predatory striker with inverted forwards like Rashford and Greenwood.
Fullbacks that can't cross like wan Bissaka and post Euros Shaw.
Bruno who goes to press above Ronaldo leaving a gap in behind him.
Not a single striker partner who can hold the ball up for Ronaldo until cavani played.
Whether it's right system or not - its hardly bloody Barcelona passing the football around with a cigar in their hands.
@horsechoker
My point is that Ronaldo's managers have had the common sense to always adapt his role to his best attributes, over the years he has been used as a pure winger, then an inside forward and in the past 3 years as a poacher. There isn't a moment where his managers considered shoehorning him in a role that didn't suit him. At Barcelona the same applied to Messi but with PSG his current manager seem to not know what Messi is.
My point is that Ronaldo's managers have had the common sense to always adapt his role to his best attributes, over the years he has been used as a pure winger, then an inside forward and in the past 3 years as a poacher. There isn't a moment where his managers considered shoehorning him in a role that didn't suit him. At Barcelona the same applied to Messi but with PSG his current manager seem to not know what Messi is.
You mentioned everyone but Ronaldo, Ronaldo has been used in the correct role, the rest of the team not being a good fit is a different story and Ronaldo would be even better with better teammates but he hasn't been used in a system that doesn't suit him.
Messi needs to adapt and Pochettino needs to adapt as well otherwise you've got a balon d'or winner looking like Lingard with the odd moment of brilliance. To paraphrase Zlatan "you've bought a Ferrari and you're driving it like a Fiat".
Valverde and Koeman didn't held up to Barca philosophy and Messi was perfectly fine.
Messi needs to adapt to what? Players are limitlessly programmable, they have physical and tactical limitations the only person that has to adapt is the manager.
So Ronaldo was only ever in a bad 'system' if he got played as a midfielder or something?
He got played as a RW during his early years anyway, hardly the correct system even in that method.
Now as an older player, many think he needs a striker partner when playing as a forward and he barely played with one at United like he did at Juventus.
Are what you came up with when Messi ended the Balón d'Or race
And him struggling with Borduex and Lens
As long as he remains the Balón d'Or kingAnd him struggling with Borduex and Lens
As long as he remains the Balón d'Or king
Unfortunately Pele is holding his hand
Who needs on the field accomplishments when you can win a popularity contest as others lift the real titles.
Unfortunately Pele is holding his hand
Enjoy it! Still won't get him near the Balón d'Or record
Ronaldo was a winger as a youth player, he developed into an inside forward later, playing him as a winger was definitely the correct thing to do at the time and modifying his role based on his development was also correct. And the point is about a role that suit him, it's no about what is the perfect system, Ronaldo is used in a role that suit him and always had. If for example you use the current version of Messi or Ronaldo as traditional wingers then you are doing something wrong, this actually happened with Messi this season.
Tell that to Ronaldo who values it more than anything else, and who's melting down after Messi just ended the tacr.
I’m not talking to Ronaldo though?Tell that to Ronaldo who values it more than anything else, and who's melting down after Messi just ended the tacr.
No shit, sherlock.
But the on field accomplishments! Think about the on field accomplishments!!
No Barcelona had to replace Griezmann with Luuk de Jong, a player who failed at Newcastle. They couldn’t afford decent players, and of course Messi should be paid more than a decent player. It’s pretty clear you didn’t pay any attention to the details of Messi’s move, you just read some headlines about some filthy rich guy doing filthy rich things and shame on him for putting money before love of the sport.
Unfortunately the reality doesn’t map onto what you’re saying at all. He had that love at Barcelona and it was taken away from him unceremoniously. He made many attempts to change the financial package to make it work, Barca were just in dire straits, there was nothing workable within the laws they operate under.
It’s so weird when people can’t speak about Messi without bringing up Ronaldo and vice versa. Messi has been poor for PSG and needs to up his own game, we all know he has the ability to but maybe not the drive?Tell that to Ronaldo who values it more than anything else, and who's melting down after Messi just ended the tacr.
Cristiano is mostly an off the ball player, much much easier to adapt to than someone like Messi, who needs the ball at all times. Particularly for a side like PSG, who already have plenty of those types of players, and they're all world class too(Neymar, Di Maria, Mbappé, Verratti...)