The issue was never his quality. It was his lack of overall effort and attitude. He had a chance to become one of the best players in Europe with some effort and hard work but he thought he already was so didn't have to. He will likely stay in Ligue 1 for the rest of his career. And then look back with hindsight and think 'what a waste'.
** European League Thread (Spain/Germany/France etc) **
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Caporegime
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Holy crap, Barcelona's 'decline' is continuing, Valencia rightly in the bottom half of the table with like 8 wins or something all year are now 2-0 up while away at Barcelona.
I mean they had a tough run of games but still had a 3 point lead and had 6 bottom half teams to play so I still figured there was no real chance for the other two but they might give up that 3 points in the first of those 'easy' games left.
I was speculating midweek on another forum that the last time Messi was this completely ineffective was when he was carrying the hamstring injury a couple of years ago. Same way he hung back more, dropped deeper in midfield, was dramatically less effective on the ball, lacked that burst of acceleration on and off the ball, looked far less willing to make runs into empty space without the ball. WHich you expect with a painful hamstring and is so reminiscent of how he was playing during that period last time.
The second Messi stops being effective and is easily marked out of a game then suddenly the defence is concentrating on closing down Suarez and Neymar. The reason those three work so well is they are so mobile that marking the runs/movement of all three is say 10 times harder than just marking two of them.
Also saw a stat that at this point last year Messi had been subbed off say twice, Neymar and Suarez about 12-15 times each or something in all competitions. This year it's Messi once and Neymar/Suarez like 2-3 times each. So would also not be surprising if they were much more burned out this year than last year. Selling Pedro is probably a big issue there, though they have other players who get chances but few and far between.
http://www.statto.com/football/teams/atletico-madrid/2015-2016/table/2016-03-14
table as of a month ago, 9 points on Atletico, 12 points on Real, if the game finishes as it is they'll be joint top with Atletico(though did the double so effectively ahead) and a single point ahead of Real, and Atletico lost one of the last 4 games. Ridiculous turn around in their form, also being poor in both games in the CL and losing despite ref handing them so many advantages.
I mean they had a tough run of games but still had a 3 point lead and had 6 bottom half teams to play so I still figured there was no real chance for the other two but they might give up that 3 points in the first of those 'easy' games left.
I was speculating midweek on another forum that the last time Messi was this completely ineffective was when he was carrying the hamstring injury a couple of years ago. Same way he hung back more, dropped deeper in midfield, was dramatically less effective on the ball, lacked that burst of acceleration on and off the ball, looked far less willing to make runs into empty space without the ball. WHich you expect with a painful hamstring and is so reminiscent of how he was playing during that period last time.
The second Messi stops being effective and is easily marked out of a game then suddenly the defence is concentrating on closing down Suarez and Neymar. The reason those three work so well is they are so mobile that marking the runs/movement of all three is say 10 times harder than just marking two of them.
Also saw a stat that at this point last year Messi had been subbed off say twice, Neymar and Suarez about 12-15 times each or something in all competitions. This year it's Messi once and Neymar/Suarez like 2-3 times each. So would also not be surprising if they were much more burned out this year than last year. Selling Pedro is probably a big issue there, though they have other players who get chances but few and far between.
http://www.statto.com/football/teams/atletico-madrid/2015-2016/table/2016-03-14
table as of a month ago, 9 points on Atletico, 12 points on Real, if the game finishes as it is they'll be joint top with Atletico(though did the double so effectively ahead) and a single point ahead of Real, and Atletico lost one of the last 4 games. Ridiculous turn around in their form, also being poor in both games in the CL and losing despite ref handing them so many advantages.
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Barcelona doing an Arsenal, in that they are just rolling over for teams.
Unbelievable that they lost to Valencia tonight. Something has gone very wrong there, Messi scored his first goal for god knows how long. That's very unlike him, to not score for a few games v
Unbelievable that they lost to Valencia tonight. Something has gone very wrong there, Messi scored his first goal for god knows how long. That's very unlike him, to not score for a few games v
Caporegime
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Was getting nervous at the end, Barca had some clear cut chances and Valencia did what teams so often do in these games, utterly screw up 95% of their attacks even with a numbers advantage on the break with bad passing and decisions to make the game safer. They had one tap in but multiple other chances to get at least a decent shot off.
Messi and Neymar were particularly poor, Suarez didn't really get much of the ball to call him bad though he got caught offside a lot. Iniesta and Rakitic were very poor. Can't believe they had a 9/12 point lead over Atletico and Real only 4 games ago and now it's 1 point between 3 teams.
Messi and Neymar were particularly poor, Suarez didn't really get much of the ball to call him bad though he got caught offside a lot. Iniesta and Rakitic were very poor. Can't believe they had a 9/12 point lead over Atletico and Real only 4 games ago and now it's 1 point between 3 teams.
Caporegime
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Jesus. Such a poor easy league
Caporegime
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4 goals and 3 assists. Best striker in the world this year 
4 goals and 3 assists. Best striker in the world this year
First player in LaLiga to have a hand in 7 goals in a single game.
Neville was never going to be a success at Valencia but ****ing hell they're still dreadful. They were poor under Nuno but never this bad defensively. Never thought Abdennour was this bad but he's been awful and wouldn't look out of place alongside Saylor.
Soldato
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hope real betis win or hold on for the draw
edit: nvm
edit: nvm
Caporegime
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lol, Real just scored the dodgiest possible second goal, Benzema was offside, touched the ball, bad touch kicked a defender trying to get it, fell to someone else who knocked it forwards at which point he was offside again then slotted it in. Absolutely no clue how that counted, 3 separate and completely obvious things to cause the play to be stopped. Both offsides were painfully clear as well.