Messi worlds best player?

Ulysses Gaze

Too Tough To Die wrote: »

Over hyped purely because of the ridiculous extent to which the ability of his team mates is played down. Still remarkable, just not as remarkable as some would have you believe.

I would disagree.

You have to put it in the context of where Napoli were in Italy before Maradona arrived.

They had never won the league title before Maradona. That was even when they had the likes of Omar Sivori and Dino Zoff in the side.

Never won it since. For 6 years in Italy (his first was not great) he made them title challengers and winners. For Napoli to win 2 Scudetti in the Era of Saachi's Milan, Trap's dominant Juve (who'd won 6 titles in 10 years) and Inter under Trap again was phenomenal. These were the Man City and Chelsea's of the time. They could outspend anyone in the world and did.

I saw league games where Maradona almost single-handedly destroyed some of the best defenders in the World at the time - Baresi, Maldini, Tassoti, Bergomi etc etc.

Not the likes of Sergio Ramos, Pepe etc...but REAL defenders. The best of the best. Regularly.

All this in a side that had some good players (and with Careca and Alemao joining in 1988 two genuinely World Class players).

Now Messi plays for a club team that is, and always has been since he has played for them, packed full of World Class talent. Xavi, Iniesta, Ronaldinho, Deco, Pedro, Alexis Sanchez, Villa, Eto'o, Ibrahimovic to name some of the attacking guys he's played with. You'd expect them to win La Liga a few times at the least.

He also plays for an Argentinian side that is man-for-man better than the 1986 Argentine side and a LOT better than the 1990 side that got to the final.

LuckyLloyd

PhlegmyMoses wrote: »

You're only looking at it from one angle. Pressure is only one aspect of sport and it wasn't pressure that stopped Messi from playing his best. In fact, you mentioning the immense pressure Brazil were under aids my point; Neymar played very well under such pressure but not so well for Barca, therefore, better than Messi? Of course not. Also, Maradona was a relative failure at a big European club. Pressure got to him?

Well I don't think the above hangs together very well:

- Neymar IS top class. I wouldn't hold his first season in Europe following a controversial transfer as indicative. The fact that he shone in familiar environs is a good sign for what lies ahead when he becomes more comfortable in Europe;
- Maradona was a huge success at unfashionable Napoli in the toughest league on the planet at the time. He also led Napoli to a European trophy. Barcelona would have been contenders Messi or no Messi. They're Barcelona!;

At the business end of the CL, you are playing teams put together from all the best players at an international tournament, who have spent a minimum of 10 months together as a team being coached by one of the World's best managers. You are playing, for the most part, well oiled machines with few weak areas. This is when the elite cone to the fore and make a difference. Football is very different to when El Diego won in 86.

But preparation levels out, and all nations have the same limitations in terms of not being able to assemble a powerhouse eleven. International football generally attracts tactically elite managers and is a game of chess in terms of exposing an opponents weakpoints while masking your own. Moreover, the last four teams in the tournament were stuffed with elite CL level players. Football may be different, but there is no getting away from the World Cup as the absolute pinnacle of the game in terms of prestige, pressure and ultimately meaning. It's the big show, and the very biggest players have tended to shine in it when it matters the most (there are exceptions obviously).