Lionel Messi

TonyM said:
I'm only here cos of Niall Quinn, Terry Phelan, Richard Dunne, Mark Kennedy, Shay Given, Wilo Flood and Stephen Ireland. All the rest of the players, including the current crop, are shit.

(Notice that I did not mention Alan Kernaghan. I wish I could mention Jack Grealish who chose to be shit.)
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You forgot Tony Scully, Barry Conlon and Ray Kelly.

So next time you go to confession don't forget to mention your sins, for forgetting some of our biggest sins investment wise.

All three were about as useful as Dennis Bergkamp's air miles.
 
johnevans said:
Agree with you and 'Hertsblue'.. this recent, social-media driven iteration of football 'supportership' (forgive me for that one..!) drives me batty. It's fundamental to Messi's continued (and to my mind, undeserved} success at award ceremonies during the past year or so.. as much as I love him as a player etc, you can tell that the media support/campaigns have been part of that success, campaigns which reflect this recent obsession with personality.

Donkey's years ago I spoke with a bar owner when on holiday in Tuscany. He was from Milan and had supported Inter all of his life. Seeing the Inter paraphernalia on the wall as he served us, I told him that his team was my 'Italian team', so we got talking. During the chat he touched on this very subject of being a supporter and how players in Italy seemed to swap clubs, even neighbouring, rival clubs, more readily than our players in England did.

I found it interesting to hear him say words to the effect of 'We don't teach our kids to follow a player.. we teach them to follow our shirt'. It was the first time I ever heard that expression. And I think it should still be the watchword for truly following whichever club it is that somehow gets into one's DNA/blood/taken in with Mother's milk and so on.. We've enough mercenaries among the players on the pitch nowadays without the fans getting involved!!
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Agree with this, it's almost tainted his legacy for me a little bit (through no fault of his own really) in the sense of he has picked up awards in the twilight of his career that he hasn't really warranted for the reasons stated by yourself.

His legs went a few years ago but he's still a brilliant footballer, one of the best in the world if you can get legs around him (as Argentina have proven in recent years) but I'd quite like to see him retire soon and we can keep those memories of him in his early 20s (when he was the best footballer I've ever seen) and let the likes of Haaland, Mbappe and KDB (who really should have more individual accolades) get some of the individual success they probably deserve.
 
Just watched highlights of Inter Miami’s last few matches and I have to say, there is almost always something that feels a tad bit off about Messi’s goals/chances. It more often than not feels like his shots (and the keeper) are moving in slow motion. And opposition defenders seem to lose the will to mark him at times. There were several occasions when the two or three defenders in the box had only Messi to mark and somehow all of them, in unison, decided to slowly break in to a nice sieve formation and look toward the player on the wing with the ball, completely ignoring arguable the greatest player of all time standing literally bone still three yards from them. Then Messi is back in midfield in possession and all of the defenders are suddenly prime Maldini, man-marking everyone in and around the box wearing a pink/white shirt, including Luis Suarez. Almost like they are told to give him space when he is near goal and then just try to their best to block his shots to make things look legitimate.

I am probably just making it all up, but a lot of his chances just seem slightly suspect, in ways that chances for his team mates don’t. Of the goals his teammates scored, most were genuinely decent goals (a few even quite good), whilst his usually involved some ridiculously bad defending and/or keeping. And not in the “only Messi could make this happen” sort of way. In the “are we sure this isn’t Italian football” sort of way.
 
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Messi is the man got me, Ronaldo is superb but he works hard at it, Messi just floats around naturally without thinking, amazing to watch …
So wasted at that 4th tier club in the states…
He didn’t need the money, he should have aimed higher…
 
SebastianBlue said:
Just watched highlights of Inter Miami’s last few matches and I have to say, there is almost always something that feels a tad bit off about Messi’s goals/chances. It more often than not feels like his shots (and the keeper) are moving in slow motion. And opposition defenders seem to lose the will to mark him at times. There were several occasions when the two or three defenders in the box had only Messi to mark and somehow all of them, in unison, decided to slowly break in to a nice sieve formation and look toward the player on the wing with the ball, completely ignoring arguable the greatest player of all time standing literally bone still three yards from them. Then Messi is back in midfield in possession and all of the defenders are suddenly prime Maldini, man-marking everyone in and around the box wearing a pink/white shirt, including Luis Suarez. Almost like they are told to give him space when he is near goal and then just try to their best to block his shots to make things look legitimate.

I am probably just making it all up, but a lot of his chances just seem slightly suspect, in ways that chances for his team mates don’t. Of the goals his teammates scored, most were genuinely decent goals (a few even quite good), whilst his usually involved some ridiculously bad defending and/or keeping. And not in the “only Messi could make this happen” sort of way. In the “are we sure this isn’t Italian football” sort of way.
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Would the MLS put entertainment over an actual soccer match?

Of course they would!

They need a successful Messi to promote their product as fans are turning away and watching the USL who are now gaining leverage on them.
 
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