Lionel Messi | PSG Watch

Iker Quesadillas

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Let's get real, though. It's Messi. He'll wake up in mid-December and score 35 league goals in three months.
 

AndySmith1990

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For me he's the most talented footballer to ever play the game. At his peak he was ridiculous; 73 goals in one season, laying off passes and through balls like Paul Scholes, dribbling through defences for fun. The ultimate attacking player tbh.

My opinion of him went down for choosing to move to PSG, though. A man who already has more money than he could spend in 10 life times, following the oil money in a league lacking much competition. Kinda sad really.
 

Pep's Suit

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I won't be surprised if Messi only plays 45-55% of all Ligue 1 games during his time with PSG. Look at Neymar's numbers since he moved there: 20-17-15-18. Also Verratti has similar stats from last four seasons. These guys are basically semi-retired.
 

RedRonaldo

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PSG in French league is just a place for semi-retirement, isn’t it. I know aging is real and could be the reason catching up his legs, together with lack of motivation, or minor injuries. But I hope the outstanding form from his long time rival, could just somehow motivates him to up another gear. I am really expecting him to boss the league with 40+ goals or something, it’s just the French league afterall, and he is Messi.
 

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He's injured again? How does he manage what seems like 100 games a season for Barca and at PSG he barely strings together 3 games in a row?
 

El Jefe

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It really is funny how Messi has been at the top of his game for well over a decade but some posters seem desperate to make the PSG era of his career an important factor in his legacy. What's even funnier is he's only played 8 games and struggling with injuries :lol:

Messi's story was completed once he won the Copa with Argentina. Anything else is just a footnote now unless he can win the CL or WC.
 

kouroux

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It really is funny how Messi has been at the top of his game for well over a decade but some posters seem desperate to make the PSG era of his career an important factor in his legacy. What's even funnier is he's only played 8 games and struggling with injuries :lol:

Messi's story was completed once he won the Copa with Argentina. Anything else is just a footnote now unless he can win the CL or WC.
So is his story completed or not ?
 

Lay

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PSG in French league is just a place for semi-retirement, isn’t it. I know aging is real and could be the reason catching up his legs, together with lack of motivation, or minor injuries. But I hope the outstanding form from his long time rival, could just somehow motivates him to up another gear. I am really expecting him to boss the league with 40+ goals or something, it’s just the French league afterall, and he is Messi.
Ligue 1 is a physical league and more defensive. I don't believe Messi has fully adapted yet. Scoring 50 goals or whatever is FIFA/FM talk. Before Zlatan came along the top scorers in the league would get about 20 goals. Pauleta top scored with 15 one season. Ben Yedder top scored with 18 goals a couple of seasons ago. Zlatan really changed the perception of how many goals get scored in the league.
 

KeanoMagicHat

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He's injured again? How does he manage what seems like 100 games a season for Barca and at PSG he barely strings together 3 games in a row?
Because PSG can win Ligue 1 games without their stars and don’t push them to come back. Different culture altogether.

Look at Neymar’s League stats. Plays 30+ games in La Liga, drops to below 20 a season for PSG. Verratti would also play more often for a club in England or Italy.

Essentially Messi and Neymar are there for 7 or 8 games in the Champions League.

I won't be surprised if Messi only plays 45-55% of all Ligue 1 games during his time with PSG. Look at Neymar's numbers since he moved there: 20-17-15-18. Also Verratti has similar stats from last four seasons. These guys are basically semi-retired.
Just realised I repeated a lot of this! Apologies but yes I agree.
 
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kouroux

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Because PSG can win Ligue 1 games without their stars and don’t push them to come back. Different culture altogether.

Look at Neymar’s League stats. Plays 30+ games in La Liga, drops to below 20 a season for PSG. Verratti would also play more often for a club in England or Italy.

Essentially Messi and Neymar are there for 7 or 8 games in the Champions League.



Just realised I repeated a lot of this! Apologies but yes I agree.
Verratti would defo not play more elsewhere. When you are an injury prone, it is what it is. Verratti is a great player who loves to play football in France, he just gets regularly injured every season
 

RedRonaldo

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Ligue 1 is a physical league and more defensive. I don't believe Messi has fully adapted yet. Scoring 50 goals or whatever is FIFA/FM talk. Before Zlatan came along the top scorers in the league would get about 20 goals. Pauleta top scored with 15 one season. Ben Yedder top scored with 18 goals a couple of seasons ago. Zlatan really changed the perception of how many goals get scored in the league.
Because there is no quality before Zlatan.
Zalatan scored 50 in France when he was 34, Mbappe scored 42 last season, despite only scoring 3 goals in 12 games for France national team this year. Messi is better than both, he still is better IMO. Don't make it sound like its a tough league just because Messi has a slow start, it isn't tough, it is a farmer's league and currently ranked 6th in Europe.
 

L1nk

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I think the real problem is having to shoehorn Neymar, Mbappe and Messi into one team where I don't think personally Pochettino wants to do that, but has probably had words spoken to him from up top. Plus, if one of them is dropped you know they are going to kick up a fuss.
 

Lay

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Because there is no quality before Zlatan.
Zalatan scored 50 in France when he was 34, Mbappe scored 42 last season, despite only scoring 3 goals in 12 games for France national team this year. Messi is better than both, he still is better IMO. Don't make it sound like its a tough league just because Messi has a slow start, it isn't tough, it is a farmer's league and currently ranked 6th in Europe.
There was quality before Zlatan in fairness. Some great players have played in France.

I wasn’t trying to defend Messi. I actually don’t think he has adapted to how defensive and physical the league is. He gets brushed off the ball incredibly easy which wasn’t as common in Spain.
 

kouroux

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Because there is no quality before Zlatan.
Zalatan scored 50 in France when he was 34, Mbappe scored 42 last season, despite only scoring 3 goals in 12 games for France national team this year. Messi is better than both, he still is better IMO. Don't make it sound like its a tough league just because Messi has a slow start, it isn't tough, it is a farmer's league and currently ranked 6th in Europe.
It is a hard league when you don't play for PSG more often than not.
 

jamesjimmybyrondean

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There was quality before Zlatan in fairness. Some great players have played in France.

I wasn’t trying to defend Messi. I actually don’t think he has adapted to how defensive and physical the league is. He gets brushed off the ball incredibly easy which wasn’t as common in Spain.
To me it looks like he's not arsed to put in much effort. He wouldn't be getting brushed so easily when playing for Argentina. I also think Pochettino tactics doesn't help. Alot of the time the players are too far apart from each other and are very easy to press even by bottom teams in ligue 1
 

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He seems unhappy at the moment. He had been living the same type of lifestyle for 20 years, same exact routine. As he revealed on the interview he gave just a few days ago, everything was handed out on a silver platter for him, he could even take and pick up his kids from school everyday.

On Paris he doesnt have the time for that, its apparently 1 hour ride each way to school so he cant do that and still make it to training on time, so he doesnt see his family as much. His kids dont know any other kids, his wife doesnt know anyone either and im sure they are making a deal about it too.

I think he expected the change to be much smoother, but it clearly hasnt. Add in a few injuries here and there, new league and teammates etc and yeah he seems to be struggling.

TBH i dont think he has been bad, he has been good the times he has played. He just hasnt been Messi. Personally i think hes tough as they come mentally, so hes bound to bounce back eventually.
 

Samid

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“In August 2020 after Fati changed his agent Rodrigo Messi with Jorge Mendes.. Messi's family felt cheated and Leo isolated Ansu in the dressing room and asked Bartomeu to get rid of him, but Josep refused.”

Absolute state of this dictator.
 

Rooney in Paris

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On Paris he doesnt have the time for that, its apparently 1 hour ride each way to school so he cant do that and still make it to training on time, so he doesnt see his family as much. His kids dont know any other kids, his wife doesnt know anyone either and im sure they are making a deal about it too.
Really hard time for the Messis, indeed. My heart goes out to them.
 

Wolf1992

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Because there is no quality before Zlatan.
Zalatan scored 50 in France when he was 34, Mbappe scored 42 last season, despite only scoring 3 goals in 12 games for France national team this year. Messi is better than both, he still is better IMO. Don't make it sound like its a tough league just because Messi has a slow start, it isn't tough, it is a farmer's league and currently ranked 6th in Europe.
That's is non-sense.

Henry,Benzema,Platini,Jean Pierre Papin and Cantona were before Zlatan in Ligue 1, how are they not quality because they didn't score 50 goals before Zlatan arrived?
Zlatan played for a PSG with unlimited funds ,thanks to Qatar, and had a massive advantage over the rest of the league, a noticeable bigger gap that 90s O.Marseille and 2000s Lyon had over the rest back then...and any french champions in history.
Plus this is even more noticeable in these times cause now more than ever best players from Ligue 1 move immediately to England,Spain, and Germany after the first very good season they, of course french teams that don't have unlimited funds like PSG are gonna look worse than their counterparts 20-30 years ago.

Mbappé is also playing for a PSG that has a massive advantage over the rest of the league, no shit he is gonna score 34 goals in a season now, while Henry couldn't even score 20 for Monaco in the 90s.

And btw, Portugal is gonna be back to the 6th position next season, french teams in UCL,Europa League and Conference have lost only 1 match this season in more than 16 matches they played, France is getting back to 5th position considering the minuscule difference that Portugal had over France to take the 5th place.

Imagine thinking that Messi legacy as GOAT is gonna be damaged for not scoring 40 goals per season in Ligue 1, when even many ex-Cristiano teammates from Man Utd think Messi is the real GOAT over the portuguese, but some people from the CAF think that Messi not scoring 40 per season in France gonna hurt his legacy.
 

Flytan

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It really is funny how Messi has been at the top of his game for well over a decade but some posters seem desperate to make the PSG era of his career an important factor in his legacy. What's even funnier is he's only played 8 games and struggling with injuries :lol:

Messi's story was completed once he won the Copa with Argentina. Anything else is just a footnote now unless he can win the CL or WC.
You can't claim the rest of his career is pointless and then say "unless". Like what? He's either still playing or not. He's cemented a legend regardless but like Jordan, Kobe, and Peyton Manning sometimes it's harder to watch the end of their career.
 

RedRonaldo

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That's is non-sense.

Henry,Benzema,Platini,Jean Pierre Papin and Cantona were before Zlatan in Ligue 1, how are they not quality because they didn't score 50 goals before Zlatan arrived?
Zlatan played for a PSG with unlimited funds ,thanks to Qatar, and had a massive advantage over the rest of the league, a noticeable bigger gap that 90s O.Marseille and 2000s Lyon had over the rest back then...and any french champions in history.
Plus this is even more noticeable in these times cause now more than ever best players from Ligue 1 move immediately to England,Spain, and Germany after the first very good season they, of course french teams that don't have unlimited funds like PSG are gonna look worse than their counterparts 20-30 years ago.

Mbappé is also playing for a PSG that has a massive advantage over the rest of the league, no shit he is gonna score 34 goals in a season now, while Henry couldn't even score 20 for Monaco in the 90s.

And btw, Portugal is gonna be back to the 6th position next season, french teams in UCL,Europa League and Conference have lost only 1 match this season in more than 16 matches they played, France is getting back to 5th position considering the minuscule difference that Portugal had over France to take the 5th place.

Imagine thinking that Messi legacy as GOAT is gonna be damaged for not scoring 40 goals per season in Ligue 1, when even many ex-Cristiano teammates from Man Utd think Messi is the real GOAT over the portuguese, but some people from the CAF think that Messi not scoring 40 per season in France gonna hurt his legacy.
Thanks for naming players playing there many years or decades ago, which is totally irrelevant to the topic. Obviously I was meant to say the quality there recently in response to post I refer to, who claim the French league is so tough that as there no top goalscorer in French league as in recent years before Ibrahimovic, in the context of Messi slow start in PSG at the moment. You somehow manage to ignore the whole context
 

Morty_

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It really is funny how Messi has been at the top of his game for well over a decade but some posters seem desperate to make the PSG era of his career an important factor in his legacy. What's even funnier is he's only played 8 games and struggling with injuries :lol:

Messi's story was completed once he won the Copa with Argentina. Anything else is just a footnote now unless he can win the CL or WC.

Also, Ronaldo can be as good as he wants in a better league, Messi will take home his 7th, despite being "finished".

Messi will be having the last laugh here, with the international trophy in the bag, and another Ballon Dor.
 

VanKenny

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Really hard time for the Messis, indeed. My heart goes out to them.

Well, happiness is relative to each persons experiences. Give a starving kid in Africa a cheeseburger and he may be happier than a rich spoiled kid getting a PS5. Humans get used to their way of living.
 

Bebestation

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Well, happiness is relative to each persons experiences. Give a starving kid in Africa a cheeseburger and he may be happier than a rich spoiled kid getting a PS5. Humans get used to their way of living.
Still the starving kid is only getting a cheeseburger arguably once for a long time.

The spoiled kid getting the PS5 is getting it and able to use it everyday until the next generation :drool:
 

BerryBerryShrew

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Also, Ronaldo can be as good as he wants in a better league, Messi will take home his 7th, despite being "finished".

Messi will be having the last laugh here, with the international trophy in the bag, and another Ballon Dor.
Wouldn't be so sure of that. Salah could well be in with a shout this year, especially with recency bias playing a part.
 

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Wouldn't be so sure of that. Salah could well be in with a shout this year, especially with recency bias playing a part.
as per reports from France Football has reportedly informed Messi this week that he has claimed the award fir the 7th time.
Now obviously it is all news from "sources".
Salah has no chance tbh, these things are decided by hype, and Messi created an almost undefeatable hype with his Copa win, only Lewandowski is the one player who can upstage Messi due to his insane goal scoring, but he has nothing major to show in his cv for this year.