Lionel Messi

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If Pep plays him 90 mins for the next few matches I doubt he would be

I think he'll be rested the game before the Arsenal one atleast. Even Pep is not that stupid.

Has someone been ghosted? We're on page 184 and you can see pages 185 and 186 at the bottom
 
Yes he played in Scotland, with all due respect obviously.

And Messi plays in Spain, where the gulf between the top teams and bottom teams is almost exactly the same. La Liga is like having 14 Wigan sides, 1 evertons 1 villa, 2 spurs and United and Chelsea.

Regardless of what level you play at, when a player plays at their level 'regardless of how poor or how good' they will remain generally in the same proximity to the player around them. You rarely see players score 50+ goals because they're often playing down a league so they get moved up. Neither Messi, Ronaldo or Larsson 'when he did it' could do that so what does that speak about their league? I doubt very much if either Messi or Ronaldo were playing in the EPL they would have more then 25-26 goals this season. Notice that when they play in the CL their goal count is generally similar 'perhaps a bit better' to the other top players.
 
And Messi plays in Spain, where the gulf between the top teams and bottom teams is almost exactly the same. La Liga is like having 14 Wigan sides, 1 evertons 1 villa, 2 spurs and United and Chelsea.

Regardless of what level you play at, when a player plays at their level 'regardless of how poor or how good' they will remain generally in the same proximity to the player around them. You rarely see players score 50+ goals because they're often playing down a league so they get moved up. Neither Messi, Ronaldo or Larsson 'when he did it' could do that so what does that speak about their league? I doubt very much if either Messi or Ronaldo were playing in the EPL they would have more then 25-26 goals this season. Notice that when they play in the CL their goal count is generally similar 'perhaps a bit better' to the other top players.

I doubt it works like this

when Ronaldo was scoring bucket loads for us he never scored against a Spanish team including Villareal, people questioned if he would bang them in, in laliga like he does in england

his third game in LaLiga he scored agaisnt Villareal and the rest is history


we don't know how much they would score if they played against the same type of opponents week in and week out

Ronaldo's goal scoring pedigree has gotten better over the years so has Messis
 
Ronaldo didn't score away from home in the league either (for one of his seasons), and most of his goals came against the cannon fodder (once again in the league). I stand to be corrected, but I remember reading the stats on here.
 
fecking hell. Are you all completely retarded?

For god sake use the correct threads.
 
He has 40 goals in 38 games this season and with atleast 17 more games to play this season I can see him easily reaching the 50 goal mark. That's an awesome feat and unlikely to be emulated by anyone else besides the lad himself. He is special and already has proved to be better than Maradona in my opinion

Except the guy who has as many goals as him in La Liga, obviously. :angel:
 
Except the guy who has as many goals as him in La Liga, obviously. :angel:

facepalm_statue.jpg
 
You guys are something else. It's not enough that you have to bring these gay, ever-lasting comparisons that can't be decided as both players aren't even near their peak yet. It's not enough that after every single performance by either footballer, you have to then bring the other one in to compare the same overall stats that you've been doing all fecking year.

Seriously? Is it that hard to leave the comparison out of it? This happens every match without fail, and you resume the same argument as before. I'm going to start handing out infractions from this point forward in both this thread, and the Ronaldo one. Both the 'Messi' and 'Ronaldo' threads have been semi-ruined anyway, for anyone who wants to have an updated interest in the best players in the world, so much so that I made another thread solely for your stupid mental comparisons, thinking then at least you would feck off into that dark corner and spread your diseased posts to those who share your disorders...But no....It's not enough to have your own thread.

It's not much to ask for...You have to understand that around the usual suspects, just mentioning a players name is enough to get the comparisons going in full force, as we have now. You see, Messi played yesterday, but the page is full of posts about Ronaldo, and who is better. What the hell is wrong with you?

Absolute last warning.
 
So I actually thought he did well.

His finishing was poor but there were other aspects of his play I thought were good. Link up play was good and his movement and finding space especially in the first half I thought was excellent. Second Half I thought Arsenal handled him better. Am I alone in thinking this? (apart from Boss)

I also think his ability to win the ball is pretty damn impressive.
Exactly. Boss is having a hissy fit because he has imagined anyone is attemtping to diss Messi.
 
Fact is that people are only saying he was poor because it's Messi and you always expect him to tear every team a new one, but Barca were away from home and you have to hand it to Arsenal, they surrounded him at times and left him frustrated. He got a good assist and he had a goal wrongly disallowed, that'd be good for any player usually.

He did look fatigured last night though, he's not as fit a player as some and I don't think he should be played as much as Guardiola does play him, it's not like Barca wouldn't still demolish shitty La Liga sides without him sometimes. It's a bad sign for them that he's already looking worn out.
 
Last Night Guardiola was responsible for Messi's over all performance. He changed the front 3 roles for no real reason, over working Messi as a result. For Villa and Pedro played in roles that ae nto sued to ad were largely ineffective. Forcing Messi carry the team's attack alone. Worse still eh dint adjust it in second half when Wenger got wise to the tatic and decided to make Koscieny man mark and already overworked Messi and follow him into midfield.
 
And Messi plays in Spain, where the gulf between the top teams and bottom teams is almost exactly the same. La Liga is like having 14 Wigan sides, 1 evertons 1 villa, 2 spurs and United and Chelsea.

Regardless of what level you play at, when a player plays at their level 'regardless of how poor or how good' they will remain generally in the same proximity to the player around them. You rarely see players score 50+ goals because they're often playing down a league so they get moved up. Neither Messi, Ronaldo or Larsson 'when he did it' could do that so what does that speak about their league? I doubt very much if either Messi or Ronaldo were playing in the EPL they would have more then 25-26 goals this season. Notice that when they play in the CL their goal count is generally similar 'perhaps a bit better' to the other top players.

In the grand scheme of things I understand your point but come on do you seriously think that La Liga with all its said "quality gap" is comparable to the SPL? Or that Henrik Larsson would have done the same in his most prolific years had he played for La Liga's equivalent of Celtic?

Messi is a one off player one whose name will definitely go down as one of the very finest footballers to have graced the game in its entire history. I for one, feel privileged to be able to see him in action on a regular basis.
 
So I actually thought he did well.

His finishing was poor but there were other aspects of his play I thought were good. Link up play was good and his movement and finding space especially in the first half I thought was excellent. Second Half I thought Arsenal handled him better. Am I alone in thinking this? (apart from Boss)

I also think his ability to win the ball is pretty damn impressive.

Agree with all that. He comes out with the ball from scrappy 50/50s with an impressive consistency.
 
He missed his chances, which was very unusual. He looked very tired towards the end but he was a real torment and his assist was class.

Arsenal showed more this time than last time but they still have a massive task of going to the Camp Nou, i doubt they'll get creamed 4-0 this time but a 1 or 2-0 and they're out.
 
He showed some terrible selfishness despite setting up Villa for his goal.He could and should have done a lot better considering the amount of great positions he was in.Careless performance
 
Ronaldo Luis Nazario De Lima was the last player I witnessed that was this good a footballer.
 
He was far from poor last night. Just cause he didn't score like he usually does, doesn't mean he was poor. On another day he would have had a first half hat-trick and a couple of assists.

His link up play was superb and his movement is always top notch.

If this was a bad performance, then Arsenal are fecked in the return game.
 
Fact is that people are only saying he was poor because it's Messi and you always expect him to tear every team a new one, but Barca were away from home and you have to hand it to Arsenal, they surrounded him at times and left him frustrated. He got a good assist and he had a goal wrongly disallowed, that'd be good for any player usually.

He did look fatigured last night though, he's not as fit a player as some and I don't think he should be played as much as Guardiola does play him, it's not like Barca wouldn't still demolish shitty La Liga sides without him sometimes. It's a bad sign for them that he's already looking worn out.

I thought he was poor mainly because of several instants of the game in which you'd expect him to do better 19 out of 20 times.

Early part in the game he tried a very poor chip with his right foot on the edge of the box. He could have passed it into the very open space to his right where Pedro (maybe Alves) was completely free and one vs one against a then out of position goalkeeper.

His obvious chip miss. Could have easily taken one step further as Szcszesny sold himself by going down too early. Could have easily hit the target.

Late in the game, rather 1-1 than 2-1, when they where 4 vs 3. Alves came from the right into open space. Very easy pass to make for Messi but he overhit the ball and Alves had to be on full speed when he took the shot from a tighter angle.

That's three instances where a goal could easily have been scored. 1 very bad judgement call, one very bad finish and one very bad pass didn't make it so.
 
I'm confused as to how to rate his performance the other day. Sometimes he was great on the ball in that first half, but I felt a) he disappeared when the team needed him most and b) he missed too many opportunities (good positions and sitters together) for the end product to be hailed. Yes he set up a goal but at what cost? He wasted umpteen good positions and some absolute sitters, so it pretty much offsets the one goal he set up and then some. So overall play was impressive but end product was very very disappointing for me, and obviously the second half he was rubbish.

Expect much better in the second leg.
 
I'm confused as to how to rate his performance the other day. Sometimes he was great on the ball in that first half, but I felt a) he disappeared when the team needed him most and b) he missed too many opportunities (good positions and sitters together) for the end product to be hailed. Yes he set up a goal but at what cost? He wasted umpteen good positions and some absolute sitters, so it pretty much offsets the one goal he set up and then some. So overall play was impressive but end product was very very disappointing for me, and obviously the second half he was rubbish.

Expect much better in the second leg.

that's because you have a hard on for a certain player that would not make you not rate a Messi performance untill he scores a hatrick
 
He was far from poor last night. Just cause he didn't score like he usually does, doesn't mean he was poor. On another day he would have had a first half hat-trick and a couple of assists.

His link up play was superb and his movement is always top notch.

If this was a bad performance, then Arsenal are fecked in the return game.
Agreed. If he and the rest of his front colleagues play in their usual roles, they will rip Arsenal apart.
 
that's because you have a hard on for a certain player that would not make you not rate a Messi performance untill he scores a hatrick

:confused:

boss in throwing a childish tantrum due to criticism of his loverboy shocker.

Grow up and learn to not confuse posters.
 
It's because the defender is so afraid of him.He has gained such a psychological advantage over them (defenders) that simple moves can be enough to create space or get past them
 
It's hard not to jizz a little when seeing that finish tonight.

Unbelievable composure. Pressure is on and he plays keepy-uppy against the keeper.
 
The goal was brilliant but offlate he's becoming very very selfish. He just tries to run past everyone at every single opportunity even if there are better options. Did it vs Valencia and Zaragoza as well.
 
Not his greatest performance.

All night he played with that 'almost' factor. It was 'almost' a perfect through ball, it was 'almost a great dribble' but he kept getting stopped at the final hurdle.

With that said he showed once again why he's the greatest player in the world even when he's not at his best.

Both goals conveyed his composure but I can't help but feel the lad needs a rest now Barcelona aare 7 points ahead in the league and Arsenal are out of the way.
 
The goal was brilliant but offlate he's becoming very very selfish. He just tries to run past everyone at every single opportunity even if there are better options. Did it vs Valencia and Zaragoza as well.

When he first broke into the Barca team he was an increidbly selfish player, trying to take everybody on, but he was young then.

He got rid of it for the past few years but it's slowly starting to creep back into his game.
 
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