adding some imaginative assists to Messi is not biased? Only show his club good record and ignore his so-so NT is not biased? You even dare to put Messi WC14 alongside with Maradona 86 is not biased?
Great record by Messi, all the more impressive since the goals per game of La Liga now is ~33% lower than the Paulista during Pele's time. Also, seven seasons is usually the benchmark for a legacy, so that's another accomplishment this season. By the way, why isn't Messi 12-13 season, with 60 goals, not listed on the "One Season" table?
You could list Messi multiple times in the lists but I think it's better this way, so you can see the goal scoring peak season of all players in this.
Messi is currently playing better than ever before, his overall game is better than ever before, but Barcelona isn't a good as it used to be and he's playing for the team, as a play maker and controller. In addition he's also currently marked more than any other player in history of the game. Nevertheless he's is going to brake his dribbling record and possibly also assist record (which he should already have if Neymar was finishing regularly), for example: Top 3 successful dribbles in CL since 09-10 79 Messi 10-11 71 Messi 14-15 (2-3 games left) 57 Messi 09-10
To illustrate previous whoscored rating counts differrent 200 statistic, not just goals: La Liga + UCL whoscored.com rating 09-15 Season Rating MoM Games 09-10 8,62 18 45 10-11 8,78 29 46 11-12 8,88 32 48 12-13 8,55 24 43 13-14 8,41 19 38 14-15 8,84 29 42 (8-9 games left) His overall game is as good as 11-12, but he's playing more, and more withdrawn position, and he's more important. @John Baldessari
http://www.whoscored.com/Players/11119/History/Lionel-Messi Well, if we go by WhoScored rating then 10 team-mates in 2011-12 had a rating higher than 7.00 (under 'minimum appearances' criteria, which is standard). In 2014-15 it are 12 team-mates. In 2011-12 zero team-mates had a score higher than 7.50, in 2014-15 three team-mates. Just sayin'
My bad, one can also see the 'team rating' at WhoScored. It was 7.50 in 2011-12 and 7.49 in 2014-15. The individual rating was 8.88 then and 8.78 in the league now. The above post is still true however, and also holds for the Champions League. Back then only David Villa had a rating higher than 7.50 in the UCL. Now Suarez, Neymar and Bartra. Of course, if 2011-12 Pedro is for 80% of the time concerned with passing/crossing the ball to 'the stars' then it has an effect on his own individual rating but this is just only per WhoScored.
Don't know where to put this so I'll put it here as many have questioned when I said teams train collectively to stop Messi. "Messi is unique and always makes the difference. With him, any team can win the Champions League. He has been the most dangerous rival I have ever had to face – and many times, too. Each time I would spend hours and hours thinking of the best way to stop him collectively, because it is impossible to man mark him." - Jose Mourinho @PuckVanHeel
Difficult to say whether it would really be "impossible" to effectively man-mark Messi. The problem is that there are no world class man-markers playing anymore. So it might be true for today's game but 20-30 years ago is a different story. A world class man-marker would try to keep Messi off the ball and if he fails in doing that there would be a second 'sweeper' marker to pick Messi up. Of course the balance of the defending team would get afflicted negatively if two players were to follow Messi closely everywhere in their own half but that's another story. The job of a man-marker was not as 'primitive' as many today think it was. A first rate man-marker had to get into the mind of the player he was marking, he had to anticipate the moves of the forward before he made them. That was a bit of a psychological task and not as 'primitive' as suggested today.
I didn't react because it is usually a repeat of the same thing - and no actual debate or discussion will follow. Maybe he can't be marked by a championship winning team that loses four games in a row, maybe he can (in semi finals). And I never denied that modern day elite teams train collectively and use all kind of data. I never remotely argued against that idea, so in that sense I don't understand why I'm tagged. Is there a video of what Mourinho said exactly? I can only find one where he talks about Gerrard (at the same day). And who asked the question? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...sagrees-Bayern-Munich-boss-Pep-Guardiola.html In 2010, where he indeed didn't use man-to-man tactics (he isn't literally saying above that he did, that's why a video would help): Some decent comment on the Guardian website that I read: Suarez is the Benzema of Barcelona, but an upgraded version obviously. Neymar had in terms of scoring a strong start of the season (when Suarez was a minor/non-existent actor in the play) despite taking twice as fewer shots, but it has evened out eventually. Other decent/good articles of the past week: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...s-of-lionel-messis-second-goal-against-bayern https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blog...-suarez-liberated-lionel-messi-103829257.html http://www.daserste.de/information/...sportschlau/sportschlau-lionel-mesie-100.html
Gentile probably could not perform the same job today as he did 30 years ago with referees being less lenient towards fouls. A really good man-marker can take a player out of the game without committing too many fouls anyway. A good man-marker is doing his job mainly with his head. If he anticipates well then he has to tackle and to foul far less which strains him less and which keeps his concentration level high throughout the match. A good man-marker lives on his routine and maturity and a meticulous preparation regarding the special traits of his opponent. When a striker offers himself for a short ball, moving towards his teammate, then the marker has to anticipate this move in order to stay close to his opponent to keep him off the ball. If he is just reacting to the move of the striker then he will lose the necessary time to keep him off the ball. If a striker chases a through ball quickly moving into the box, trying to lose his marker by quickly turning around , then the marker has to position himself in a way that the striker won't get to turn around him that easily ... all this by using fair means. A marker who does not anticipate well will either lose his grip on the striker or will commit a foul in a dangerous area which would lead to a freekick. Look at the space Bayern gave Barcelona in defense ....
That's the thing with collective marking, marking stays more fresh throughout the game. It's the same as hunting in packs, continuous harassment which eventually brings down the bigger prey than you. And anticipation today is much easier than before, because of the advanced training methods and how the media of every move of every player is so available. Gentile couldn't watch compilation of every move of every game of Maradona when zipping his morning coffee for example. The comparison is more extreme more in you go in history, in Pele's time players usually just randomly popped in front of you and then tried to stop you knowing about nothing how you played. Messi is most watched player, and thus most easier to anticipate. And that was the beauty of what Messi did to Neuer in the first goal, and Boateng the next, he did the unexpected. That picture was true about 15 minutes, before Guardiola changed the formation.
As continuation for the previous, I just read this, Patrick Vieira talking about Messi before the match against Switzerland in WC14 R16, conveying pretty much the same as Mourinho. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/wo...arning-Switzerland-ahead-Argentina-clash.html Patrick Vieira - "It would be a huge mistake to man mark Messi. He can just beat his marker or move and make openings for others. The only thing you can really do is give less space like Iran did. They played by getting close and being aggressive but late they got tired and dropped off him a little. That’s all he needed to score." Of that first meeting when Messi was just 18, Vieira added: "I tried to kick him… I tried to scare him but every time you fouled him he put the ball down on the floor, took a free kick and was off again looking for the ball. He always shows real bravery and courage and plays for the team."
Messi has equalled Di Stefano as Argentine with most competitive (no invitational or fixed games) team titles at senior level: 22 Messi (+ Olympics + WCU20) 22 Di Stefano 20 Cambiasso (+ 3 youth NT)