2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil - Tracking Our Players

Tear what up? He hasnt torn anyone up in ages, why will he do it now?

But I am very interested to watch his performances and more importantly off ball movement.

If we see something closer to his old self, I will be upset he decided to short change us during the season.

If he is the same old him, then clearly the decline has begun and this is what he is now.

To be fair he had been playing better for Argentina all season, it wouldn't be a complete surprise if he also plays better for them at the world cup.

Better yes, old Messi no.

Everytime I seen him the last basically 4 years for Argentina he has been very good. But even playing better, its different, not old Messi, moving off the ball dynamically, sprinting, being less turnover prone etc

I agree with Franchise. Lets see how much was our tactics/coach changes/him not wanting to get injured. If he goes ham, then he just decided to let our season slip away in order to help him join Argentina in tip top shape.

Hope thats not the case

I highly doubt we will see the Old Messi again. His current version(ofcourse i don mean last season's version) is still enough to win us some trophy including CL and enough to give other best players a headeche. But i got the feeling that his old version is simply gone and cant be seen anymore. I really miss specially when i see some old clips....

Dani when is the last time you have seen "Old Messi"? Surely not since before Pep's last season...

Yeah but if he shows his old self, that means there has been no decline and with the proper leadership and motivation, we can have prime Messi on our hands for the new season

Also, while it would indeed mean he has short changed us this season, which would be very upsetting, we should all be expecting a more motivated Messi. It's the World Cup, after all.

The Franchise wrote:Tear what up? He hasnt torn anyone up in ages, why will he do it now?

But I am very interested to watch his performances and more importantly off ball movement.

If we see something closer to his old self, I will be upset he decided to short change us during the season.

If he is the same old him, then clearly the decline has begun and this is what he is now.

Some very interesting thoughts here.

Even early this season he looked good. I remember some games vs Valencia and some other teams he was running all over the place blasting through balls and shooting like a mad man. Then got injured again and just stopped all together. I don't think he's done.

Not sure BC, hard to tell. Probably only in glimpses.

But I dont want to get bogged down in the details, I think we will all see the difference (or lack there of) in intensity and effort. Thats bigger than what he does or what stats he produces.

I am looking for his intensity, how he moves, more than anything.

Windkick and CB have together summed up most of what I am saying really.

Its obvious he will try to play better because its his last chance. It has nothing to do with barcelona or saving energy. Barca fans see him as an enemy

Lets swap places. If he won 3 world cups with argentina he would not care about NT and focus on Barca. Now he won 3 CL with Barca and focused on NT. Why you take so personal?

Yes he didnt fight this season never seen him colliding or arguing/fighting with opposition players.Even had fun with pepe. Never seen him in hard challenges, bad tackles never happened. He played safe this season. But that was because of his 3 month long injury. That injury cost him ballon dor and other top scorer chances. He got scared and decided not to get injured again. Adding that WC coming he just decided to avoid hard challenges. It has nothing to do him not wanting to win with Barcelona

He would do same thing for Barca if he had all titles with Argentina and zero title with Barca. Lets not take it offensive and personal

He cant save himself for WC because Barca is paying him the highest salary. He basically has sold his soul to barca since he joined here and he should not have any personal desire. If so, he should stop wasting barca money and leave....

Messi fan, not Barca fan speaking. Clearly.

Only kind of person who would see it as okay for him to do that. Like he doesnt have a responsibility to the fans nor the club.

Next season will reveal alot anyway so lets just wait and see.

The Franchise wrote:Messi fan, not Barca fan speaking. Clearly.

Only kind of person who would see it as okay for him to do that. Like he doesnt have a responsibility to the fans nor the club.

Next season will reveal alot anyway so lets just wait and see.

Yep, only Messi's dicksuckers like jiopsi would accept Messi behaviour in this season but let's be real for a moment. If I was Messi I would also not give a shit about this Barca past it team and boring La Liga which Messi won 6 times. Barca has no chance in UCL so Messi decided to rest his mucles before WC. World Cup is all that Messi care and I completely understand that.

So not being a Messi fan means you are a true Barca fan. This is the athmosphere in Barca section and some follows this rule. Say something bad about messi and you are confirmed true Barca supporter

As above post said you would not do any different in messi's position

sanchez04 wrote:So not being a Messi fan means you are a true Barca fan. This is the athmosphere in Barca section and some follows this rule. Say something bad about messi and you are confirmed true Barca supporter

As above post said you would not do any different in messi's position

Right... and someone even opened a thread here to shout it loudly. He wished Messi to fail in WC and the reason for his wish was he is a true Barca fan. and all true barca fans joined there. you can check that thread.
Then again, its not to take too seriously. real section also suffers the same about CR. i think this will happen in future with Neymar or any big player as well..

Neuro, i saw that thread and commented there. This athmosphere here started by alexjanosik after he started to call messi "certain player". As people here consider alex a big true barca fan they started to follow the boss. But another true barca fan free_cat went against it. So people divided into groups. I appreciate people with their own original opinion. Im a free person i never worked under any manager. I like to be free

For CR, i could understand that. 0 CL+1 la liga in last 5 years. Imagine if it happened to Messi what wars would happen here. He can not save his ass even with 6 la liga+3 CL

just some barca fans are spoiled, they also apparently do no have a problem with throwing all the blame on messi when there are some key problems with the team..
many like to throw "messi fans" under the buss but most of those are hypocrites and also have their own favoritism in the club.

I find it disrespectful insulting teams best player in history. No other player won so much things for his team. even in another clubs you can not find a player with so much success. They will appreciate him after they forget bad moments and remember great things with nostalgia. But for now they throw anything they can and its disrespectful. Some are even afraid to be labeled with "you are a messi fan" tag and do that for this reason

How dare he be criticised for not giving his best efforts. The nerve of us.

I added Rakitić since he's are new signing.

Anyways today will be Brazil V Croatia. Neymar and Alves in action as well will see what Rakitić has to offer.

1-0 for Croatia own goal by Marcelo

That was pretty unexpected....

1-1 Nerman equalizes

1-1 HT

Rakitic is impressing despite being used more as a dm it seems...
he handles pressure great and manages to get a pass out even under pressure.. something cesc lacked

Final 3-1

Brazil goals by: Neymar, Neymar (PK), Oscar

Croatia goal by: Marcelo (OG)