Flip

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.

He hasn't moved for years though, it's obviously been his choice.

It's neither, he just won't be renewed. It's fair enough I guess, I'm still glad he was able to bring Brazil back on the map until the last two games. I don't think people remember how shit we actually were under Mano. We couldn't beat teams not named China or Iraq. Although I'm not happy with rumours doing the round that we're after a foreigner.

I agree but clustered together? I'm looking forward to it, especially as Brazilians don't need a visa (at least for now). I just mean that all the cities and host sites are in Europe, with none in Asia/Siberia (not logistical genius or anything, just the way of things tbf), so the travel will be relatively comparable to Brazil despite Russia being probably more than twice as large. Aye, I think they'll host a great World Cup, don't think Russia would like to embarrass themselves. I mean if our government managed to hide everything for a month why shouldn't they be able to do an even better job? I think the problem with Russia is that like Qatar they won the bid through bribery. I'm just hoping that the World Cup after these two go to sensible choice. I doubt there's been a single World Cup bid in the past two decades that was won without significant amounts of money changing hands. This

I agree but clustered together? I'm looking forward to it, especially as Brazilians don't need a visa (at least for now). I just mean that all the cities and host sites are in Europe, with none in Asia/Siberia (not logistical genius or anything, just the way of things tbf), so the travel will be relatively comparable to Brazil despite Russia being probably more than twice as large. Aye, I think they'll host a great World Cup, don't think Russia would like to embarrass themselves. I mean if our government managed to hide everything for a month why shouldn't they be able to do an even better job?

Shouldn't have taken his growth hormones. On a serious note though, I do wonder what's wrong, it's not the first time either.

I agree but clustered together? I'm looking forward to it, especially as Brazilians don't need a visa (at least for now).

Boateng probably had the best game I've ever seen him play. But Schweinsteiger, without him in there, despite going hiding a bit in the 2nd still deserves it for running non-stop. Thought Mascherano did well for Argentina once again as well.

Failed on the biggest stage there is. It's easy to perform when you have Xavi and Iniesta and who not passing you the ball.