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Any lunatics still thinking Messi is the best?


Mr Romanov

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I'm a flat earth believer I'm afraid, I'm just not willing to put players of this era ahead of Maradonna given that they don't need to spend 90 minutes worrying about avoiding leg breakers, playing with glorified beach balls doesn't exactly help either.


Aye. But Maradona played against defenders who'd spent the night before downing pints, while Messi plays against defenders who get shown ten minute compilations on the best way to stop him.
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20 hours ago, RandomGuy. said:

 


Aye. But Maradona played against defenders who'd spent the night before downing pints, while Messi plays against defenders who get shown ten minute compilations on the best way to stop him.

If you think defenders of today are better than defenders of Maradona's era you are basically a loonie.

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While athleticism and conditioning have improved immeasurably since Maradona's day, to suggest that defenders were poor, we're sinking pints the night before, had no tactical awareness and the like is clearly nonsense. He wasn't playing against cloggers in England, he was playing in Spain and Italy where the level of professionalism and defensive awareness (in Serie A at least) was far beyond anything England had to offer for decades. Maradona was quick, strong, agile, had incredible ball control and dragged two middling teams to Championships they've never managed to win since with both Napoli and Argentina. While Messi is similar he is fortunate enough to play with arguably the best team in the history of football. There's no way he'd be able to drag a mid table side to the title or inspire Argentina to win the World Cup. Not than I'm arguing that Messi isn't the greatest - but to discount Maradona with some of the comments on this thread is just bizarre.

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Aye but would you be daft enough to pick a clogger like Franco Baresi over Rio Ferdinand?

There's a weird generational thing that makes each successive generation think strength, agility, speed, were newly invented in their own generation, and those that went before in the previous generation were some kind of weaklings who to a man were athletically crippled by subsiding entirely on booze and chips. Goes for all sports.

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1 hour ago, Salvo Montalbano said:

While athleticism and conditioning have improved immeasurably since Maradona's day, to suggest that defenders were poor, we're sinking pints the night before, had no tactical awareness and the like is clearly nonsense. He wasn't playing against cloggers in England, he was playing in Spain and Italy where the level of professionalism and defensive awareness (in Serie A at least) was far beyond anything England had to offer for decades. Maradona was quick, strong, agile, had incredible ball control and dragged two middling teams to Championships they've never managed to win since with both Napoli and Argentina. While Messi is similar he is fortunate enough to play with arguably the best team in the history of football. There's no way he'd be able to drag a mid table side to the title or inspire Argentina to win the World Cup. Not than I'm arguing that Messi isn't the greatest - but to discount Maradona with some of the comments on this thread is just bizarre.

I think both are/were great players, I'd love to see how Messi stood up to the assaults that were dished out to all the jinky players 30/40 years ago, I'd also like to see how Maradonna got on knowing he wasn't getting mangled at every opportunity.

The bit I don't get about football at the moment is why there aren't 100's of players looking to dribble like Messi, there use to be loads of jinky players getting hacked to bits now when the rules protect that sort of player there's hardly any.

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26 minutes ago, ayrmad said:

I think both are/were great players, I'd love to see how Messi stood up to the assaults that were dished out to all the jinky players 30/40 years ago, I'd also like to see how Maradonna got on knowing he wasn't getting mangled at every opportunity.

The bit I don't get about football at the moment is why there aren't 100's of players looking to dribble like Messi, there use to be loads of jinky players getting hacked to bits now when the rules protect that sort of player there's hardly any.

I'd accept that players are fitter in terms of longevity of career at the top level.  I'd also accept that on the whole players are bigger and stronger because of, ironically, the lack of physicality in the game these days.

But something I would never accept is that modern day players are faster or more mobile.  In fact, if anything the game has slowed down due to it being primarily possession/passing based rather than dribbling/running based.

The reason there aren't the jinky players of old is that the dribbling/running based game involves more possession turn around and tends to be end to end....something that's anathema to modern coaches.

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Maradona was more talented than Messi.   For me I'dpprobably take Maradona and original Ronaldo at their peak over Messi and Ronaldo,  better players.   I'ma huge mMessi fan, but Maradona at his best was better, if you don't agree you're just wrong.  Watch him, he could do hundreds of things Messi can't.   

 

WhatsImpressive about Messiand rRonaldo is longevity and consistency,  their actual talent levels, especially in ronaldos case, are a bit meh.   Messi not so much he's gifted but not as gifted as Maradona.   I'mnnotssurprised 23 year fan boys who never saw the real Ronaldo or Maradona disagree though.

 

andof ccourse consistency and longevity comes from sports science and the protection they are given by referees because of people like Maradona and original Ronaldo. 

 

Original Ronaldo btw won wpoty as a teenager.   That shits all over Messi and Cristiano,  that's how good he was.

Edited by Peppino Impastato
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Maradona was more talented than Messi.   For me I'dpprobably take Maradona and original Ronaldo at their peak over Messi and Ronaldo,  better players.   I'ma huge mMessi fan, but Maradona at his best was better, if you don't agree you're just wrong.  Watch him, he could do hundreds of things Messi can't.   
 
WhatsImpressive about Messiand rRonaldo is longevity and consistency,  their actual talent levels, especially in ronaldos case, are a bit meh.   Messi not so much he's gifted but not as gifted as Maradona.   I'mnnotssurprised 23 year fan boys who never saw the real Ronaldo or Maradona disagree though.
 
andof ccourse consistency and longevity comes from sports science and the protection they are given by referees because of people like Maradona and original Ronaldo. 
 
Original Ronaldo btw won wpoty as a teenager.   That shits all over Messi and Cristiano,  that's how good he was.


What a slavering arse.

I'm 36, and have watched all the players you've mentioned playing in their prime...

The 23 year old fan boys who never seen Maradona or original Ronaldo playing (but live in an era where hundreds of hours of Maradona/original Ronaldo footage is freely available online) are right, and you are wrong.
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