After a difficult debut season in Paris, Lionel Messi returns to the top level in terms of performance. He is the best assistant in the top 5 leagues (9 assists, the same as Kevin de Bruyne), scored 6 9 on goals passes (1.4 effective actions in terms of 90 minutes), only Erling Haaland scored more than him (17 3 ), Robert Lewandowski (12 4) and Neymar (9 7) .
Of course, Messi's playing influence goes far beyond the main statistics. This season he seems to be finding a balance between advancing the ball, creating and finishing.
Reminder: in Ligue 1-2021/22, Messi scored only six balls. In Ligue 1-2022/23, he has already reached this mark, although less than a third of the season has passed https://1win-azerbaycan.com/.
In terms of goalscoring qualities (expected threat and implementation), Messi really played objectively worse than in Barcelona. Both a general decline in chances and a weak finish affected performance.
On a 90-minute basis, Messi only scored 0.25 goals per game in PSG 2021/22, his worst career result was 0.46 goals in the 2007/08 season. In the next 13 seasons with Barça, he never dropped below 0.78 (2019/20), breaking through the mark every 90 minutes on eight occasions. while rarely noting its power in other stages. Even Karim Benzema came to the defense of Messi, he knows like no one else that you can be very useful without goals: We tolerate the lack of goals due to the adaptation period. Better watch what Messi does on the field. Those who criticize Leo now do not know anything about football.
PSG partner Ander Herrera also actively defended: They demand 50 goals from Messi in a season, this is difficult. Let's not forget that Messi hit the posts and crossbars 10 times, setting a Ligue 1 record of all time. 10 goals and everything would be better. True, in Barça there were seasons with 11, and with 12, and with 14 rods, we checked.
In Mauricio Pochettino's system, Messi got the role of a very free ten: he cruised along the entire central axis, descended to the center of the field, sometimes shifted to the right flank. In the center of PSG's midfield, there have always been more destroyers than ball engines, and that engine was Leo Messi. The Argentine guaranteed constant progress, and he was very good at it.
But there were enough problems in the final stage. Firstly, the very implementation of Messi was objectively bad. Secondly, the long search for a connection with Neymar and Mbappe. Pochettino blamed the blurred pre-season because of the Euro and the America's Cup and explained this misunderstanding in the first half of the season. Mbappe remarked: It’s a pity that we played only by April 2022. Thirdly, microtraumas obviously affected the playing tone. The period of adaptation with everyday nuances also had an effect. Pochettino said that Leo had problems with this.
