It’s a broken record and a massive circlejerk, but I just can’t help myself.

Messi is by far the greatest ever. Not just because of his record breaking amount of goals and assists. Also not just because of his overall longevity. Neither do all of his record amount of trophies matter.

It mostly comes down to what he’s showcased on the pitch during his long prime.

Prime Messi:

A mix of the best ball control, passing, dribbling, vision, agility, feints, positioning, balance, his acceleration, pressing and tracking back were also great during his prime.

Even if he didn’t score a goal or assist, there would still be a lot of greatness to witness on the pitch. He would still be my favorite player ever if he didn’t have a lot of goals and assists and was mostly known for outdribbling entire defenses. There’s literally nobody that’s done it like prime Messi.

Here’s also the most important aspect about prime Messi: he didn’t just do these things every now and then. It happened constantly, consistently in every single match, multiple times in those matches. Most top players maybe have an incredible pass every other match, once per match. Or they would have an incredible dribble once in their careers. While Messi did it non-stop.

Emery literally had his shot to achieve something with Arsenal and he didn’t. He wasn’t capable enough to manage that club through a crisis.

Arteta really isn’t getting enough credit. He managed to weather a storm and improve that squad tremendously. I haven’t been a fan of all his decisions, but you can’t deny he got more right than wrong or else they wouldn’t have been back at the top of the PL.

Emery seems more at place at clubs like Aston Villa, Sevilla and Villareal.

‘‘Spursy’’

- Roy Keane

This is the new ‘‘Lads, its Tottenham.’’

The Spurs supporters just laughed at him 5 mins ago when he fell over when he tried to control the ball.

Shouldn’t have done that.

*slaps hands* Poch is at the wheel!

10 more years! Chelsea is back baby!

I’m certain people don’t actually watch football matches

There’s nothing out of the ordinary about his behavior

Literally the majority of all players get heated, shove players, shit talk etc. Even someone that’s been turned into a baby due to odd football fans, like Kanté, also shoves players and has moments of aggression. If they didn’t, they never would’ve made it in the top. There’s no such thing like a ‘‘saint’’ on a football pitch, especially on that level.

It’s also very normal behavior if you ever even played football on an amateur level or on the streets. I can’t imagine there’s never been a moment where you didn’t shove a player or were butting heads/talking shit.

Relatively speaking Messi is more passive than most players though. Kanté is even more passive than Messi. But relatively speaking they all have their moments of aggression.

OMG a football player that pushes and shoves other players. Never done that myself during a match when things got heated! That surely never happens!

We all act like gentlemen and say please and thank you.

Was this quote after he lost the title? lol

Big difference: the others did it in better leagues.

Hard to compare this.

That’s just… not true

Both get idolized

Like literally every other top player

Big difference: the others did it in better leagues.

Hard to compare this.

Germany losing is always a good time, even if its just a friendly.

It would make for a good story and joke, if Shakira and Sergio Ramos ended up dating.

In most cases you force your own luck in football. Like being more effective/dominant. It’s not ‘‘just luck’’ when you defend for 90 mins perfectly and score a 1-0 from a counter in extra time. It’s not ‘‘just luck’’ when you dominate a team for 90 mins and end up winning with 3-0. It’s not ‘‘just luck’’ when a skillfull freekick taker scores a 1-0 winner with a placed shot.

I do think there’s a bunch of luck in football, but lets not exaggerate it. When a player scores a long distance goal with a placed shot, it’s not luck. It’s a player thinking, aiming and pulling the trigger thoughtfully into a specific spot with the inside of his foot. However, I do think that a long distance shot on goal with a crazy shot on the laces is more luck based than skill based. Thats more like closing your eyes and hoping it will hit the goal. In those cases I do agree that luck is involved, or when a player deflects the ball into the goal. However, even in those situations you can force defenders into those situations by full force attacking their goal.

This is what happens when 2 teams actually go forward instead of hanging around in a ‘‘low block’’

It’s what’s killing football these days. 1 side plays dominant football and the other side just parks the bus.

Ball rolling into the goal

Goal scorer’s arm is on the floor sliding into goal

Contact with his arm would mean him actually stopping the ball from going into the goal

VAR checks for a possible hand ball

Makes no sense lmao

Odegaard, De Bruyne, Bruno Fernandes are all 10s but have to play differently to suit this day and age’s style of football.

I thought Havertz was shit at Chelsea, but I was willing to keep an open mind. Maybe Chelsea’s system just didn’t fit him and he’d glow up at Arsenal. Maybe it was due to Chelsea he had a terrible body language and looked severely depressed.

Then he went to Arsenal, completely failed during a skill competition in a sponsored segment during a USA Tour. Which I rationalized as ‘‘maybe he is just looking out to not get injured and simply not caring about the competition because its just a silly sponsor segment.’’

Then he started playing for Arsenal. Didn’t impress one bit and still looked like his Chelsea self. I was open to give him some time. I gave him some time and I just don’t see it in him. His touches, his ball control, the confidence, his vision/anticipation/passing and body language all just seem off. When I watch him it feels like a non-footballer possessed his body and found himself on the top level of football and is just trying to fake it as a footballer.

The main thing that I always just notice about him is his body language. He just seems really unhappy.

‘‘But the stats show he’s better than Ramsdale!!!’’

I guess people watch stats instead of football matches

People stare themselves so blind on stats its unreal. While they also don’t consider the context of those stats. People will just throw stats around like ‘‘passing accuracy’’ but won’t take into account against which opponents it was and how those opponents played (like did they pressure the passer a lot or not?).

Player X gets room to pass the ball around. The opponents don’t bother to pressure him much because they are worrying more about another player for example. Their managers gave them the task to stop that other player in this scenario.

Meanwhile player Y doesn’t get that same wiggle room to pass the ball around. In his case the opposing players do get the assignment to pressure him more.

Player X had a passing accuracy of 90%! wow so good

Player Y had a passing accuracy of 85%! see player X HAS to be better

Meanwhile Player Y did amazingly well with tremendous pressure put on him. He kept turning and twisting his opponents and still finding his teammates perfectly 85% of all the passes he gave. Only made a couple slight errors while under pressure. While Player X had free room to pass around at his hearts desire while he made 1 big error while there was no pressure on him whatsoever.

Stat junkies will tell you Player X is the superior player. His stats show that! While people that actually watch the matches know that Player Y is the better player and can do much more when there’s pressure put on him.

Because he’s barely been used since last year and only played whenever Varane/Martinez were injured or needed rest. Just 15 matches. Which most likely also have been against lesser sides, after Varane/Martinez needed rest against playing the more important matches.