He signed it today (after those comments)
I have the T-Shirt Messi is wearing.
Lionel Messi
- Thread starter cesc's_mullet
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I have the T-Shirt Messi is wearing.
I have a nose, just like messi does.
Everybody has a nose. Not everybody has an eye for a t shirt though!
People have been really hard on him the past 4 months and its kinda sad. This is a player who scores over 40 goals in a season that involved him being physically ill, injured, and had a lot of personal things going on with his life (tax stuff, tabloids fabricating relationships, etc). He still has performed at a level above most players in the world. I mean he scored over 40 fecking goals and he's been slandered a bit for his performances.
He has only been disappointing in comparison to his own ridiculous standards which is saying something. He will be back to his best after the overhauling of the Barca squad.
Sorry I have to disagree Messi has been in a noticeable decline for the past 2 seasons. Doesn't contribute nearly as much to Barca's pressing off the ball or in the build up play as he used to.
That pressing off the ball is obviously a difference of the whole team though, not just Messi. The build up play is a weird one, at the start of this season in my opinion he was massively involved and was getting some wonderful assists however as it went on he was virtually a passenger by the end.
He got whistled at during the Atletico game. It got worse at the end of the game when he didn't join his teammates applauding the crowd. It's assumed the tweet was a response to that.
If you just look at his raw statistics you'll see his sprints per game has gone down drastically over the past 2 seasons, pressing starts at the front!
It's not the player, it's his fan club that pushes people to criticize the player.
To say he's been on the decline for 2 seasons is complete and utter nonsense. He was still comfortably a level or two above eveyone else until that injury in Paris. Since then it's been repeat injuries and he's never quite got going again, well not to anywhere near the same level.
His end to this season has been shocking though, as bad as his team have been in previous seasons he was digging them out of holes frequently in spite of that, not this season though, looked lazy.
His pressing contributions have declined every year since '09-'10. His average tackles+ interceptions per game since 09-10 season to this current year in La Liga: 2.1, 1.3, 1.2, 0.9, 0.6. His rate of committing fouls and getting dribbled has shown the exact same uniform decrease, he used to work much much harder off the ball and this is a trend that's been going on for more than 2 years, he's producing a fraction of his previous output.
More evidence of his overall decline is in his peak seasons (10-11 and 11-12) he averaged 65 passes and 1.3 successful through balls a game, the passes declined to 55 last season and even further to 45 this season and his through balls have fell off a cliff to 0.4 a game this and last season. His rate of assists per 90mins over the past 4 seasons:.57-.44-.41-.39 shows similar levels of decline.
Prime Messi was a great presser, an integral part of the buildup play, and, when it came to the final piece of incision by quite a distance the best in the history of the game for himself and others. All the statistical the evidence points to him being less involved in general play on both ends of the ball, he's still producing good numbers because frankly even Messi at 80% is still one of if not the best player in the world and to some saying a player is in decline means you should expect a Torres level of drop off
You keep going on about pressing, that's proof nothing. None of them have kept up that pressing game, not one, and that will be down to their coaches. Eto'o Henry and Messi all pressed high, do you think they just stopped doing it one day and the coaching staff though "look at that, he's not pressing now, ah well it's not important we'll just let it go".
His abilities as a goalscorer and playmaker were still above everyone's until the first lengthy injury
It's proof of plenty when all the other key players in the Barca side like Xavi/Iniesta/Busquets/Pique and the alternating wide forwards haven't shown the decrease in output that he has. So you're just incorrect to suggest none of them have kept up the pressing game.
Nah he's right. There's a very noticeable difference between how high and how aggressively Barcelona pressed as a team under Guardiola (before his final year anyway) compared to under Tito and Tata. Messi has stopped pressing altogether but the others are more reactive than proactive in their efforts now too, whether the stats agree or not.
Those stat's include years when Guardiola was at the club and in in Tata's first 6+ months as Barca coach the side was breaking it's own records set during the Pep regime so it's wrong to suggest he didn't emphasise of value the aggressive pressing or have it as a major part of his coaching method.
I'm not criticising Tata here, from everything I read about him pre-Barcelona he likes his teams to press aggressively so maybe the reason it didn't happen for him is that the players are exhausted years of the gruelling approach. I don't even know how you could dispute the fact that their pressing game has declined over the years though, and not just Messi's. It was evident this year that they were happier to let other teams have the ball, possibly because it gave them more opportunities to counter or possibly something else, just as it was evident last season under Tito/Jordi Roura.
Interceptions/tackling stats etc. don't prove otherwise, because they don't tell you where on the pitch these things were happening. I'm not trying to absolve Messi of any blame here, his performances this season are clearly not at his best level, but it's wrong to suggest that the rest of the team are still pressing as well as they did before.
If true, not surprising. Young people with loads of cash are often exploited by their handlers.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/201...gnores-kid-handshake-world-cup_n_5502184.html
If this was Cristiano Ronaldo or Wayne Rooney everyone and their dog would be pointing the finger. Its not that they have it hard, its just that Messi has it so easy. People act like he's some saint (I doubt David Villa shares that view...) I sometimes find it difficult to watch games that feature Messi, simply because pundits and commentators fall over themselves to worship him.
If this was Cristiano Ronaldo or Wayne Rooney everyone and their dog would be pointing the finger. Its not that they have it hard, its just that Messi has it so easy. People act like he's some saint (I doubt David Villa shares that view...) I sometimes find it difficult to watch games that feature Messi, simply because pundits and commentators fall over themselves to worship him.
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you see here that messi do shake hands with one of the kids, so, how was it? messi hated the first kid so he decided not to shake his hand? or messi didnt see the first kid and that'w why he didnt shake his hand?
as bad as it is to worship him, is to wait for any stupid excuse to make him look bad
I just got pm'd by a newbie to come to Messi's defence here but errr... marcos is on it.
I dont think Messi is really aware of the kids hand, its easily missable, I seriously doubt Messi is that much of a cnut to ignore a sweet little kid who wants to shake the hand of one of his heroes.
Messi will probably see this and offer the kid to come in and meet him at training and give him a shirt or something. Footballers can be primadonnas or greedy but they arent evil.
Messi will probably see this and offer the kid to come in and meet him at training and give him a shirt or something. Footballers can be primadonnas or greedy but they arent evil.
I don't know, I kind of get a 'been there done that' feel about him these days. He's just walking around the pitch and looks like he's not bothered giving it his all. To be fair to him though, he's already achieved everything bar a World Cup.
Except that terrific goal he scored.
It was a terrific goal alright.
Set up four chances too...
He had an awful first half but I didn't get that feel about him that you said, in the second half.
He had an awful first half but I didn't get that feel about him that you said, in the second half.
You can't be for real #07?
Even the biggest twat of a footballer wouldn't purposefully do that to a kid, let alone when they know there are millions watching.
He shook his hand. What's the problem?
Get ready
Greattt
For a bunch of people talking in a restaurant intercut with cringeworthy dramatisations? Woooo!
The little midget has the Balon D' Or wrapped up already. He actually outsmarted Ronaldo on this one. While Ronaldo was busting his ass(and pushing his injury to the limit) in the European competitions, Messi was taking it easy making sure he healed from his injury. He knew that the World Cup(a FIFA competition)would be the competition that would have the most weight. If Messi is able to take Argentina far(while scoring goals), nobody will remember CR7's UEFA performances.
Aye, Ronaldo was an idiot busting his ass while delivering Real Madrid's tenth Champions League.
Ronaldo only cares about the Balon D' Or.
Ok. Cheers
Ballon d'Or is all about October and November.
EDIT: Also, Portugal are not out of it yet.
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yes. they are.
If Germany beats USA 4-0, Portugal will only need to beat Ghana.
If Germany wins 2-0, Portugal needs to win by 3 goals.
Several (very) possible scenarios can still see Portugal through.
gotta agree. these things are all the same, i'm pretty sure they borrow the exact same music from other video makers too.
portugal's not out until they're out either. i'm sure ronaldo will make some kind of impact at some point. I feel like all the injury talk is over exaggerated. He's said he was fine prior to the first game, and looked in good physical condition too.
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