Messi in decline

I noticed something interesting in his recent games. He does literally nothing without the ball. He just waits until somebody feeds him with it. No off the ball runs, runs behind the defenders or any kind of pressing while off possession. When he doesn't see the ball enough he comes back into central midfield in Xavi's space and leaves CF slot absolutely vacant Moreover, he is a turnover machine. Due to his false 9 role he is able to lose the ball deep in midfield Many counters start off with him losing possession Needless to say without proper pressing in the middle both CBs have all the time in the world to start off attacks It's better not to track back on the wing than in the middle because a fullback's passing options are rather limited.
Do you get the whole picture? It's like he is the CR7 from 3 years ago while CR7 became conservative with possession, tracks back on his wing and became a team player overall. Farca are trully a one man team now. They depend on Messi's mood to make things happen. He makes them tactically unstable. A turnover machine who doesn't track back = Messi. Farca without Messi in possession play with 10 men

Discuss

Is it me or is Messi getting fat?

Bénin wrote:https://goallegacy.forumotion.com/t24248-should-our-defensive-line-be-dropped-back

Jokes aside that thread is a really good read

Tito should just tell Messi to start pressing.

Been saying this for ages now.his fetish for being the center of attention is exactly why Guardiola quit.

He scored 40 from out wide but wanted to play through the middle even though Barca had WC strikers like Eto'o & Ibra. He was averaging 40 again play upfront but he then wanted to become Barca's number one playmaker and Xavi who was averaging 20+ assists a season had to suffer for it.

Because he's a turnover machine & one of the biggest ball dominant players in footballing history, WC players like Villa, Ibra, Cesc, Sanchez etc haveactually regressed rather than improve when playing with him. Same thing with Argentina who have become a joke when he became the main man over there.

The faux choir boy act will never hide the fact he's a glory seeking stat padding w**nker.

Now people are wanking over his FK's despite not even being Top 3 in his own team at it.

Same with his crappy pens.

Single-handedly ruined Pep's & Barca's dynasty.

gil faps over ronaldive's goalscoring record but calls messi a stat padder

and correct me if i'm wrong but since argentina moved messi into his favourite position they haven't dropped a point and have been pretty much smiting every opposition they met...

Bénin wrote:https://goallegacy.forumotion.com/t24248-should-our-defensive-line-be-dropped-back

I agree with Alex for once Before I waste my time reading all of it. A simple question, why doesn't Messi press anymore or is more active without it? Is he tired, is he instructed not to or is he simply lazy?

Any team with Messi would be a one man team,anyways I kinda agree.However,in terms of scoring,it seems like he will score more than last season.I dont think anyone notice that hes not pressing anymore etc..if he scores like 85+ goals.

I agree with vivabarca, Messi can make many teams a one man team.

Well, NOW he can. I think with Argentina (which despite of results has a pretty bad midfield) he has showed this year that he can carry the burden of a team. He has matured enough to do that.

With respect to pressing, yes, he clearly doesn't press as much anymore. While it may be conserving his energy, I do think that it is costing us in terms of our game sometimes. However, this has been going on for a while and I don't know why this is only an issue now. Bear in mind that this started in 2010/2011 and we did pretty well that season.

6 goals already in the season. Just sayin

Any team with Messi would be a one-man team

Any player with his ability would be center of everything. its not his fault. and to that idiot who says Messi makes players around him worse. Higuain and Di Maria are way better players when they play with Messi (compared to Madrid), and they both said that playing with messi is better

about pressing he doesnt press. this is because he plays all the games and makes long distance dribblings with the ball. Other players gets subsituted in 60th or 65th minute (because they run too much), some players miss next game or doesnt start. but messi plays all games without substitution

Its a good thing Messi doesnt press as much. Alexis and Pedro will do the job., otherwise Messi will burn himself out, playing every game of the season.

Even still, his work rate is still far better than most other big stars today, he is not exactly getting lazy.

Sad to say but the madridista is talking sense for once. Since the 2010/11 season messi's stats have exploded but his performances seem to have less ...magic. Much more lurking around the box, rustier dribbling, and just not the same joyous energy he used to have(his vision and passing have got much better tho). For me his apex was the 09/10 season when he had the best of both worlds so to speak. It's easier shown than said I think. Check out this vid of the "old messi" from pep's first season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1d9noEdl9E when is the last time his overall performance has been this good?

his decline might see him ending the season with only 60 goals .
i won't even care if other barca players (pedro, villa, whoever) decide to take their guns

Messi pressed his ass off vs Valencia, it's a myth that he got lazy. He performs a different role for Argentina.

Lol Babun will do anything to make messi look bad. Remember coming from a German madrid bandwagoners, it seems legit.

Valencia rarely attacked, thats a poor example BC

I've yet to see Missi track back tbh never seen him honestly, and i have said that he has many turnovers so many times already but thats probably due to how many dribbles he tries kind of like Ronaldo's freekicks

Also i wouldn't say Argentina are Missi centred, they would do just fine without him imho

What do you mean you haven't seen Messi track back? I don't have any stats at hand, but he does a better job of recovering balls than most CFs, I would guess somewhere between 3-5 balls recovered per game.



Also, he's been having troubles with his abductor muscles since the beginning of the season, and is still being treated for it. It's likely that he's not pressing as much as he used to precisely because of this; he might even be under direct instructions not to press as much.

http://www.marca.com/2012/09/04/en/football/barcelona/1346779565.html

I do watch Barcas game and no i wouldn't call what he does track back, i have seen him try to press the defence and keeper on some occasion but track back??? ehm uhm

Also the latter part might be a valid reason, could've said it from the start tho and why does he always play full games if he has problems with his muscles?? it will get worse if he doesn't rest it trust me.... we have had a couple

Messi getting ball from Aguero.. I'm surprised you havn't seen him back track he does it so oftenly.

Donuts wrote:Messi getting ball from Aguero.. I'm surprised you havn't seen him back track he does it so oftenly.

Im not getting involved in this debate cause I don't really care whether Messi does or does not track back

But I just wanted to point out that when the OP makes an argument that Messi has stopped tracking back recently or w/e, posting a video from 2 years ago as evidence doesn't really do anything for your argument

But like I said, he's been carrying an injury all season...

Swanhends wrote:

Donuts wrote:Messi getting ball from Aguero.. I'm surprised you havn't seen him back track he does it so oftenly.

Im not getting involved in this debate cause I don't really care whether Messi does or does not track back

But I just wanted to point out that when the OP makes an argument that Messi has stopped tracking back recently or w/e, posting a video from 2 years ago as evidence doesn't really do anything for your argument

I'm responding to someone who said they have never seen him back track. scroll up smart guy.
Also as said above he has been injured since the beginning of the season mind you only 6 counting NT, Super copa and 3 la liga games were played and people claiming he is on a decline.. obviously this thread is already stupid.