The 5 kings: Pele, Maradona, Beckenbauer, Cruyff, Di Stefano?
Luis Suarez exists.
He's nowhere near the Suarez of 4 years ago imo.
Natural talent is most definitely not a myth. Of course he has to train for it. But the natural talent is obvious. Ronaldinho in 05 or 2006 said he wasn't even the best player in Barcelona, when people were saying he's one of the best ever, referring to 18 year old Messi at the time. No amount of training can put you to that level. Not everyone is equal and it's all a matter of dedication. That is a myth. Some people are naturally talented and of course still have to train, but they will get to the top much easier, and in messi's case, he's the most naturally talented player ever, a pure footballer so to speak. That is stuff you can't train.
Still hasn't scored in the CL this season though
It is not about natural talent, because people do not have an evolutionary gene that allows them to be able to kick a ball around.
I think you're arguing the same point really, just THT68 doesn't like it being called natural talent and bosnian_red does.
And that, my friend, is exactly why he is the best player ever.
I'm not sure what you mean. Are you suggesting he'd have been this good regardless of what field he chose because of his learning ability?
Looks like he is past it and lost his pace. His touch, passing everything so was hit and miss yesterday.
From what I've experienced along the years that only holds true as long as one of the two actually got some sort of brain damage. A fully functional brain of let's say a healthy trucker got pretty much the same potential as that of a scientist. What defines the difference between them are their subconscious learning strategies and those strategies can be aquired. Some peoples' brains just learn to use them naturally because of beneficial environmental influences (visual, auditory and kinesthetic experiences) while others start habituating less effective strategies. I'm currently helping dyslexic kids below the age of 10 to aquire helpful learning strategies and some of them improved dramatically after just 2 hours of training. I believe pretty much every person on the planet with a healthy brain can learn to use it more effectivley.
Without doubt. Without Messi Barca are like any other team.
He's irreplaceable like Ferguson, all you can do is hope you get the next best thing.
How would you say he plays for Argentina? Because every time I watch him, he has to play deeper and carry a bunch of failures to victory.
You should try watching Argentina from time to time, he's the one who carries the team every match.He already has a bit. His decline is still up in the universe but compare him to Messi of 4-5 years ago he has declined a bit especially in dribbling
Every time? Failures ? Yeah players on that team have let him down but he has also let them down. This idea that Leo has always been the sole warrior for Argentina (a team with a majority of world class players) isn't true. It has happened many times but it isn't always the case.
He has declined a bit, but his way of playing hides it. Even if he doesn't have the same dribble or speed anymore, he still finds the spaces to run into and still has the killer pass, still great.
No one is born to be able to play a sport, sports are not built into human evolution and biology sk to suggest they are born able to kick a ball around is absurd.
For sure. He is smart enough not to dribble as much anymore and find the pass.
Again,
I do, he's great but nowhere close to what we've seen at Barca. Certainly not near the consistency.
Even his level drops, everyone's level drops in that team for whatever reason. He's great for them but hardly out of this world. Certainly not near the levels of being the a level above the best players to have ever played the game.
Yeah he's definitely a touch slower much like Aguero is these days. Still phenomenal footballers. He's going to go on a while.
International football by it's very nature is inconsistent. Think about it, it's different squads that you'll meet up with once every 3 or 4 months whereas at club level you're playing and training with the same players every single day.
If it wasn't for him Argentina wouldn't even play in Russia, without him we lost every single game playing horrible.
Not saying he's "born to play football". That would be ridiculous. Still I believe his biological traits like a low center of gravity, muscular structure, sense of balance etc. in that exact composition are an integral part to his capabilities as well as his limitations as a player. I doubt someone with the built of Drogba would be able to replicate Messi's playstyle to the same degree of effectiveness simply because of physical limitations like inertia.
Some players do maintain their standards especially those fortunate enough to play for a national team that's made from a dominant club. What we can say from Messi and Ronaldo is that a team has a huge impact on the performance levels of a star regardless of how good they are or perceived to be.
See the tackles flying in there
Certainly less defensive than before but Chelsea still didn't open up quite like they do against teams in the PL. Hazard and Fabregas were nowhere to be found.
