I don't think it's a controversial opinion either at this point. Lewandowski, Neymar and Mbappe you could all say are better than the big two at this point.
The natural successor: Has Neymar blown it?
- Thread starter Fortitude
- Start date
Should note however that Lewandowski is the only player in the five big leagues who has scored more goals than Messi and Ronaldo this season. They are not totally worthless.
This is a terrible take, Neymar's role is far closer to Messi's than Ronaldo's. He's far more creative and almost play as a midfielder, scoring goals is only the tip of the Iceberg, he's a huge playmaker and one of the best passer in the world.
I think there are nuances to that. Of course missing multiple easy chances affects the performance negatively. But Neymar hit the post three times, that's bad luck not bad finishing. He had maybe one bad finish all game, the remaining ones were pretty difficult. You counted for example the square pass by Di Maria as a chance for Neymar but realistically he had no chance whatsoever to get at the end of said pass.
He had one moment all game where you could say that he created something out of nothing, and that was when he hit the bar. Every other involvement of importance that I can remember, was him being on the end of chances that were created for him. All of those chances he missed. You can come up with excuses for why he missed, but even if all those excuses were valid, that would not mean he can suddenly take credit for the chances he missed. If he had a bit more presence of mind he could have scored both the Di Maria cutback and the early chance when the ball ping-ponged between two Bayern defenders.
Best PSG player he might be, but he certainly didn't show it last night.
As for the suggestion that his off field life is coloring perception, I'd have to admit I'm a complete philistine when it comes to knowledge about his off field behavior; don't know the first thing about it. It's his on field antics that make him dislikable enough, whatever else he might do in spare time.
Best PSG player he might be, but he certainly didn't show it last night.
As for the suggestion that his off field life is coloring perception, I'd have to admit I'm a complete philistine when it comes to knowledge about his off field behavior; don't know the first thing about it. It's his on field antics that make him dislikable enough, whatever else he might do in spare time.
Seriously, have you watched the whole game? Because this is factually wrong.
What part of it is factually wrong? Waste not a moment, bring out the facts.
You'd like to think that's obvious, Neymar's been basically injured during his prime.
Once he gets his sharpness back and his finishing improves, he will be the closest player to prime Messi.
I saw him taking a Sunday stroll while Mbappe was ending the tie. What good is a wonder goal when you're down 5-1? mind you he backed it up with a penalty miss. Forget performances which have been less than ideal, how do his stats look in the biggest games this season? a classico recently passed him by. We're used to it these days, he just isn't making the difference.Right so you've gone from Messi can't do anything in big games to Messi can't do everything in all games.
Either way, he also scored a penalty that he helped win in the first leg and set up a couple of chances.
Messi is the only player where he can score in both legs, including a wonder goal and people will come out and say he didn't perform
Anyway I don't want to derail the thread further
I'm constantly flummoxed by how different people's accounts of a game can be. He wasn't even the best PSG player on the night, in a game they've lost, having not scored a single goal.
Two out the three times he hit the woodwork, he created the shot opportunity for himself. Both goals would've been goal of the season contenders. He also set up one big chance for Mbappe early in the first half.
In the second half, he beat Müller at the half way line, nutmegged Kimmich with the next touch, carried the ball to the box drawing two defenders at him, then nutmegged Süle, too, with a pass to Mbappe who then crossed to Di Maria. Di Maria squared it back to Neymar nutmegging Neuer but he was inches away from getting at the end of it. In the end phase of the game, send Mbappe on a run behind the last line three times. One time it was an offside goal, one time Mbappe messed up and one time he passed it back to Neymar but Neuer intercepted narrowly. And he also send Kean on a similar run around that time.
Those are three chances he created from himself with unreal sequences of play and three or four big chnces he set up for others with great passes.
Absolut joy to watch!!!
Bar his finishing he was unreal. The control the dribbling awareness was fantastic. Deserved a goal.
Brazilian JayJay Okocha.
Kidding aside. He will never be up there with Messi and Ronaldo. He has lost to much time playing in one - league team. Good player but there are lot of good players out there in various leagues. I also wonder if he have the same drive or mentality as Ronaldo and Messi to become best in the world. I doubt it.
Kidding aside. He will never be up there with Messi and Ronaldo. He has lost to much time playing in one - league team. Good player but there are lot of good players out there in various leagues. I also wonder if he have the same drive or mentality as Ronaldo and Messi to become best in the world. I doubt it.
You can play exceptionally well without scoring. That’s pretty standard in football. Well it used to be, before everyone became obsessed with goals and goal stats and dismissed every single other aspect of play as unimportant.
Bresil Urugay 1970....
The beautiful goal Pele missed ...never appears in his stat but what an action
The beautiful goal Pele missed ...never appears in his stat but what an action
correct.
You can also score a goal and still have a sh*t game. I mean it's sad that this even needs to be pointed out because it's pretty obvious.
I've forgotten about that one other time he hit the post, which he did create himself. Hitting the bar I have already mentioned. That's two. The second time he hit the post was laid down for him by Mbappe, as was the chance in the 9th minute that I've already mentioned, as was the one on one with Neuer (27th minute) which he fluffed. Then he was late to a great cutback by Di Maria towards the end of the game and that's it. That's all she wrote. I count six good chances there, only two of which he fashioned for himself, and the rest was him fluffing chances someone else created.
The rest of your post is trying to sell prosaic moments that are hardly worth a mention as important. The chance he almost had, but the keeper intercepted it. The pass he almost made, but it was offside, the cutback he almost reached, but he was 'inches away from it'. Then he also sent someone on a run.
It really wasn't a great performance by any stretch of the imagination.
I don’t think you actually like football
If you don’t think this is a great performance then I think you need to choose another sport to get into.
CF Comps (@CF_Comps) Tweeted: Neymar vs. Bayern Munich
https://t.co/a4jiIRnacU
Tweet
— Twitter API (@user) date
Exactly
In terms of overall legacy, you're right. But he is arguably the best player on the planet at this moment in time. I would say top 3 at worst but you'll see plenty of people in this thread who will argue that Neymar, when fit and on form, is the best in the world already.
Sport is fine. Some people you get into a conversation about it though are cretins, as you've just reminded me and I keep forgetting.
It’s ok to be wrong. Just leave the insults aside, it’s not very edifying on your part.
That's simply not true. You said it was a great cutback by Di Maria but the whole sequence of play only came to be because Neymar took four opponent players out of the game dribbling from the halfway line to the box. If that doesn't count as creating a chance for himself then nobody has ever created a chance for himself in the history of football.
I mean, I can even show you the events:
Through ball for Mbappe chance (0:53)
Missed "chance" after deflected cutback (1:58)
Missed chance in 1 on 1 against Neuer (3:27)
First post after step overs (4:05)
Crossbar after dribbling Coman (4:20)
Second post after initiating the attack by outplaying three players (4:40)
Missed chance after high through ball (5:33)
Missed Di Maria cutback after initiating the attack by outplaying 5 (!) players (5:55)
Setting up Kean run (7:25)
Setting up Mbappe offside goal (7:36)
Setting up Mbappe run (7:48)
Setting up Mbappe run who cuts it back but Neuer intercepts (8:10)
Those are four chances he created for himself and three he created for others. You're in the wrong mate.
I have to disagree. I don't think he is. He is good player, but there are good players in lot of places. He might be "fun" to watch but is being fun how when consider someone being best player? Why would he be better player then lets say Kane or deBruyne? Messi or Lewandowski? Salah or Ronaldo? And so on.
When he is fit and on form he can be devestating in certain games. But you could say that with pretty much lot of players at high level.
A player of Neymar's talent can easily make the pass, he just wanted to get his goal after all of his misses. Hernandez didn't block the passing lane to Mbappe if you watch the replay. Water under the bridge though, all that matters is Bayern is out and PSG go through. I think given Neymar's serious lack of match fitness, he did very well, but a mistake like that would have been extremely costly had Bayern scored a second.
His problem is/was injuries, not playing in France. Neymar has been in Paris for the same amount of years as he was at Barca but the minutes at Barcelona are around 15,000~ whilst at PSG he’s down at 9,000~.
The shot in the bar was a fantastic move that he created out of nothing. With some luck it’s a goal, with some poor luck it’s not. But he also hit the post when he easily should have scored. He has a history of missing chances in the CL playoffs. This is well known.
He did a lot of great things but still an offensive player who loses a game by 1-0... There are other players who don’t participate at all but then score 3 goals in a match with so many opportunities.
This obsession of goals is not something new. That’s how matches have been won since the 19th century. I have enjoyed a lot of players for their amazing entertainment value (Neymar, Zlatan, Ronaldinho, Marcelo), but when I watch my own team play I prefer goals and victories over nice football art. I want the technical skills of attacking players to transfer in to goals. But we all have different reasons why we watch football and different passions, can’t say anything is right or wrong.
Goals do not come out of thin air. The art of creating a goal involves the work of multiple creative players before the final touch ends up in the back of the net. A player like Neymar significantly increases the goal output of PSG even if he is not the one who has the final touch before the ball flies in the back of the net.
Neymar for PSG is a significantly better player than Ronaldo for Juventus, even if the latter has scored more goals for his club.
And again — Neymar’s stats are still very, very good. He’s not quite peak Messi/Ronaldo freak levels, but he’s consistently fantastic wherever he goes.
Neymar is a far more versatile players than most you mention. He's an amazing passer, can dribble an entire team and is a good finisher (bar last night). His football IQ is also very high and he sees things most players don't on the pitch even at the highest level. Salah and '21 Ronaldo are just not even remotely in the conversation.
I mean this seems like elementary stuff to me (articulately put, nevertheless), but it’s baffling how so many people in this thread don’t seem to understand it. Very troubling.......
I’m gonna leave alone the comparison bit because I don’t want to go there, haha. Peeps get awfully sensitive.
I honestly don’t think Neymar was thinking about going for goal. I’m not his biggest fan but I think that was more an instance of a split second decision gone wrong. The pass may have been on but it would certainly not have been an easy pass. You could argue he should have gone for it anyway but that’s hindsight. If he skipped round Hernadez and squared it across to Mbappe he would have been hailed a wizard, fine margins. The worst thing he did was miss that chance that hit the post, that was a glorious opportunity and a poor first touch let him down.
Still a 0-1 loss at home, with him missing a hatful of chances.
Good player, but we're supposed to accept him as the best player in the world now that Messi and Ronaldo are past their primes?
Bayern were chasing the game and needed two goals. It was a given that him, Di Maria and Mbappe would have spaces to operate in to show their class. They didn't even score one goal.
I thought it was a poor game to be honest. By both teams. PSG for wasting their chances, Bayern for not being incisive enough.
Salah better than Neymar? Ok..
Yes, if you only look at the last touch before the ball passes the line, that's a valid way of looking at things. Following that logic the mailman who's delivering my Amazon orders has to be a great retailer, producer and product designer
Do you actually believe that Kane and Salah are better than Neymar? I don't think they're even within 2 tiers of him. I personally believe there's an enormous gap between someone like him and those two.
It has nothing to do with being "fun" to watch. I struggle to see what argument current Ronaldo has over Neymar.