₦airaland Forum

BlueMann:
There's little more he can do with the squad and players he plays with, and the manager at the helm of affairs.

Messi not doing a lot against the big teams should not be of any surprise if you actually follow Barcelona. Rather, you should ask yourself: how did the manager plan for those aforementioned big games?

Barca's tactics against them big boys was mostly pass to Messi and Inshallah. So once you lock Messi, the whole team becomes predictable and stale. Did you see the game against Real Madrid, when they lost 2-1? Did you see the tactics employed by Koeman? Busquets at DM, and an extremely high line featuring Pique against a Real Madrid side that were more than happy to sit back and hit on the counter, which is probably their biggest strengths. The moment the lineups were released and the formations predicted, even Barca fans knew they were in for some trouble. The only reason the scoreline was respectable was because of profligacy.

That has been the theme for Barca in most of the big games. And you expect Messi to do it all by himself? Which of the supporting cast raised their game? Griezmann? Dembele? Or is it youngsters like Dest, De Jong, Pedri, Ilaix Moriba abi Puig wey Koeman no even gree play? Abi na Braitwaithe? Sergi Roberto?? Lenglet?

And even against PSG, he got both their goals. Against Atletico nko, when his best chance came when he dribbled like four or five players before drawing a fantastic save from Oblak? And when Dembele had a clear chance, he nodded over.

That has been the theme of Barca's season, especially in big games.

My point is, you cannot conveniently say Messi is finished just because he "failed to turn up in the big games". That would be conveniently ignoring Barca's problems.

And I dare say if you remove Messi and put Mbappe, Ronaldo, Haaland, Neymar etc in that Barca team, they would not fare much better.

ThierryJay:
Villa scored 186 liga goals. Forlan scored 128.

pu7pl3:
For people that didn't know Forlan


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wlX2y-nZfk

This guy could easily have been the talisman for a big La Liga team like Real or Barca too...

ThierryJay:
As a footballer, if you are good enough, you will eventually find yourself among elite team mates. That Forlan was demoted from elite company to Europa-tier teams is an indicator of his class.

And Villareal of 05-06 was mainly powered by Riquelme and Marcos Senna. How many goals did Forlan score that UCL season? Less than 4 goals and you are calling that "carrying" when he doesn't assist much.

I'd say their world cup 2010 feats cancel each other. They both scored 5 goals. In fact Villa scored higher percentage of Spain's goals than Forlan did for Uruguay. Meanwhile, Villa's Euro 2008 was better than Forlan's Copa 2011.

Forlan is good but not in Villa's class.

ddippset:
Lol

This thread don kolo.


From Suarez to Benzema to Aguero to Villa to Forlan to everybody..

ThierryJay:
Villa wasn't far behind in Pichichi race on the 2 occasions. Scored 25 goals when Eto won it with 26 goals. Again scored 28 goals when Forlan won it with 32 goals.

More significantly, Villa won the Spanish player of the season award in 2005-06 which is a better indicator of individual impact than Pichichi. Forlan never won a player of the season award. So why can't we compare.

David Villa was a reliable striker highly sought after by top clubs. Forlan was reliable for only 2 seasons and grossly inconsistent in the others.

Not even in the same class for me.

ThierryJay:
Yes, Forlan played for Inter and flopped badly.

ThierryJay:
Nah bro. Apart from scoring up to 29/30 league goals for Valencia in one season, Villa was Spain's highest goalscorer at Euros 2008 & 2012 and World Cup 2010. He also chipped in his quota for Barca's UCL win in 2011; scored a delightful goal in the final.

Meanwhile, Forlan was a misfit at Man Utd, then went to Villareal to redeem himself. Did decently at Villareal and Atletico Madrid but not as good as Villa at Vàlencia. It was with Uruguay at 2010 WC that Forlan truly excelled, but unfortunately Villa's input to Spain's WC and 2 Euros win trumps Forlan's Uruguay exploits.

ThierryJay:
The top 5 greatest La liga strikers in the past 20 years are Raul, Suarez, De Lima, Eto'o and David Villa. The best La liga striker in the past decade is Suarez.

pu7pl3:
Just clocked that Bray is the only remaining member from the Wyatt family in WWE

This whole development sucks

Qu3sT:
Bray took time off for mental health issues so can't pin that one on WWE, let him take his time and work things out.

jpmoriarti:
you'll be the first to say, if it ain't broken, don't fix it.

coded01:
Sell off those mediocre players...Then you get what you need...

jpmoriarti:
Barca shouldn't sign Aguero biko. This guy can't dribble any player again. He is done. Shouldn't come to Barca and delay our rejuvenation.

jpmoriarti:
Maybe a 20 something year old Messi. Not this present Messi, who defenders easily crowd.

Chelsea's formation tonight is ideal for nullifying false 9s. Talk and aggressive defenders who give very little away. ManCity had only one shot on target all game.

coded01:
Barcelona's last uefa champions league trophy was 2015... And I have seen a gradual decline ever since...

We now have LaPorta that many of us thought should know better...Imagine bringing in Aguero...a 34 year old that only played about 13mins in a " Uefa Champions League Final"

Barca

coded01:
@ Debroslink

Let's not disregard Eto, Xavier, Iniesta and the rest...

But we all understand that Messi made it easier for Pep...

He is very stubborn and arrogant

Since Barca days, he never won a champions league... Ever wondered why

This is what set Klopp, now Tuchel apart from him... 8

coded01:
Pep's ego cost Man City this Trophy...

It's not new, in fact he tried this in barca but it worked only because we had the best players MESSI in the world then but we should not even consider him for managerial position...
Very arrogant
Tuchel I hail oh...

jpmoriarti:
ManCity couldn't trouble the keeper at all. I dont know if Mendy had any saves of note. The absence of a DM actually hurt them in the first half. In the second half, they brought in Fernadinho but it was too little too late.

jpmoriarti:
Tuchel the best coach of the season.

Very tactical and inspirational.

coded01:
Imagine using a cm as a false 9 while the natural 9 is on the bench

Guess who wants that benched 9 who is 34 years old

coded01:
Can Pep return to Barca and win us a UEFA Champions League Trophy

Tuchel dey coach I beg...

jpmoriarti:
The team was emotionally broken having seen the coach suffer cancer and later death. Xavi admitted that the team didn't practice tactics at the time. Also Messi was injured during that period. We only managed to scrap past PSG in the round of 16 that year before getting hammered by Bayern.

By and large, that season was an emotional one for everybody.

jpmoriarti:
You have valid points too. Weak foundations. Mediocre coaching etc

But how do you explain what happened to us in Rome and Liverpool, and how our campaign petered out with a whimper when we were primed by bookmakers to go on and claim the title?

Against Roma and Liverpool, we won 4-1 and 3-0 respectively. How can you explain our inability to see it out just a week later? You gonne pin that to mediocre coaching and weak foundations too? I won't! No excuse to what happened apart from lack of motivation and weak mentality. A Puyol, or Xavi or Sergio Ramos cannot allow that to happen to a team under his captainship. But we have to come expect that from Messi every single fucckkking time.

Santiago123:
I am a Barcelona fan,modric better than iniesta,it's quite debatable,but it could go either way really,inista is usually overrated by most of the cules here.
But that's just about it,I don't think modric or any midfielder of the last 15 years comes close to xavi,i can back my claim up,but I believe any intelligent person should know this.

jpmoriarti:
Our fans here have refused to acknowledge that Messi being introvert have contributed to our weak mentality or feebleness. We stopped competing in UCL as soon as Messi and Iniesta became captain. They are not to blame alone but they haven't been the best captains when you needed motivation.

Moura7:
Bro I only mentioned Messi because your first point about Forlan being better than Henry was because Henry was surrounded by better players and Forlan wasn't and yet He still shone well. Now we all know Messi didn't start playing ball from 2017 infact us being honest, Messi had his best years before that era and then he was surrounded by wonderful players but does that doesn't in any way make Harry Kane or Lewa or Aguero or Athletico Grizz hold a torch to his greatness.

devvy44:
Same Forlan that had Suarez along side him that scored 4 goals and also won the MVP in that copa America triumph?

Or the same Forlan that had aguero when atm won the europa league

Abeg take it easy when you use the word “single-handedly”

Moura7:
Lol...let's not downplay Henry's greatness just because he was surrounded by great players.
The same can be said about Messi too.