Messi "best player of all time"

[verreauxi]

Messi is just awful in WC play. But in league play he is boss. I always liked this analysis from 538 (which is now 4 years old):

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/lionel-messi-is-impossible/

 

[BigDunc'sFod]

Actually this really is wrong. One of the things Messi is noted for is his determination to stay on the pitch even when getting kicked all over the show.
In the end they are both great players and more importantly neither ever have nor ever will play for us , sadly.
Everything else is just opinion.

Barcelona Messi is very different than Argentina Messi was my point. You can be determined when you know your team are far and away better than the other side because it's basically a sure thing, you know you'll get chances fed to you and even if you lose the blame is shared with the other boss players because people expect something from them too.

It is hard being a one man team though. Never said he had it easy and never said he's a bad player because that's ridiculous, he's an amazing one. If Ebepton were going to have one of them this last season, though, Ronaldo would have made the bigger difference.

 

[The Blue Watch]

Portugal played Austria, Iceland, Hungary, Croatia, Wales and France en route to winning in 2016. They won one of those games in normal time.

Saying they wouldn't have got out of their group in any other tournament doesn't make any sense. It's not like it was a last minute decision to allow the best 3rd placed teams to progress, everyone knew what the rules were when the tournament started. Also what's so important about winning the games in normal time? Again, everyone knows the rules.

One could argue that they were unbeaten in 7 games, and that included teams having an extra 90 minutes to try and beat them.

They weren't the best team of all time, but they had a solid defence that other teams struggled to break down, a very competent midfield, and an attack capable of making the difference at any point in a game.

You could also argue Ronaldo was at the other end of it when Greece won the Euros in 2004 so which one is it?

 

[Abraders]

Ronaldo is better nea

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

Messi is outstanding

But he isn't Pele

There'll never be another

You have Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, Pele, Wayne Gretsky and Brian Lara on sporting Mount Rushmore. I know that's five people but I'm not arsed

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

dont remeber messi scoring much in the knockout stages of 2014 yanno

Was a string of 1-0's and then a penalty shootout if I recall

Very similar to 1990 in fact, when a physically broken Maradonna got them to the final whilst having to get injections in his foot (He also drugged the Brazilians in the Round of 16 but that's by the by)

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Was a string of 1-0's and then a penalty shootout if I recall

Very similar to 1990 in fact, when a physically broken Maradonna got them to the final whilst having to get injections in his foot (He also drugged the Brazilians in the Round of 16 but that's by the by)

Not sure the foot was the only place he had injections tbh.

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

Not sure the foot was the only place he had injections tbh.

Well he never got done for doping in 1990 and I personally think he was probably clean outside of the pain medication

He was definitely on gear in 1994 though and was rightly banned for it as consequence

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Well he never got done for doping in 1990 and I personally think he was probably clean outside of the pain medication

He was definitely on gear in 1994 though and was rightly banned for it as consequence

He had a 15 month drugs ban in 1991. Incidentally, the cortisone injections that have been an unquestioned staple in football for donkey's years are precisely what got Bradley Wiggins into hot water after it was alleged this was what was in his jiffy bag. It's been used in cycling for the best part of 40 years and is fairly widely regarded to be performance enhancing, but in football it's a okay.

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

He had a 15 month drugs ban in 1991.

I still think he was clean at Italia 90

He would have played much better if he was taking stuff

Even with his pain meds he was a shuffling wreck

 

[Walken]

He had a 15 month drugs ban in 1991.

I think it was 86 where some of the urine samples came back pregnant from the argie team, this being before proper policing of the samples

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I think it was 86 where some of the urine samples came back pregnant from the argie team, this being before proper policing of the samples

Not sure there's proper policing of things even now tbh. I mean in Gary Neville's autobiography he talks openly about the players queuing around the block at the team doctor for injections prior to the Argentina game. They didn't ask what was in them but felt like they could run all day afterwards. Sure it's nothing though.

 

[Mikey_Fitzgerald]

Not sure there's proper policing of things even now tbh. I mean in Gary Neville's autobiography he talks openly about the players queuing around the block at the team doctor for injections prior to the Argentina game. They didn't ask what was in them but felt like they could run all day afterwards. Sure it's nothing though.

There's lots of suspicion that the 1954 World Cup winning German team was on drugs

Reportedly needles were found in the dressing room and a lot of the team succumbed to jaundice after the tournament

 

[Toffeeslam]

Best player I have ever seen is that cheating little troll Diego Armando Maradona

 

[Nobby Nobbs]

fascinating and yet tedious at the same time.[/QUOTE Wow have you just said watching Messi is tedious there's a lot you can say about Messi but tedious is not one of them.