Whilst I have no time for statements the likes of Andy Gray espouse about Stoke making Messi look ordinary; I think the EPL is undoubtedly more difficult. I think he would have to adjust his game to have the same kind of dominance and that will be a test. I don't think he will match the numbers he is making now in the La Liga, in the EPL.
Also, he has incredible teammates. He will be a fantastic player regardless, but you'd have to be blind to deny how good the rest of the team are and what that means for him. He is in a team where they have the ball 70% of the time in each and almost every game. That is a huge plus.
Also, he has incredible teammates. He will be a fantastic player regardless, but you'd have to be blind to deny how good the rest of the team are and what that means for him. He is in a team where they have the ball 70% of the time in each and almost every game. That is a huge plus.
There is absolutely no way to prove that EPL is more difficult that La Liga and many would argue against it.
I actually think Messi will do much better in EPL. In EPL, the long passes to him will find him most of the time with few defenders which will end up in more goals for him.
Also, without his great team players, there will be more dependence on him and more spotlight, rather than players like Xavi and Iniesta sharing a piece of the pie.
I actually think Messi will do much better in EPL. In EPL, the long passes to him will find him most of the time with few defenders which will end up in more goals for him.
Also, without his great team players, there will be more dependence on him and more spotlight, rather than players like Xavi and Iniesta sharing a piece of the pie.
Reviewing the 53 goals he scored last season (in that video posted by #8), I find it somewhat impossible for Messi to find another team built so well around his abilities. Almost everything and everyone is aware of Messi's coordinates and purpose. That takes a lot of time and selflessness to achieve by a team of 15-20 players. If I hadn't seen it happen at Barca, I would say it's not even possible.
a lot of people seem to have got hot and bothered about what andy gray said. the guy talks a lot so thats not the issue for me.
regardless of what he said about messi, people seem to forget that most top teams struggle when they visit stoke city. last season, stoke drew chelsea, and manchester city and beat arsenal and liverpool at home. They only narrowly lost to manchester united with a late goal scored by united.
regardless of what you guys might think, stoke city are very strong at home due to a number of reasons. they have the loudest and most intimidating fans in the league, they have a compact stadium, they play a different style of football, and as it has been shown many times, top teams hate going there.
now whether barcelona and messi would struggle against them is a pointless discussion, coz we will never know.
regardless of what he said about messi, people seem to forget that most top teams struggle when they visit stoke city. last season, stoke drew chelsea, and manchester city and beat arsenal and liverpool at home. They only narrowly lost to manchester united with a late goal scored by united.
regardless of what you guys might think, stoke city are very strong at home due to a number of reasons. they have the loudest and most intimidating fans in the league, they have a compact stadium, they play a different style of football, and as it has been shown many times, top teams hate going there.
now whether barcelona and messi would struggle against them is a pointless discussion, coz we will never know.
He will ass rape stoke, just like he single handedly ass raped Chelsea on a cold wet night at Stamfdord bridge when he was 18 years old.
The guy has to put up with physical players like Pepe/Khedira/Diarra and hard tackling teams like Valencia/Atletico/Sevilla etc. so to say that he is having it easy in spain is foolish. But when it comes to trying to convince the Brit press otherwise on these matters is pointless, the avergae football commentator/analyst in England knows as much about the game as the hair on my ass.
The guy has to put up with physical players like Pepe/Khedira/Diarra and hard tackling teams like Valencia/Atletico/Sevilla etc. so to say that he is having it easy in spain is foolish. But when it comes to trying to convince the Brit press otherwise on these matters is pointless, the avergae football commentator/analyst in England knows as much about the game as the hair on my ass.
Are you kidding? The long passes?!!!!
The strength of Barcelona is the fact that they play to the feet, no long passes. The strength of Messi is the fact that his teammates play football.
Long balls go wrong so often that it renders the best of players edundant for long periods of time. The reason many great players don't do as well in England is because of the aoutdated crap style of football. For long periods of time they don't see the ball because someone knocks them over their heads and into touch.
Look at Ronaldo when he was at United. His last couple of seasons were his best precisely because United got the ball down and played a pass-move style that was really beautiful to watch. It was the closest thing to Barcelona that Unietd ever came. If they played long balls do you think Ronaldo would have done as wel as he did?
The strength of Barcelona is the fact that they play to the feet, no long passes. The strength of Messi is the fact that his teammates play football.
Long balls go wrong so often that it renders the best of players edundant for long periods of time. The reason many great players don't do as well in England is because of the aoutdated crap style of football. For long periods of time they don't see the ball because someone knocks them over their heads and into touch.
Look at Ronaldo when he was at United. His last couple of seasons were his best precisely because United got the ball down and played a pass-move style that was really beautiful to watch. It was the closest thing to Barcelona that Unietd ever came. If they played long balls do you think Ronaldo would have done as wel as he did?
Long ball football usually benefits talentless shitty players like Andry Caroll who have no technique whatsoever, proper football teams no longer play like that, true some english teams (stoke etc) still play like that but Chelsea/Arsenal/Man U...no longer play the traditional english crap. Players like Messi excel and stand out because of their ability to keep the ball on the ground so well. When you can play football so well the way its suppose dto be played (on the ground) there is no need to resort to long balls...
Barcelona's Xavi & Lionel Messi, & Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo nominated for Europe's Best Player award
Barcelona duo Lionel Messi and Xavi will fight Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo for the Uefa Best Player in Europe award after the list of nominees was announced.
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The inaugural award will take place in August and the final trio have been announced after a jury of 53 sports journalists representing each of the Uefa member associations scaled down the list which included Manchester United's Wayne Rooney, and Barcelona's Andres Iniesta.
A deciding vote to determine which player will win the award takes place on August 25.
Positions four to 10 have already been revealed, as confirmed by Uefa:
4. Andres Iniesta, Barcelona
5. Falcao, Porto
6. Wayne Rooney, Manchester United
7. Nemanja Vidic, Manchester United
8. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, AC Milan
9. Gerard Pique, Barcelona
10. Manuel Neuer, Schalke/Bayern Munich.
Last year Messi won the Fifa Ballon d'Or, beating Iniesta and Xavi who were the other two finalists. Messi won the last European Player of the Year award in 2009.