5 years 830 million offered to Messi...

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LeBron gonna cry..

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why

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5 years 830 million

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Duncan Castles is shite tier.

Yeah Messi ain’t doing any pressing

Messi false 9 incoming

All of that cash just for Tyrone Mings to slide in with two feet and end the career.

#BREXITfootballLADS

Of course Messi would wait til Stoke are well removed from the Prem before finally getting the stones to come to England. What a puss

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Hot take here, but I really don't see where he fits into a side that has been indoctrinated in high press football.

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Pep designed the whole Barca team around Messi to free him from any defensive responsibilities, and that team relied on a heavy press.

The design of the team has to be around Messi, and has to be oriented around him getting the ball in certain positions. If you play with a striker, with Messi in the hole, that means Messi will have 3 runners even or ahead of him. He loves getting the ball in the inside right channel. That requires players to split the opposition midfield line with either passes or dribbles supplying Messi, who is the best player in the world at linking play, is also amazing at knowing when to recycle possession as well as when to increase the pace of the game. If a higher percentages of these passages end with a shot, a goal kick, or the loss of possession deep inside the opposition half, the need for a heavy press is mitigated somewhat. You could even concede the ensuing goal kick, and play through the low block.

This would aid Man City in a couple of ways. It would mitigate chances from the opposition, as playing through a low block is extremely difficult. It would allow plenty of space into which Messi can play passes. And it would shorten the space needed for Messi to receive the ball, as a big problem with Barca was the sheer distance that developed between the midfield line and the forward line, which required Messi to drop deeper and deeper every season. Man City already have link players like Silva and KdB, which means Messi can stay up high against the weakest CB, which makes the attacking LB more cautious, which disrupts the width of the opposition without even needing to press.

I can think of a lot of permutations Pep can use, but Messi on the field, deployed correctly, disrupts the opposition by his mere presence.

That is high praise. It is hard to beat a trio as cohesive as Busquets-Xavi-Iniesta. Rodrigo-Gundogan-KdB is pretty good, though Gundogan still doesn't have superb consistency. If KdB is willing to make runs from the left channel to goal, that could be deadly. He is definitely going to be the best AM Messi has played with for the last half-decade.

Messi has been unbelievable since Xavi left in terms of being on both ends of the attack. It is insane to me that Barca never realized they needed that sort of playmaker. They did try to get Verrati some time back. Still, the last few years Messi covered for an awful lot of deficiencies at Barca with his insane ability to dictate, link, and control play. It will be nice to see him just attack.