Lionel Messi

It 's impossible to put in words what he brings to the game. He is like 3 in 1 player. Never seen anyone like him and I believe we never will.
Funny like somenone compared him with Gentile though. :lol::lol:
 
Pocho said:
It 's impossible to put in words what he brings to the game. He is like 3 in 1 player. Never seen anyone like him and I believe we never will.
Funny like somenone compared him with Gentile though. :lol::lol:
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Nah he's shit. Never pulls off an elastico. Zero talent.
 
Idxomer said:
If they kept Suarez, they would've won the league.
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Such an odd decision to sell him. Was someone I thought the club and fans loved, and was among their greatest number 9s. Then to sell him to Atletico of all teams sums Barcelona of late up.

Nice to see Simeone most likely get another La Liga trophy. Deserves it.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
Such an odd decision to sell him. Was someone I thought the club and fans loved, and was among their greatest number 9s. Then to sell him to Atletico of all teams sums Barcelona of late up.

Nice to see Simeone most likely get another La Liga trophy. Deserves it.
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Probably the only player on high wages they could get rid of.
 
Idxomer said:
If they kept Suarez, they would've won the league.
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Yep at 33 he's still a great deal more prolific than Griezmann. Maybe it's a part of whatever rebuild plan they have, but the others havn't stepped up. Selling Arthur for Pjanic was strange as well.
 
I think it's really taken for granted just how impressive it is that he retained his scoring rate whilst simultaneously dropping deeper and deeper in terms of average field position.

Typically every top class forward who loses a step or two in their 30's moves closer to goal in order to minimise the distance covered per game, but also to minimise the physical regression and place them at the optimal place to maintain their scoring influence.

Messi, in complete contradiction to that rule, moved deeper, season after season. He got further away from the optimal scoring position and somehow still maintained his incredible rate of scoring (This first half-season exempted). I feel like this isn't acknowledged or brought up enough. He plays deeper and has less legs capable of being dynamic on the counter-attack, yet, his scoring is constant, his assist and key pass ratio is higher than it was even at his peak. It's phenomenal.
 
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Hoof The Ball said:
I think it's really taken for granted just how impressive it is that he retained his scoring rate whilst simultaneously dropping deeper and deeper in terms of average field position.

Typically every top class forward who loses a step or two in their 30's moves closer to goal in order to minimise the distance covered per game, but also to minimise the physical regression and place them at the optimal place to maintain their scoring influence.

Messi, in complete contradiction to that rule, moved deeper, season after season. He got further away from the optimal scoring position and somehow still maintained his incredible rate of scoring (This first half-season exempted). I feel like this isn't acknowledged or brought up enough. He plays deeper and has less legs capable of being dynamic on the counter-attack, yet, his scoring is constant, his assist and key pass ratio is higher than it was even at his peak. It's phenomenal.
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Yeah despite his starting position, I'm surprised about how deep he drops and dictates play and still manages to be so prolific. As you say it's usually either/or instead of both.
 
Hoof The Ball said:
I think it's really taken for granted just how impressive it is that he retained his scoring rate whilst simultaneously dropping deeper and deeper in terms of average field position.

Typically every top class forward who loses a step or two in their 30's moves closer to goal in order to minimise the distance covered per game, but also to minimise the physical regression and place them at the optimal place to maintain their scoring influence.

Messi, in complete contradiction to that rule, moved deeper, season after season. He got further away from the optimal scoring position and somehow still maintained his incredible rate of scoring (This first half-season exempted). I feel like this isn't acknowledged or brought up enough. He plays deeper and has less legs capable of being dynamic on the counter-attack, yet, his scoring is constant, his assist and key pass ratio is higher than it was even at his peak. It's phenomenal.
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It's like he is not a foward anymore but still he has incredible numbers as ir he was a number 9
 
Wonder what's next for him?

He's clearly no longer the best player in the world.

I'm not even sure why City would reshape their entire team to sign him when he's clearly past his best.
 
Eddy_JukeZ said:
Wonder what's next for him?

He's clearly no longer the best player in the world.

I'm not even sure why City would reshape their entire team to sign him when he's clearly past his best.
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Don’t be mistaken he joins this City team under Pep they’ll be monstrous. Messi with a poor Barca team with poor coaching makes him look worse. When he has Sterling, Jesus, KdB, Gundo, BSilva, Cancelo overlapping, creating space, positioning being on point, it’ll be heaven for him.
 
Eddy_JukeZ said:
Wonder what's next for him?

He's clearly no longer the best player in the world.

I'm not even sure why City would reshape their entire team to sign him when he's clearly past his best.
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Like Ronaldo when he joined Juventus. He will instantly strengthen their team, City already wins this year, we definitely don't want them to have Messi
 
Has gotta move somewhere else to have a glimpse of winning another CL soon. You can opinate about his performance today, and I won't argue with you, but I've watched Barcelona quite a bit the last 2 years and, in my opinion only, he's just 1 clear level above every other Barcelona player.
 
Messi is really terribly disinterested off the ball, it was shocking tonight. Surely can't doubt his general qualities, but the man simply doesn't want to run. Maybe I'm expecting too much of him or players generally, but I'd at least expect him to put in a shift even when things aren't going the way they are supposed to.

If you compare his workrate to other players in that top bracket, he's completely off the charts in the negative way of course. The way football has evolved and is evolving, I'm not sure anyone would tolerate a forward not wanting to press, no matter how good player he is.
 
MS4 said:
Like Ronaldo when he joined Juventus. He will instantly strengthen their team, City already wins this year, we definitely don't want them to have Messi
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Don't think Juventus have really improved much with Ronaldo.
 
DoneDaDa said:
Don’t be mistaken he joins this City team under Pep they’ll be monstrous. Messi with a poor Barca team with poor coaching makes him look worse. When he has Sterling, Jesus, KdB, Gundo, BSilva, Cancelo overlapping, creating space, positioning being on point, it’ll be heaven for him.
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exactly, he’ll get 25 goals on that city team Easily. Their back line is actually good unlike ours.
 
Eddy_JukeZ said:
Don't think Juventus have really improved much with Ronaldo.
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If anything, Juventus have regressed with Ronaldo. They had Serie A dominance before signing him, he was only brought to help them win Champions league, and they hadn't even reached semifinals after signing him. In the Allegri era, they reached two finals in four years, one unlucky exit in last 16 to Pep's Bayern, and quarter final exit to later winners Real Madrid, after having taken 3:0 lead in Madrid only to have Buffon make stupid last minute penalty.

Then they signed Ronaldo and pretty much started falling apart. Allegri took over in 2014/2015 and won four straight doubles. That run stopped when they signed Ronaldo, and they also got knocked out by Ajax and Lyon in Champions League. While he individually has been great, Juventus as a whole have badly regressed since signing Ronaldo.
 
I think it's a shame he has only had one world class coach in his career. Barcelona have spent eye-watering amounts on transfers and wages on big name players but have been shopping in the bargain bin when it comes to managers. Madness when you see the impact the likes of Klopp, Simeone and Pep have had on their clubs

He will move at the end of the season, it is just a shame it will be to one of the oil clubs
 
Bosnian_fan said:
If anything, Juventus have regressed with Ronaldo. They had Serie A dominance before signing him, he was only brought to help them win Champions league, and they hadn't even reached semifinals after signing him. In the Allegri era, they reached two finals in four years, one unlucky exit in last 16 to Pep's Bayern, and quarter final exit to later winners Real Madrid, after having taken 3:0 lead in Madrid only to have Buffon make stupid last minute penalty.

Then they signed Ronaldo and pretty much started falling apart. Allegri took over in 2014/2015 and won four straight doubles. That run stopped when they signed Ronaldo, and they also got knocked out by Ajax and Lyon in Champions League. While he individually has been great, Juventus as a whole have badly regressed since signing Ronaldo.
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I think it's more of a case of correlation, not causation.
 
Well of course, Ronaldo didn't cause the problems exactly by being Ronaldo, but by being one of the most expensive and well paid players in the world. By signing him, they decided to put up with below par midfield, they shut out Dybala and practically turned themselves into one-man team, weaker than they were before.
 
Bosnian_fan said:
Messi is really terribly disinterested off the ball, it was shocking tonight. Surely can't doubt his general qualities, but the man simply doesn't want to run. Maybe I'm expecting too much of him or players generally, but I'd at least expect him to put in a shift even when things aren't going the way they are supposed to.

If you compare his workrate to other players in that top bracket, he's completely off the charts in the negative way of course. The way football has evolved and is evolving, I'm not sure anyone would tolerate a forward not wanting to press, no matter how good player he is.
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But when did he ever wanted to run? However we as United fans definitely dont want HIM - Messi - to be joining City and team up with Pep. Absolutely not! He will get 20 - 25 goals. He will get the Prem and will compete in the CL and take the big one! And we will be left behind yet again!
 
United Junkie said:
But when did he ever wanted to run? However we as United fans definitely dont want HIM - Messi - to be joining City and team up with Pep. Absolutely not! He will get 20 - 25 goals. He will get the Prem and will compete in the CL and take the big one! And we will be left behind yet again!
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Young explosive Messi certainly ran and pressed like hell.
 
United Junkie said:
But when did he ever wanted to run? However we as United fans we definitely dont want HIM - Messi - to be joining City. Absolutely not! He will get 20 - 25 goals. He will compete in the CL and take the big one! And we will be left behind yet again!
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Well, I can't support my opinion with facts because I haven't really checked the stats, so you may be right. I just feel he was willing to sacrifice much more for the team before, but I could be wrong. I don't think 2008-2012 Guardiola Messi did as little running as this one.
 
I'd love to see him in a United shirt, going for the glory. Money he has plenty
 
Bosnian_fan said:
Well, I can't support my opinion with facts because I haven't really checked the stats, so you may be right. I just feel he was willing to sacrifice much more for the team before, but I could be wrong. I don't think 2008-2012 Guardiola Messi did as little running as this one.
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He didn't. Especially the year after Guardiola left was probably Messi's worst in terms of effort. He ran at times 7 km a game and was regularly at the sideline puking. No joke, this really happened regularly.

Reportedly his favourite food was pizza at the time. At some point in time he became more professional, got himself a nutrition coach etc. Reports claimed it had to do with the birth of his first or second son, don't really remember.
 
Pocho said:
I'd love to see him in a United shirt, going for the glory. Money he has plenty
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Would love that too but can see him heading back to South America, too chicken to take up a proper challenge in the PL
 
Zehner said:
He didn't. Especially the year after Guardiola left was probably Messi's worst in terms of effort. He ran at times 7 km a game and was regularly at the sideline puking. No joke, this really happened regularly.

Reportedly his favourite food was pizza at the time. At some point in time he became more professional, got himself a nutrition coach etc. Reports claimed it had to do with the birth of his first or second son, don't really remember.
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The need of education on healthy lifestyle choices for the greatest athletes in the world never ceases to amaze me. Anyway it sounds a bit off. Any person into sports can run 10 km without having to puke, not even speaking of footballers at the highest level of the game.
 
Shamana said:
The need of education on healthy lifestyle choices for the greatest athletes in the world never ceases to amaze me.
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I believe Messi was just so supremely talented that he didn't need it in his youth. There's this famous interview with Dani Alves in which he explains how amazed he was how a teenager just glided past everyone during Alves' first training session and only after that noticed Messi did all that with untied boots. He probably got away with it until age started catching up with him. Such outliers aside I believe modern footballers eat very professionally.
 
Messi wasn't a teen when he first trained with Alves. He was 21 years old when Alves signed with Barcelona, and was already destined to be a superstar.
 
Sensationalist stories. They once leaked what the Barca players in their prime ate after a game and they all ate high calory stuff like Pizza, Pasta or Nutella sandwiches, so that's completely normal:

Barca-food.jpg


He is a pro athlete and at that level no talent in the world can save you without the appropriate diet and training regime.

If he puked it for sure had nothing to do with "can't even run 10 km due to eating too much Pizza".

Also he ran 7 - 8 km all his life. He ran exactly that much in the CL final in 2011. At this point how many kilometers Messi covers has become a meme.
 
You never know but if Messi joined City and played as a false nine......
 
Cait Sith said:
Sensationalist stories. They once leaked what the Barca players in their prime ate after a game and they all ate high calory stuff like Pizza, Pasta or Nutella sandwiches, so that's completely normal:

Barca-food.jpg


He is a pro athlete and at that level no talent in the world can save you without the appropriate diet and training regime.

If he puked it for sure had nothing to do with "can't even run 10 km due to eating too much Pizza".

Also he ran 7 - 8 km all his life. He ran exactly that much in the CL final in 2011. At this point how many kilometers Messi covers has become a meme.
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I wonder what Andersons menu looked like at United.
 
Cait Sith said:
Sensationalist stories. They once leaked what the Barca players in their prime ate after a game and they all ate high calory stuff like Pizza, Pasta or Nutella sandwiches, so that's completely normal:

Barca-food.jpg


He is a pro athlete and at that level no talent in the world can save you without the appropriate diet and training regime.

If he puked it for sure had nothing to do with "can't even run 10 km due to eating too much Pizza".

Also he ran 7 - 8 km all his life. He ran exactly that much in the CL final in 2011. At this point how many kilometers Messi covers has become a meme.
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You're wrong. Messi confirmed those stories himself and specifically named his unhealthy diet as the reason he threw up during games. Here's a spurce for that: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.eu...ng-up-on-the-pitch_sto6684025/story-amp.shtml
 
Aren't City already flirting with the tactics for Messi's arrival by roaming the likes of KDB/Silva/Foden/Mahrez in that central focal role..... it's gonna be bonkers. But if they win the Prem/CL/well...everything...... the only way is down, so more criticism to come his way oddly.
 
Eddy_JukeZ said:
Wonder what's next for him?

He's clearly no longer the best player in the world.

I'm not even sure why City would reshape their entire team to sign him when he's clearly past his best.
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I’ll agree with that.
I watched him last night and he mostly stood still or walked, hardly even jogged all game.
He keeps his goals up by virtue of the whole Barca team being built around him. It has to be that way because Barca pay him a ridiculous amount and they need him to balance that by taking the money they get from the sponsors just because Messi remains their ‘star’ player.
IMO if they dropped Messi and played as a team - pressing like Barca used to do (but can’t do with a sedentary Messi stood waiting for ball to feet) then they’d be special again.
The Barca problem is that if they drop Messi they still pay the Messi salary but the Messi stats go downhill and they diminish the value of the Messi brand (maybe bigger than the Barca brand?) that brings in the commercial partnerships.
And they haven’t got a pot to piss in so they need every penny.
IMO it’s a classic catch 22 . . and you’re absolutely spot on because, with his cost on the payroll, we’d need to shape our team around a Messi who should really be looking towards a few years as a celebrity player in the MLS.
No ta eh?!
 
Zehner said:
You're wrong. Messi confirmed those stories himself and specifically named his unhealthy diet as the reason he threw up during games. Here's a spurce for that: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.eu...ng-up-on-the-pitch_sto6684025/story-amp.shtml
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Probably lactose intolerant, or a fitness issue. Pizza isnt "unhealthy" like many people think.

Prime Michael Phelps was eating 10k daily calories of Pizza, Pasta, Pancakes, Egg and cheese sandwiches, etc. At a high level you do need the calories to improve your performance.
 
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