I know how to Stop Messi

by huntsman Tue Jun 07, 2011 7:01 pm

I spent the last 30 mins, watching youtube videos about Messi, his dribbles and skills. I now know how any defender can stop him 80% of the time which means that any double team has a 100% success rate of stopping messi.

Most of the times, Messi tries to overtake players from their right. He has a very high acceleration and keeps the ball close to his feet. Positioning and anticipation is very important. A defender should stay away from Messi by around 1m leaning more towards his (the defender's) left so as to close Messi's attacking options from the right as Messi prefers not to go through the right unless required. The defender will use his left foot as a lever or a pivot, and when Messi tries to sprint through his left, the defender will have to sprint to his back right closing in on Messi who will then resort to stopping the ball or changing the direction of his dribble. See for yourself...

Messi keeps the ball close to his sight, he might lure a defender into thinking that the ball is out his reach and when the defender makes a move (forgetting that messi's acceleration is above the ordinary because of the way Messi's body is built) Messi will do the 1.5 extra step enough to reach the ball before the defender and counter him with on his dribbling skills. The defender is overtaken. Unless you match Messi's dribbling speed and accelartion, you should never attack him but wait for him to make the first move.

diptiman, i think Pepe was exhausted and wasted due to his not so subtle ways of defending. When you're playing against a shrewd and tricky team like Barca you have to be careful not to give them the excuses they look for during the game. Even a wall can be broken with the fists of a young boy, diptiman, if the young boy keeps punching through the wall for days and days. Pepe, after outstanding performances in two clasico games, was exposed, and Barca took advantage of it.

This is why, we need to resort to other methods of defending, such as the one which i introduced at the beginning of this thread on the first page. This method is guaranteed to work 80% of the time. I have yet to see one player who is able to overtake me without passing when i use my defending strategy. Even if he were better than me technically, i difuse all his subtle attacks because i have trained myself to read the opponent's mind. I know what he wants to do next before he even knows it himself. This is experience. It requires special training other than the one which they do in teams like Barca and Real. There's more to football than throwing a ball on the pitch and running after it, diptiman. You can apply all the rules of engagement in football as well. Football is war but with no sufferings, and casualties, diptiman. Hope this answered your questions and cleared your doubts, diptiman.

A defender should stay away from Messi by around 1m leaning more towards his (the defender's) left so as to close Messi's attacking options from the right as Messi prefers not to go through the right unless required. The defender will use his left foot as a lever or a pivot, and when Messi tries to sprint through his left, the defender will have to sprint to his back right closing in on Messi who will then resort to stopping the ball or changing the direction of his dribble. See for yourself...

Just noticed that Pepe used my method to stop Aguero. He was slow, but since he kept some distance he was able to force Aguero to shoot the ball. He did not use my method to perfection, but you can tell that Pepe is a good defender. He's on the right track.

Read the text marked in red above first then go to 1:39 min in the vid below and you'll know what i am talking about. That's the way to stop messi or anyone.