Lionel Messi

The. Best. Ever.

 

Freak.

 

Xavi doesn't play nearly as many games as messi nowadays.

Xavi has played 2989 minutes this season, whereas messi has played 3872. No one in the barca team really comes close to that amount. (except for Valdes, even he has played less than Messi this season).

That is just for club, add in the international games he plays, training etc. His body really is at it's limit. I daresay when he reaches that age he will be rested alot more, just to protect him.

Whenever Pep is resting first teamer in the league or whatever, messi is never one of them. Unless suspended, he nearly always plays


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011–12_FC_Barcelona_season#Player_Stats

 

Messi might just be a generally fit player though, so it could go either way, lots of players play a lot of games for years like Javier Zanetti or Bobby Lennox even Pele etc

 

Actually they do play in the same amount of games. Look at the stats again. Messi plays more minutes because he never gets subbed, Xavi does quite oftenly and there's also the fact that he's 8 years older, meaning that Messi will likely be treated the same way when he's older. This talk that Messi is going to be broken down by 30 just doesn't make sense when you look at how Barca handle players of that age.

Oh, and Xavi's distance covered is closer to Messi's than the minutes difference. He routinely covers the most amount of ground, even when subbed off.

 

I'm sure Messi can adapt his game when he's older in a similar way Giggs has. His pass through to Tello in the 2nd half was just as sublime as any goal he scored tonight. Shame he didn't score it.

 

DITTO

 

He makes everything he does look so easy. Incredible that he's only 24 .

 

He's insane. Reached a massive record at such a young age. BEst of all time.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOQ1WWziEt4&feature=youtu.be

Enjoy.

 

Could he be even better next season? This summer is going to be his first rest in a couple of years and he could probably do with it

 

I was at that panathanikos match to see his 2nd goal, Delighted!

 

The guy is a *
i mean he broke the clubs record and he is how old, i mean come on he will bang in another 200
as barca wont sell him for less than nah * it nobody could afford him

 

Depends whether he'd get protection from the referees or not, which team he's playing for, and who his manager is. Considering the numbers he's hitting at the minute, it wouldn't be totally unimaginable to conceive of him scoring triple figures. Just imagine him scoring a 100 in a season!

He should come on loan to us, just to do it. Anyway, my favourite goal from him is still one of his earliest, against Getafe. I don't think I've seen better from him:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOWrtCOMxto"]Lionel Messi Goal Vs Getafe - YouTube[/ame]

 

Best player ever and the best there ever will be.

 

Lol... at about 29 seconds you can see Eto'o with his hands on his head like "what the * did I just see...?"

 

This is something that sounds completely and utterly * stupid, but when you think about what I'm about to say logically, it should make sense.

Messi would struggle in the SPL. Not in terms of ability (as if that needed clarification), but the defenders over here are nothing more than hatchet men and every time he got the ball, there would be at least four different men swarming around at any given time, waiting to stick the boot in and put him on the sidelines. It isn't like Spain, where the defenders are 10x as talented as the ones produced in Scotland and can regain the ball for their team without resorting to lunging in with studs showing.

Can you imagine for one second Messi going toe to toe with Ross Tokely or Kelvin Wilson? They obviously aren't quick enough to catch him and he could run rings around them with his eyes closed, so they would have nothing left in their locker to stop him from scoring except to break his leg.

Finally, the quality of the pitches over here is shocking too. Messi is absolutely phenomenal, there's no doubt about it. One of the best players that ever lived, with the potential to become the greatest of all time. But one would wonder whether he could cut it playing at Inverness on a cold, Wednesday evening in January.

 

Like I said, it'd depend on the protection of the referees. I'm sure he'd receive it more often than not.

And the idea that he can't cut it depending on the weather or the state of the pitch, has already been disproved by the player himself. He's performed in many different scenarios.

Simply the greatest.

 

He can't stick the head in when needed. No one at Barca seems able to, which I suppose is why Real Madrid, Mourinho's smelly shitebag army, is in first place in La Liga.

Messi seems to rely on the passing ability of Xavi and Iniesta, as evidenced by Messi's Argentina statistics.

Forget Messi, watch Xavi, both on and off the ball, the guy can dictate a game without even touching the ball.