The natural successor: Has Neymar blown it?

[FootballHQ]

Will be interesting to see what happens with PSG's attacking options over next few seasons. Cavani already leaving and you have to think Neymar's entourage will be pushing to move back to La Liga again in the summer. I'm surprised the talk of Real Madrid has died down as that seemed an obvious destination. Guess Real Madrid need to get Bale off the books.

Then you have Mbappe. Is he really going to stay in the French league until he's in his mid 20s? Feels like a bit of a waste to me (like Ronaldo staying at PSV until that age) so interested how PSG reshape their forward line soon. Guess Aubameyang could be a target, maybe Haaland aswell.

 

[tjb]

It's a combination of things. His injuries mostly, the rise of Mbappe, joining PSG and the way he joined PSG. Mbappe producing as consistently as Neymar, with less injuries and less stress. Neymar's attitude has played a big role in his fall as well. If your club does not like you, chances are other teams and fans will see you as a problem ( see Pogba).

 

[Oly Francis]

Confederations cup

My lasting image of that competition was our penalty shootout against Spain, and Iker's face after they "won" (they so clearly did not want to win neither did we. Winning that cup was a death sentence for the World Cup)

The olympics yeah, those were a big deal for brazil because it was at home and they'd never won it

Still not the kind of stuff that make up a footballer's CV though

There's no doubt Neymar will have to carry PSG to a CL final to validate his good performances in L1.

Will be interesting to see what happens with PSG's attacking options over next few seasons. Cavani already leaving and you have to think Neymar's entourage will be pushing to move back to La Liga again in the summer. I'm surprised the talk of Real Madrid has died down as that seemed an obvious destination. Guess Real Madrid need to get Bale off the books.

Then you have Mbappe. Is he really going to stay in the French league until he's in his mid 20s? Feels like a bit of a waste to me (like Ronaldo staying at PSV until that age) so interested how PSG reshape their forward line soon. Guess Aubameyang could be a target, maybe Haaland aswell.

Real Madrid bought Hazard and is dreaming of Mbappe night and day. They can't afford Neymar on top of that, it's like a 500M+ package.

 

[kaiser1]

Olympic and Confed cup, the 2 most forgettable international cup competitions where nobody in the world cares...and where best players don't even bother to take part in and its the competition for their B team.. kind of like Micky Cup... I can't even remember or name any past winner from these to be honest. Its almost like some pre-season friendly tournament where winner does get the trophy, but its just so insignificance..

Brazil wanted the Olympics badly that they withdrew Neymar from the Copa America that shows how important it was to them. So saying he hasn't won anything for Brazil isn't right when he won them the only trophy they havent

 

[Gio]

Confederations cup

My lasting image of that competition was our penalty shootout against Spain, and Iker's face after they "won" (they so clearly did not want to win neither did we. Winning that cup was a death sentence for the World Cup)

The olympics yeah, those were a big deal for brazil because it was at home and they'd never won it

Still not the kind of stuff that make up a footballer's CV though

You can tell there wasn't much at stake by the high quality of the penalty shoot-out. While in most important shoot-outs players are visibly affected by the pressure, here they dispatched 12 impeccable penalties in a row with the routineness of a training ground competition.

 

[RedRonaldo]

Brazil wanted the Olympics badly that they withdrew Neymar from the Copa America that shows how important it was to them. So saying he hasn't won anything for Brazil isn't right when he won them the only trophy they havent

Right, its such a major achievement for Neymar and Brazil, winning Olypmics against other teams fielding mostly u23 players and doesn't care about the competition. What a huge achievement. Congrats on Neymar, its highlighted/peak of his international career and everyone will remember him for that amazing feat.

 

[Man of Leisure]

Neymar is great and better than Mbappé but his injuries and the fact that he left Barcelona for a club in France has affected people's opinion.

Genuine question, what are you basing this on? Haven’t seen much of either in the past couple seasons, but isn’t it generally accepted in France that Mbappe has the brighter future and higher ceiling? Injuries have certainly played their part tbf.

If you were building a team and could pick between either, even just for the next several years, I’d think most would pick Mbappe.

 

[Raees]

You see that's where I think that there is something properly wrong with the way people see Neymar, he was a prolific goalscorer at Barcelona and is Brazil third top goalscorer of all time and he doesn't play as a striker. He is a world class finisher and of course a better dribbler than Mbappé, he is also very fast, we are not talking about a slow player here.

Not to mention they’re comparing Mbappe against a Neymar who hasn’t fully recovered to peak fitness. Prime Neymar is a way better dribbler for sure.

 

[Raees]

He wins a CL this season (not implausible) and helps Brazil win in Qatar and he will have sorted his legacy out by age of 30.

Just needs to stay away from injuries. His talent is undeniable just been very unlucky and move to PSG was unfortunate in terms of its domestic league lacking same level of media exposure.

 

[JPRouve]

Genuine question, what are you basing this on? Haven’t seen much of either in the past couple seasons, but isn’t it generally accepted in France that Mbappe has the brighter future and higher ceiling? Injuries have certainly played their part tbf.

If you were building a team and could pick between either, even just for the next several years, I’d think most would pick Mbappe.

I'm basing it on what they are currently doing on the pitch, this is about today.

 

[BBRBB]

Genuine question, what are you basing this on? Haven’t seen much of either in the past couple seasons, but isn’t it generally accepted in France that Mbappe has the brighter future and higher ceiling? Injuries have certainly played their part tbf.

If you were building a team and could pick between either, even just for the next several years, I’d think most would pick Mbappe.

Mbappé does what every forward can do, only slightly faster, smarter and more efficiently on average. Neymar does what no one can do except Messi, he's even started working very hard defensively.

 

[giorno]

Mbappé does what every forward can do, only slightly faster, smarter and more efficiently on average. Neymar does what no one can do except Messi, he's even started working very hard defensively.

Your description of Mbappé is somewhat reductive

Mbappé is an elite dribbler, passer and scorer. Out of all forwards in the world, only Messi and Neymar are comparatively better in those categories(Messi in all 3, Neymar in 2 out of 3 while also being more efficient in the third) and the only other players comparable are very much so not surprisingly, mane, salah and sterling. And Mbappé blows all 3 out of the water as a scorer anyways

He's at worst the 5th best player in the world on a week to week basis. It's just that Neymar might very well be THE best player in the world on a week to week basis, with the only caveats being the level of competition relative to his own team and Messi being Messi(and Cristiano being Cristiano). And until he outperforms them in CL, no matter how much better he is than them in the respective leagues, nobody would seriously consider him as being better than those two

 

[Scroto Baggins]

Plays in a league that doesnt have the same competition as others week in week out, so hard to judge. If he moves back to La Liga or to the Prem, would be easier to gauge. But you only really see him against elite level competition in the CL.

Mbappe the same although I expect him to move to one of the giants at some point.

 

[André Dominguez]

Just by giving a small glance at Neymar numbers in goals, assists and even career titles you realize this title makes no sense whatsoever.

It is quite obvious that while Ronaldo and Messi are playing it's going to be almost impossible to any other player to be on top.

 

[Spiersey]

No real standouts bar Mbappe currently. Do genuinely believe that Cherki is the current youth talent most likely to overtake him though.

 

[Oly Francis]

Just by giving a small glance at Neymar numbers in goals, assists and even career titles you realize this title makes no sense whatsoever.

It is quite obvious that while Ronaldo and Messi are playing it's going to be almost impossible to any other player to be on top.

On top of what? Career titles? That's pretty obvious, but in terms of contribution to titles, it could change as early as this year if Juventus and Barcelona don't increase their level in the next couple of weeks.

No real standouts bar Mbappe currently. Do genuinely believe that Cherki is the current youth talent most likely to overtake him though.

After 2 pro games as a starter... saying that it's premature is an understatement. We've seen millions of very talented young players not making it, there's far too parameters involved to say something like that.

 

[BBRBB]

Your description of Mbappé is somewhat reductive

Mbappé is an elite dribbler, passer and scorer. Out of all forwards in the world, only Messi and Neymar are comparatively better in those categories(Messi in all 3, Neymar in 2 out of 3 while also being more efficient in the third) and the only other players comparable are very much so not surprisingly, mane, salah and sterling. And Mbappé blows all 3 out of the water as a scorer anyways

He's at worst the 5th best player in the world on a week to week basis. It's just that Neymar might very well be THE best player in the world on a week to week basis, with the only caveats being the level of competition relative to his own team and Messi being Messi(and Cristiano being Cristiano). And until he outperforms them in CL, no matter how much better he is than them in the respective leagues, nobody would seriously consider him as being better than those two

I somewhat agree with you but the most impressive about Mbappé is his determination and mental strength. The man is on a mission to put his stamp on football history, he's at least as impressive as CR7 in this regard. Still when Neymar is on song as he is now he has more to his game and more influence over his team.

 

[TsuWave]

he’s an outstanding player

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[kaiser1]

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[TheOx]

Did you guys see this?
Neymar got booked for... having skills. (?)

 

[Zehner]

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Messi is in a bit of bad form so I think generally he's still the better player. But Neymar for me is by far the second best at the moment when it comes to combining contribution and output.

 

[TrustInOle]

Incident regarding Neymar getting a yellow card for not listening to the referee and continuing to be entertaining and skilling opponents. Stinks of a referee being power hungry! How on earth he is justified for that is abysmal and shouldn't be employed by the Ligue 1.

Would love another view? Honestly think the skills is what makes Neymar so exciting. Imagine this happened to Ronaldinho in his prime

 

[fps]

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1st in all these things! In a tinpot league that means nothing!

 

[Brwned]

Ronaldinho would've laughed it off. Neymar acted like a whiny bitch. Don't know what was going through the refs head, I'd hope the Ligue Un ref's association don't support the move to cut out showboating. But after that, Neymar got a yellow for what a lot of people do. Same as de Gea getting a yellow when he got fouled. It was the wrong decision but deal with it better or you'll get punished...pretty simple rule

 

[TrustInOle]

Ronaldinho would've laughed it off. Neymar acted like a whiny bitch. Don't know what was going through the refs head, I'd hope the Ligue Un ref's association don't support the move to cut out showboating. But after that, Neymar got a yellow for what a lot of people do. Same as de Gea getting a yellow when he got fouled. It was the wrong decision but deal with it better or you'll get punished...pretty simple rule

Surely their has to be something in place to allow a player to dispute a decision as wildly out of place as that? The referee has gone over to Neymar and tried to influence the way he is playing the game, very fine line between that and purposely trying to affect an outcome of a game. Yes maybe Neymar should have kept his cool, but i am 90% sure most would react the same was if a referee tries influencing how you play and punishing you for it. No qualms on Neymar's reaction tbh. Ref should recieve some sort of punishment.

 

[Shane88]

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"Tempo changing passes"

Is this the new bollocks stat on the block?

 

[Brwned]

Surely their has to be something in place to allow a player to dispute a decision as wildly out of place as that? The referee has gone over to Neymar and tried to influence the way he is playing the game, very fine line between that and purposely trying to affect an outcome of a game. Yes maybe Neymar should have kept his cool, but i am 90% sure most would react the same was if a referee tries influencing how you play and punishing you for it. No qualms on Neymar's reaction tbh. Ref should recieve some sort of punishment.

If Neymar hadn't got in the ref's face he wouldn't have gotten a yellow. The "punishment" he received for showboating was getting told off by the ref...hardly a big deal. Strange from the ref but he responded like a child. The punishment that came afterwards was for him breaking a legitimate rule.

 

[TrustInOle]

If Neymar hadn't got in the ref's face he wouldn't have gotten a yellow. The "punishment" he received for showboating was getting told off by the ref...hardly a big deal. Strange from the ref but he responded like a child. The punishment that came afterwards was for him breaking a legitimate rule.

I think you are misinterpreting what I am trying to get across. In no way should a referee be allowed to affect how a player plays the game. Yes, they went on to win 5-0 but in another situation where the player can't play to his normal level because a referee wants him to play a certain way, can most certainly affect the outcome of a game.

 

[mancan92]

Absolute madness for the ref there. He can maybe say "hey watch out you might get some punishment from your opponents" but to outright tell him to stop entertaining is just completely stupid. I'd react similar to neymar to be honest that's a nonsense decision.

 

[DWelbz19]

Somebody defending the referee for penalising a player for playing football Mental.

There’s just some level of irrational hatred that players like Neymar receive. It’s barmy.

 

[Bastian]

Celebrates his birthday. Misses the next game. I don't think it's a stretch to see the causal connection.

 

[Amar__]

https://au.sports.yahoo.com/amphtml...ght-after-paris-birthday-party-020108201.html

Yeah, I think it's pretty clear why he didn't exactly turn out to be what people expected from him. This alongside missing few games every year for sister's birthday were always going to cost him, and he obviously couldn't care less.

Wasn't there some story about him missing unimportant away games during his time at PSG because he couldn't be bothered to turn up against relegatiok fodder in poor pitch conditions? Sounds ridiculous, but then he is missing games for birthdays so who knows.

 

[BBRBB]

In this thread (and Ligue 1 one): people just making things up to criticize Neymar. Why not also claim he eats babies? This would make as much sense.

 

[RedBanker]

Gold!!

 

[Web of Bissaka]

Neymar has dived from it.

Roll on to the next successor.

 

[Offside]

Neymar fecked it going to that pub league. Should have stayed at Barca.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

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[tenpoless]

What is this

 

[SilentWitness]

The Neymars need a tv show.

 

[EasyE]

The weirdest part is Neymar's dad celebrating it in the comments. What the hell.