Congratulations Messi on winning La Liga 2017/18!

I wanna think this is premature but 7 point lead in La Liga, where draws are losses and losses are firings in the making, is a pretty tall order. Especially when Barcelona has always been consistent in La Liga.

Unreal carry job by Lionel, Ernesto f*cking Valverde, the guy who crashes out of Europe every year and no one bats an eye. After Lucho it was evident , but now this confirms it. Never want to hear about Pep's achievements in Barca ever again, that period is null and void

Except apart from one season Barca have consistently been worse since he left.

Imagine living in a world where Sacchi got zero credit for Milan's success, that's where you are right now ES smh.

All this proves is Luis Enrique is a fraud, but anyone who saw him manage Roma knew this anyway tbh.

JJ not a big team scratch that. Meant Bayern.

El Gunner wrote:Haven't seen any of the game thus far, but is Messi playing better than ever?

Not really no.

M99 wrote:JJ not a big team scratch that. Meant Bayern.

El Gunner wrote:

M99 wrote:JJ not a big team scratch that. Meant Bayern.

JJ

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

El Gunner wrote:Haven't seen any of the game thus far, but is Messi playing better than ever?

Not really no.

But he's still GOATing?

Yep.

El Gunner wrote:Haven't seen any of the game thus far, but is Messi playing better than ever?

He's definitely not better than ever, in my opinion. Not even close. He drifts out of games on occasion, and I think he's been unusually wasteful in possession for some time now. But none of that really matters when you take into account how clinical he's been in front of goal, and how unmerciful he's been towards the likes of Eibar and Espanyol recently. He really punished both of those teams, as soon as they showed a little bit of complacency, and neither of them seemed to return after it.

He represents what Madrid are lacking right now, which is a player that can be decisive and thoroughly beat the fighting spirit out of the other team. By his standards, I don't think his overall performance has been that great lately, but he's shown spurts of really high level performance, and he's made his contributions count.

I watched Barcelona play against Betis last month, and that Betis side looked like the ghetto version of the side that played against Real Madrid, just the other day. I don't know if that's an indication of the gap in quality between RM and Barca right now, or if Betis has some kind of grudge against RM. Betis is not a very good team, talent-wise, but they looked like they were prepared for a routine loss when they played against Barca. When they played against R. Madrid, it looked like they were being blackmailed into keeping a clean sheet.

In my 18 years of watching La Liga football, I've never seen Betis look as devoted towards getting something out of a match. Not even when they had Ruben Castro, did they look as motivated to play for something. But none of that would have mattered, if RM had a player whose momentary impact could highlight the difference in quality between the teams, and subsequently kick the fighting spirit out of a small team that believes it can beat the bigger team. Messi is capable of that, and I believe he's what separates Barca and Madrid right now.

Barca are playing pretty well and winning but that's not really...the exception, that's generally the rule. All this proves is that Madrid aren't playing very well/having results go their way.

It's too early in the season to say anything anyhow.

El Gunner wrote:Haven't seen any of the game thus far, but is Messi playing better than ever?

You be the judge



Despite scoring 12 times, he's hit the post 6 times.

yes another YT compilation video tells the whole story.... tbh he is losing more posession more then ever. not because he is doing worse, but because he is getting double/triple-teamed more then ever. not his fault, but he often takes on way too many players at once.

So he's being marked more than ever, yet he's scoring more than ever but that and 14 minutes highlight compilation from less than a month doesn't tell much, got it.

his 1 month compilation is better than most players' season compilations

he's playing at 11/12 levels right now imo. his finishing has never been this good.

So far Valverde is doing a great job, makes the team play through the midfield and not just hoof the ball to the front three. He even instructed ter-Stegen to try to always give the ball away to the CBs or Sergio and not to hoof it away above everyone.

Suprisingly the team looks like it has a strategy and everyone knows what they should be doing. Under Lucho it was more of like a "hurr-durr" tactic and no clear game plan whatsoever.

Refreshing to have someone who can actually manage and be an actual coach. It's a little early into the season but I believe he can keep this up.

Valkyrja wrote:his 1 month compilation is better than most players' season compilations

he's playing at 11/12 levels right now imo. his finishing has never been this good.

Oh those short memories....

Well done boy

Special thanks to Zidane for making an unbelievably talented squad play like a bunch of plumbers

Ion Creanga wrote:Well done boy

Valencia are right on our heels, what are you on about?

Valencia will not keep this up throughout the whole season

This was shaping up to be another Tito season from the get go. We'll win the league with 110 points by playing shitty football and get raped in the CL by Heynckes Bayern or something.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:

Ion Creanga wrote:Well done boy

Valencia are right on our heels, what are you on about?

This is like Juve fans acting like Napoli might win the league tbh

Come on BC

futbol wrote:This was shaping up to be another Tito season from the get go. We'll win the league with 110 points by playing shitty football and get raped in the CL by Heynckes Bayern or something.

Completely agreed tbh, but I wouldn't say from the get go. Don't think anyone saw Madrid playing this badly in the league at all

Thimmy wrote:In my 18 years of watching La Liga football, I've never seen Betis look as devoted towards getting something out of a match. Not even when they had Ruben Castro, did they look as motivated to play for something. But none of that would have mattered, if RM had a player whose momentary impact could highlight the difference in quality between the teams, and subsequently kick the fighting spirit out of a small team that believes it can beat the bigger team. Messi is capable of that, and I believe he's what separates Barca and Madrid right now.

You obviously didn't watch Pepe Mel's Betis against Pep's Barça in Copa del Rey. Amazing display from the then-Segunda División team.

Well deserved champions