Who has been the big bust of the WC?

Messi hasn't been a bust. He was a key contributor to the majority of Argentinas goals and did well in organising the Argentine game. He might not have lived up to the enormous expactations, but he was very good by every other standard.

Rooney, Ronaldo and the entire French nt. Though the latter 2 were predictable after their most recent nt performances.

 

Messi certainly wasn't a bust, and Terry was maybe England's best player against Slovenia

 

Messi took 30 shots, never scored a goal. Played every minute but never once even got a single legit assist. So he wasn't scoring and he wasn't assisting. Maybe someone should define a "bust".

 

That just proves that stats aren't everything in football.

Messi is a forward who was played as a center midfielder for most of the cup. Despite playing in a position completely alien to him he was Argentina's best player and contibuted to most of the goals the team scored. Calling him a bust is a joke.

The biggest bust this cup was easily Rooney.

 

Every world cup when we find out the Nike hype jobs are actually much more mediocre than their commercials portray, we always hear about the misleading stats. The suddenly their stats are important again after they go back to their billion dollar clubs.

I watched Messi in every game. He was distinctly average. How you go from "best player in the world" to average and not be considered a bust is beyond me. But it comes down to the definition of the word. Someone who significantly underperforms is a bust in my mind, and Messi qualifies.

 

According to the German kicker magazine, Messi is leading for assists, with 4. I believe all of them were deflected shots on goal converted by Higuain or Tevez, not counted as a true assist by everyone, but in cases like these, I rate Messis contribution at least as high as the players that convert from 2m.

Messi is widely considered to be the best player in the world right now, and he couldn't prove that in South Africa. But he played his part in the 2nd most successfull offense of the tournament until this point. A bit disappointing, but a bust is something different for me: Rooney, Ronaldo, Ribery had little or no impact on the game of their teams, let alone the tournament, and they are all considered to be world class as well.

 

I consider his pass to Aguero, surrounded by five South Koreans, more an assist than Aguero's to Higuain.

 

Messi played well consistently the national team for the first time. At a different position that's pretty good. Bust? Nope. Someone need to incorporate the Barca game to get the best from him.

Rooney and C. Ronaldo top the list, follow by Ribery and a busload of others.

 

Ya, sure, he had a couple. But if I go get the average number of these "soft assists" + "hard assists", Messi would still easilly fall into the world cup average range for an attacking midfielder.

 

And maybe Ronaldo just needed to incorporate the RM game. And Rooney, Ribery etc. We can make excuses all day. They were all busts. Ribery's team completely imploded, so he has an excuse. Anyway, The problem wasn't their WC performance, but their ridiculously overrated "stock" before they even got on the plane to south africa.

 

ok lets see your numbers

 

I'd have to go back and watch every game in this world cup cause no one records soft assists. Not likely.

I would guess the average attacking midfielder who made it to the quarterfinals would have 3 assists(1 or 2 hard +1 or 2 soft) and 1 goal, maybe 1.5 goals.

 

That's bullshit. Argentina scored 10 with Messi as focal point of their attack, more than everyone else but Germany, 4 more than Spain. He didn't bust anymore than Kaka, Xavi or Iniesta.

 

It's not the assists he made or how many shots. It's his influence on the offense. Messi didn't do so bad considering. Also, I'm not sure about the expectations people had for Argentina. They haven't won anything for years - and almost didn't qualify.

To think that Messi will do wonders as best player in the world for Argentina means you don't know the game at the international level.

Most top players by today's standards are only good at club level.

 

I wouldn't call Messi a bust. I would call him a dissapoinment. Same as Kaka.

The issue with Messi is that the bar was set stratospherically high in his case. Everybody was expecting Messi to explote in Southafrica with a performance for the ages .... ala Cruiff 74, Pele 70 or Maradona 86.

That is the reason he looks like a bust: the higher the expectations, the hardest the fall.

His performance in Southafrica was mediocre. Had he been any other player, nobody would be talking about bust, just about a poor performance

Ronaldo is borderline bust. Only his performance against crappy North Korea saves him.

In the case of Ronney I think we have a bust. Ribery is a bust whithin a bigger collective bust called France.

 

whatever

 

The biggest bust?

That Paraguay model with the fake silicone tits probably.

 

It can't be a coincidence that, whilst reading through this thread, i see an advert to buy French soccer jerseys on top of the page. Must be in great demand too.

 

Stats are important but they aren't everything. Take a look at a player like Iniesta who's generally considered to be one of the best in the world. For Barca his stats aren't that impressive especially for a player who plays in an attacking position. However if you watch his game he contributes more than the stats will tell you.

If you think Messi was poor that's fine but as you've seen in this thread not many agree.

But he's not really an attacking midfielder. He's a forward, he even played CF for periods last year, that was forced to play CM for most of this cup.

 

I didn't say he was poor. I said he was a bust, meaning "to significantly underperform".

Well, he played mostly in the role of an attacking midfielder in this WC. If you want me to count him as a forward/striker his performance was even worse.

 

You seem to be quite dense here. He is a forward who was made to play midfield for Argentina. He was played out of position.

And considering that he did quite well. Almost every dangerous attacking move Argentina made, Messi was involved in. Do you think Higuain or Tevez gets their goals if Messi doesn't play? Does Palermo get his goal if Messi is not on the field?

 

Messi is the backbone of that team. His vision made that team as dangerous as they were. Till they met the Germans who are playing out of this world