Look, you guys come up with excuses for Ronaldo (who is the greatest cl player of all time) when his teams choke against Ajax and Lyon. And Juventus were HEAVILY favoured against Ajax and Lyon. But Ronaldo has NEVER had to deal with a defense this bad. Who did Lyon have? Ajax also didn’t have anyone close to mbappe’s level.
And I’m not even saying the loss today isn’t bad (it’s humiliating, imagine if Neymar played) but the reality is I agree Messi was pathetic against Roma. That was the worst match of his career in that second leg.
Today, despite Barcelona’s failings he was still the best attacking player and it wasn’t even close:
https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/15...-Saint-Germain
As for griezmann, he’s been a bust. He’s played better since the new year, but I can hardly remember the last match against a decent side where you say “Griezmann outshone Messi”. At least with Neymar you can say he was Barca’s best player in the psg comeback.
Ronaldo is getting knocked out by the Lyons of the world, Juventus are barely hanging on to a top 4 spot and have their lowest trophy count in years. I have zero issue saying Ronaldo has a better mentality than Messi. However what I’m hoping even his biggest fans have finally learned is that no one player can do it himself. At least when Ronaldo played poorly/went missing Eder, Ramos, bale, and Benzema had crucial goals. For Messi you had it sometimes on recent years with Suarez, but only had one away CL goal over a 3 year period. Even this year in CL with a new team Suarez has been bad (amazing in the league though)
And this is why I always say Messi and Ronaldo deserve better than their current squads. They are wasting away with teams who have a low ceiling. At least Ronaldo’s team can defend. I mean Barca scored 4 against Roma, 3 against Liverpool, and even if it’s just 2 against Bayern that’s more than any other team put past them in CL. Which isn’t to say I thought Barca’s attack was great against Bayern. But the underlying trend here is that the defense is beyond atrocious. Ronaldo has never had a defense this terrible. I honestly don’t think if you swapped Ronaldo with Messi on this current Barca squad they’d be beating Liverpool or Bayern. Ronaldo wouldn’t be getting service from anyone on Barca outside of low crosses from Alba because Messi is the service. Messi has been papering over so many cracks on this squad. I actually think his 2019 season was crazy underrated despite him winning ballon d’or because that team had zero business winning the league or being a goal away from a CL final.
I’m Barca till the death and wish Messi the best when he leaves, but this team’s defense is a dumpster fire. And until that gets solved these humiliations will always continue to happen.