A dribble from the good old days
Yeah, he got a lucky bounce off his shins twice, he did well to wriggle through, but there's not much special about that.
Lovely goal though, the way he shaped it right inside the post, that was nice.
Messi in Miami
- Thread starter Bastian
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Yeah, he got a lucky bounce off his shins twice, he did well to wriggle through, but there's not much special about that.
Lovely goal though, the way he shaped it right inside the post, that was nice.
The whole "is in Messi's hand" also was done perfectly knowing that it wasn't sealed on stone, Barca was going for the "we have nothing to do with this". Yet It would have required to the very last moment to see (again) if the deal could be done, while the Laporta and Messi relationship was broken since he went to PSG because the renovation was cut off. There is no real agreement or good vibes between Messi and part of current Barca board so it was very dubious that the deal could have been made or Barca Board really wanted to do it. In this way more or less everyone settle for some sort of truce.
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Maybe, but Messi explicitly stated that he didn't want to be perceived as the villain who forced other players to leave the club or accept salary cuts. And that's actually fully consistent with what he said in his interview in 2021 after Bartomeu didn't let him leave.
It really is quite simple: Barca isn't allowed to sign players with their current cost/income situation so every transfer approved by La Liga is an exception of the rule/goodwill. Which means: No exit/paycuts, no Messi. Messi wants no part in this. Barca will obviously still pursue it because they logically want to sign new players and get rid of underperforming/overpaid players and provide Xavi with the footballers he asks for.
Spot on. It's amazing how many people can confuse such a simple concept.
Messi is sitting at 70+% chance of winning the ballon d'or by the bookies. I guess Haalands lack lustre performance in the finals cocked up what should be a sure win. Messi was poor in r16 as well but it doesnt seem to matter when you have a wc like that.
It was never even close to being a sure win for Haaland because the World Cup always takes precedence. There was not a single second in the past six months when Haaland was favoured by the bookies. Not one.
No but it got a lot closer. If Haaland had smashed it in the CL final.i believe he would be favourite.
Recency bias on display. Haalands gives poor performances in the last few games and all that Ballon dor talk has cooled down
That is how it works. You need to deliver in the biggest games and stage.
2018-19.
Messi was basically an one man army that season. Had that bad nights against Liverpool and Valencia not occurred, dude would have won a treble on his own(no way Spurs could beat Messi that season).
Doesn't matter how many goals you score on the small teams if you don't show up in the biggest matches
You are right that he got closer over time. I think it would have taken more than a great performance in the final though, because he fell off long before then. If he'd just continued his beast form (or some semblance of it) right up until the end in all 3 comps then he would have a much stronger case. 1 goal in 8 or 9 games to close out the season at the business end
Agreed. There’s going to be a lot of people being salty about it if Messi wins as Haaland had a phenomenal season but he has been lacklustre as of late which is unfortunate.
Im torn tbh. Apart from being a Messi fanboy and Haaland plays for city, I just feel the award is for the whole season. Haaland won the treble in his first season with City and broke ancient scoring records in the process. On the other hand Messi had a good/great 1st half of his season with psg and a iconic last dance WC that in the eyes of many definitely crowned him as the best ever. I feel being objective though, i would give Haaland a slight edge for his performances over the entire season. I wont cry if he loses though.
Haaland was fairly average/bad against both Madrid and Inter. I'd never give him award over the world cup Messi has had. not a chance.
You could argue that City would have also won the treble without Haaland. This will also negatively affect his chances. Yes they didn't win the CL before but they were very close and in the end Haaland didn't make a decisive difference.
I’m 100% with you. Feel a little bad for Haaland if anything
City probably still wins the treble without Haaland but Argentina might not make it out of the group stages of the WC without Messi.
Not sure wumming or just hating on him. That was a great dribble, nothing flukey about it.I've always hated how the Ballandor only values the Euro/WC or the Champions League and neglects who the actual best player has been over the course of the season. Messi was unreal the season that Modric won and he ended up 5th but that's how these usually work. Messi probably had this wrapped up the minute he won the WC. His biggest challenger at the WC was his PSG teammate so anything Mbappe won at the club level, Messi would win too and negate it.
in my eyes, Messi certainly won the ballon d'or the moment Argies won the final and he got crowned as the best player.
and yes, I'm aware the award isn't about who elevates his team more. but... City casually completed treble without Haaland doing anything vs Madrid in both ties, vs Inter in final, vs United in final... I don't think that's a big stain on his season, but City have 7 players in Uefa team of the season. Rodri was named as the best CL player this season, KDB was the best assister, Pep the best manager. in short, they can afford him to go missing since they seemed inevitable from the start.
compared to that, you can't really see Argentina winning that world cup without Messi in his best form.
and yes, I'm aware the award isn't about who elevates his team more. but... City casually completed treble without Haaland doing anything vs Madrid in both ties, vs Inter in final, vs United in final... I don't think that's a big stain on his season, but City have 7 players in Uefa team of the season. Rodri was named as the best CL player this season, KDB was the best assister, Pep the best manager. in short, they can afford him to go missing since they seemed inevitable from the start.
compared to that, you can't really see Argentina winning that world cup without Messi in his best form.
5 pens, immunity from cards, being able to blast the ball at opposition dugout without sanction,
Martinez allowed to repeatedly throw the ball away in the final shootout without a second yellow certainly helped as well.
We've seen the absolute worst of football with the world cup and the treble.
Whatever, but you know that without Messi Argentina probably doesn't even get out of group stage in the WC.
Overall, this has to be weakest group of players Argentina has shown in a World Cup.
Once Di Maria and Messi are gone, they are gonna struggle to reach quarters-semis in a WC again, unless a very favorable draw of course.
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I guess I have to just let it go, but really, some posts here are so fecking extreme and inacurate that's not even funny, mainly because it's not even trolling.
Haaland wasn’t even the best player in his own team. It should be between Messi and KDB. Still think the WC and the pressure it comes with is different level altogether.
If Modric won the award with a worse WC campaign and a worse individual club campaign(I'm aware Real won the CL, but Modric declined from the prior season)compared to Messi + arguably better competitors for the award then, Messi should run away with it now.
It'd be a farce if the voters don't follow the same logic as they did then.
It'd be a farce if the voters don't follow the same logic as they did then.
It has always been about „who had the best season?“ and not „who is the best player?“. If it was the latter then Messi would have probably won every BdO from 2007 on.
Well it should an award for the individual season while in reality its not. Its mainly about the Oscar effect like Kaka being brilliant against United in 2007 and collective succes.
Dunno. I still think if Haaland put in dominant final performances it would have been hard not to pick him.
Not always and Messi won it in 2021 with just the Copa America, winning the WC is much more significant.
Ridiculous take. Argentina outplayed the opposition in every single match that tourney, period. Even in the loss to Saudi Arabia.
Well they outplayed Saudi untill they Saudi scored and pressed the hell out of them. It was the only match where Argentina didnt outplay the opposition
Disagree there, Argentina were the better team, significantly better xG which may not be the end all be all but Argentina 2.34, Saudi Arabia 0.17 shows how fluky the result was.
credit to Saudi Arabia for being clinical and digging deep but Argentina were all over them. Probably the flukiest result of the entire WC.
Just about every single metric was in Argentina’s favor:
https://xgscore.io/world-cup/argentina-saudi-arabia-22-11-22/xg-statistics
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After Saudi scored, Argentina didnt look better. The 2nd goal was world class. But yeah it was a one off result. I certainly didnt see a better team in Argentina after around 30 min. But yeah Saudi Arabia were lucky to some extent.
Well he didn't so it's difficult to have that debate.
Maybe it should, but rarely was entirely, it was always a mix since day one while also the criteria about what represents the best season it's also a mixed bag.
In any case I tend to have more issues with the ones totally left aside aka Diego Milito in 2010, that it was ridiculous to not even be a contender, than to be too much annoyed (bar my personal preference) if one of the usual two, three or four contenders takes the prize home, usually all of them have merits.
So on contrair to the notion that in the past it was more "fair"/clear/season oriented, for example for years it was so WC oriented that even almost not having a club season due to injuries or whatever didn't have much weight to avoid that a a WC winner can take it and of course in an historical sense, for years non European players weren't even included.
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