Flip

Tracy McGrady mkII.

The thing is everyone who saw Pele said he was better than Maradona and Messi, everyone who saw Maradona says he's better than Messi. Many who have only seen Messi believes him to be the best. Like I've said, Messi is the best I've seen at his peak, but I'm not going to doubt persons who have played the game and understands the game far better than me who says the other two were superior.

http://cdnl.complex.com/assets/CHANNEL_IMAGES/SPORTS/2013/10/content/1382546840_pelevsmaradona_f.jpg

Oh, then I agree At full speed and the ball to his feet is just amazing.

Zidane on his day I believe was even harder to take the ball away from tbf. Zidane was the master of protecting a football. There's a swedish player who played for Bari and said he spent 90minutes marking Zidane, because even if his team had the ball the manager wanted Zidane marked because if he got hold of it, it was impossible to get it back no matter where on the pitch. But I still believe Messi is a better player because he has really performed at a peak for so many years. It's been half a decade of dominating most players.

Zidane was a joy to watch tbf. But I'd still have Messi above him. He was, I absolutely loved him and he's up there as one of the best ever. It shouldn't be something to laugh about when being compared to another player, but I think it is in this case. Can't disagree with that. Still the most entertaining player I've seen (not best!) is Ronaldinho in his prime. Every week it felt like he was inventing something new.

Zidane was a joy to watch tbf. But I'd still have Messi above him.

For players born there, then yes, but Messi is from Argentina, one of the greatest football nations and who over the last 10 years have had players in abundance and yet failed to win anything except a silly Olympic gold. So yes he has ''failed'' at international level. That's still unfair in some ways, Messi could have been born when other Argentina players were average, yet a Spanish player could have been born in a golden era of Spanish players therefore having the advantage and platform to perform. Just imo like. not to mention Messi was an adult in the era of that brilliant, dominant Spanish side, and now this fantastic German side. In '86, Maradona had a good team, and did carry them at times, but he was also a bit lucky that he didn't have to face the two most talented sides in the tournament (both of whom were very unlucky, and played each other in one of the best games I have ever seen): France and Brazil. Exactly, the World Cup is too narrow a field to judge it by imo. By the way this is no defence of Messi, just a point i'm making in general. I respect that, but for me and many others the World Cup is the biggest stage of them all, the stage where the greatest of all times all played above their levels and won no matter who the opposition were. I see Messi as the best of his generation, but like I said how can he be considered the best of all times if he won't even be considered the best to play for his country? I for one thought he was resting for the World Cup, but it's quite clear something isn't right, while HTT is a bit harsh I agree with a lot having watched every Barcelona game this season.

Robben was immense and over 7 games probably the best performer.

It's because the WC is the hardest competition to win, doesn't happen every year, doesn't happen with the players you play every day with. So you have to raise your game as well as the team to succeed. It's the biggest stage of them all, it's really as simple as that. The quality isn't the highest but the difficulty to win it is.

Messi 10.7km. Schweinsteiger 15.3km. Muller 15.1km. Aguero who didn't play the first 45mins ran 8.3km.

For players born there, then yes, but Messi is from Argentina, one of the greatest football nations and who over the last 10 years have had players in abundance and yet failed to win anything except a silly Olympic gold. So yes he has ''failed'' at international level.

@mole I'm not disagreeing, but the biggest problem with Messi is that he has failed to achieve success outside of Barcelona. Barcelona has had possibly the best side I've ever seen at club level and big parts to it was because of Messi but they also had Iniesta, Xavi, Dani, and other players who at their best were the best in their positions of their generation. Still he's the best player I've seen and I'd rate him above real Ronaldo, Zidane and Ronaldinho. He's just no Pele

It broke and fractured our universe.

Good signing. Khedira, Ospina and Sanchez. Just got to hope for Özil to coming back to his best. Ozil was fine last season till Ramsey and Walcott got injured, there was nothing wrong with him he just found himself in a team that wasn't making runs. A playmaker who looks for the killer ball with players who don't move off the ball properly is pointless. While it definitely was the biggest reason I also think he himself fitness wise wasn't at his peak. I mean even in this World Cup he looked a bit slow and couldn't pick out anyone for big parts of the tournament. I think he's an excellent player and have no reasons to doubt that he can improve, but I don't think the fact that Walcott and Ramsey went out that it was the sole reason for him having a bad winter/spring.

He wasn't particularly awful or anything like,I just thought he lost possession in very bad areas at times. And your opinions are just as mental as mine a lot of the time.

Good signing. Khedira, Ospina and Sanchez. Just got to hope for Özil to coming back to his best. Debuchy. please don't remind me

Bolton you say?

Good signing. Khedira, Ospina and Sanchez. Just got to hope for Özil to coming back to his best.

triggs, honestly, at times I find it quite refreshing to see people post different views. But at times you give the opinion and it feels as you only give it to start a discussion. Saying Mascherano was poor yesterday is beyond me, but if you're telling me that's your genuine opinion than what else can I say.

Had a great semi final but I thought he was poor yesterday, he lost the ball several times in dangerous areas I'm glad it's you who is posting that, because while I don't think he's an excellent player he was very very good in this World Cup. He was the soul of the team and yesterday he had a very good game, glad all the Argentinians who were interviewed on telly agreed. What us that first sentence supposed to mean? As I said he was great in the semi final but I don't think he had a great final, hr lost the ball several times in dangerous areas. I actually do think he is an excellent player and one of the best defensive midfielders in the world. Just as a matter of interest, what did the Argentines interviewed think of Messi's performance? That I'm not surprised you thought he was poor yesterday. You seem to think differently to everyone most of the time. They thought Messi didn't deserve the golden ball and thought he was rather disappointing in the final. They didn't want to blame him but they said that if anyone from their team deserves the golden ball than it had to be Masch.

Just looking at some statistics from the World Cup that were quite interesting. The player to make most tackles in the World Cup was Oscar with 30 tackles (who also had most successful tackles with 11) followed by de Vrij and Fernandinho with 17 each. The player who suffered most tackles was Neymar with 35 followed by Sanchez with 34 and Robben 31. (James Rodriguez only suffered 8 during the whole tournament) The player who lost most balls was Muller with 72 followed by Messi with 71 and Rojo and Oscar. The player with most runs into the box was Robben with 19 (!!) followed by Muller with 9. The player with most recovered balls was de Vrij with 58 followed by Garay with 52. The player with most completed passes was Lahm with 562 followed by Kroos and Mascherano. The player with most completed crosses was Robben followed by Valbuena, Neymar and Kroos. The player with most shots was Benzema who also had the most on target. Messi was 4th in shots, but hit the target less than 50% of his 22 shots. Robben shot 20 and hit the target 19 times. Conclusion. I love Robben, and how the fuck did de Vrij recover that many balls unnoticed. Thought the best would've been Vlaar as he seemed like a rock for most of the tournament.

If it was Perez with that performance, everyone would've praised him. What in the actual fuck? Messi didn't have a good game, no one would praise him, even if it was Shola. It's simple as that really. He walked around the pitch, and lost the ball quite a few times and then tried to go for glory with the last kick of the game. He was an absolute disappointment this whole World Cup because we know what he is capable of, but yesterday he was seriously not in a good day for anyone standards.

Had a great semi final but I thought he was poor yesterday, he lost the ball several times in dangerous areas I'm glad it's you who is posting that, because while I don't think he's an excellent player he was very very good in this World Cup. He was the soul of the team and yesterday he had a very good game, glad all the Argentinians who were interviewed on telly agreed.