Something about Messi and Neymar.
Saw a few clips lately from Barcelona's game and noticed how Messi had a few clear chances to pass to Neymar but chose not to. I am one of those who believe that Messi usually does this on purpose because he knows what Neymar's potential is. Since Messi took over as the undisputed star of Barcelona about 10 years ago, following Ronaldinho's exit, no player has been able to threaten his royal status at the club. You have had Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Henry, Ibrahimovi?, Villa, Pedro, S?nchez and many others that Barcelona was never hesitant to trade if Messi made any noise or complained that they were in any way impeding his play at the club.
Until Neymar came!
While Neymar hasn't dethroned Messi (yet), he is the biggest threat Messi has faced in the last 10 years. Here is a player whom Barcelona can finally rely on to be Messi's replacement. For a player to play so good and be compared to Messi, you know he is good enough to take the torch. Neymar has already been with the club for 2.5 years (this being his 3rd season) now and given his young age, he can easily be their superstar and main attraction for the next 5 years at least. Not sure if Messi will be as effective in another 2 or 3 years as he has been in the last 10 years. Despite his great goal scoring ability. we all know it is not the same Messi that could dribble past half the team a few years ago. Messi probably gets the ball dispossessed from him more than he is able to successfully dribble past players.
Which brings me to my main point: if we ignore the services of Suarez for a moment, starting mid last year and increasingly this year, we are almost at the point where Messi needs Neymar more than Neymar needs Messi. We all know that when Neymar started playing for Barca in 2013-when Suarez wasn't even in the picture-Neymar could only go as far as Messi took him. No more. While Neymar still often passes to Messi, he doesn't need or have to. Neymar can dribble past several players on his own and pass it to Messi to score. Messi can't do that, at least not as easy as he used to in the past. He has to rely on Neymar to do most of the dirty work for him to score his goals. Sure, Suarez may need Messi more than Neymar needs Messi, but even in a lot of goals where Messi assisted Suarez, if you look at how the play developed, it is Neymar who did a lot of the hard work first (if not someone else like Rakitic, Iniesta etc.) . So when it coms to MSN (Messi-Suarez-Neymar) all roads/goal go through Neymar...
Not to mention, Neymar is no longer struggling with scoring goals as he did in his first season with Barcelona. He now scores at will and has been the leading scorer of the team or even La Liga several times in the last 2 seasons.
Needless to say, Neymar is now his own man and no longer in the shadow of Messi.
In other words, over the course of a full season, and if we take Suarez out of the equation for a second, Barcelona would have a much better season (in terms of overall points) if Neymar was there instead of Messi (assuming you can only choose one of the two). Just look at how he played when Messi was out to injury. He was close to perfection. But ever since Messi came back, Neymar's stats went down a bit.
Neymar, Barcelona is yours to lose...
ASHOOR
Saw a few clips lately from Barcelona's game and noticed how Messi had a few clear chances to pass to Neymar but chose not to. I am one of those who believe that Messi usually does this on purpose because he knows what Neymar's potential is. Since Messi took over as the undisputed star of Barcelona about 10 years ago, following Ronaldinho's exit, no player has been able to threaten his royal status at the club. You have had Ronaldinho, Eto'o, Henry, Ibrahimovi?, Villa, Pedro, S?nchez and many others that Barcelona was never hesitant to trade if Messi made any noise or complained that they were in any way impeding his play at the club.
Until Neymar came!
While Neymar hasn't dethroned Messi (yet), he is the biggest threat Messi has faced in the last 10 years. Here is a player whom Barcelona can finally rely on to be Messi's replacement. For a player to play so good and be compared to Messi, you know he is good enough to take the torch. Neymar has already been with the club for 2.5 years (this being his 3rd season) now and given his young age, he can easily be their superstar and main attraction for the next 5 years at least. Not sure if Messi will be as effective in another 2 or 3 years as he has been in the last 10 years. Despite his great goal scoring ability. we all know it is not the same Messi that could dribble past half the team a few years ago. Messi probably gets the ball dispossessed from him more than he is able to successfully dribble past players.
Which brings me to my main point: if we ignore the services of Suarez for a moment, starting mid last year and increasingly this year, we are almost at the point where Messi needs Neymar more than Neymar needs Messi. We all know that when Neymar started playing for Barca in 2013-when Suarez wasn't even in the picture-Neymar could only go as far as Messi took him. No more. While Neymar still often passes to Messi, he doesn't need or have to. Neymar can dribble past several players on his own and pass it to Messi to score. Messi can't do that, at least not as easy as he used to in the past. He has to rely on Neymar to do most of the dirty work for him to score his goals. Sure, Suarez may need Messi more than Neymar needs Messi, but even in a lot of goals where Messi assisted Suarez, if you look at how the play developed, it is Neymar who did a lot of the hard work first (if not someone else like Rakitic, Iniesta etc.) . So when it coms to MSN (Messi-Suarez-Neymar) all roads/goal go through Neymar...
Not to mention, Neymar is no longer struggling with scoring goals as he did in his first season with Barcelona. He now scores at will and has been the leading scorer of the team or even La Liga several times in the last 2 seasons.
Needless to say, Neymar is now his own man and no longer in the shadow of Messi.
In other words, over the course of a full season, and if we take Suarez out of the equation for a second, Barcelona would have a much better season (in terms of overall points) if Neymar was there instead of Messi (assuming you can only choose one of the two). Just look at how he played when Messi was out to injury. He was close to perfection. But ever since Messi came back, Neymar's stats went down a bit.
Neymar, Barcelona is yours to lose...
ASHOOR