Barcelona win against Eibar their last game of the season and Messi wins his 8th Pichichi

Yesterday, a Messi-less Barcelona beat Eibar 1-0 away, securing their 3rd place spot. They didn't have a single shot in the first half, showing that Messidependencia is a very real issue within the team, but fortunately, Griemzann managed to score the winner in the second half. Atlético Madrid was crowned champion of La Liga after beating Real Valladolid 2-1.

This also confirms what had been expected since the last matchdays: Messi has won his 8th Pichichi. With 30 goals in 30 games, Messi has won the Pichichi by a clear margin, though not close to the Golden Boot race as he was 11 goals behind him, but still in 2nd spot. This Pichichi win means the following things:

• Messi won his 5th Pichichi, setting a record for the most Pichichis won in a row, beating Di Stéfano's and Hugo Sanchez's 4-peat.
• Messi equals Jean Pierre Papin's record of 5 consecutive league top scorer awards, set in the 1990/91 season.

Now, the team must focus on who stays and who goes, with many rumors going around this topic, including Koeman, the manager.

As I previously said, I will do an entry detailing Messi's performance in La Liga this season and overall. I hope you liked this entry, and as always, I'll see you in the next blog.

Barcelona has a new president!

After the votes were counted, Joan Laporta came on top with 54.28% of the votes (30.184 votes). Font came in 2nd with 29.99% (16.679 votes) and Freixa was last with 8.58% (4.769 votes), with 3628 spoilt votes and 351 blank votes. Laporta was the club's president from the 2003/04 season all the way to the 2009/10 season.

Messi casted his vote at around 11:43 AM (CET), and he brought his son Thiago Messi with him as well.

In that period of time, Barcelona won 4 La Ligas, 1 Copa del Rey and 2 UCLs, achieving the historical Sextete as well. Messi scored 127 goals and made 47 assists in 214 games while Laporta was in charge, won a Ballon d'Or in 2009 (and a second one in 2010, where Laporta was in charge half of the year), and 2 Golden Boots as well.

With Bartomeu gone and Laporta being Barcelona's president once again, hopefully we can go back to the good old days, and see a happy Messi once again.

Messi vs Ronaldo: A goalscoring comparison

Many people have compared Messi and Ronaldo on a goalscoring basis, and some even just restrict the debate to that section, which is a massive injustice to Messi. Ronaldo's position has been more of a fox-in-the-box position since he joined Real Madrid, while Messi has consistently been a winger/attacking midfielder. But even then, I will show proof in this entry that Messi is the better goalscorer than Ronaldo. So without further ado, let's look at the numbers.

Messi has scored 729 goals, while Ronaldo has scored 767. But this is misleading since Ronaldo has played 145 more games, or 11522 minutes specifically. Their goal ratios per game are 0.806 to 0.73, or 0.888 to 0.81 when taking their per 90 ratios. And without penalties, the total goal tally is 633 to 631 for Ronaldo, or a 0.697 to 0.6 ratio per game. Quite a difference between the two. In the league, Ronaldo wins 470 to 463 goals, but the ratio is 0.91 to 0.78 in favor of Messi. And in the Champions League, although Ronaldo wins 135 to 119, Messi wins ratio-wise with a 0.8 to 0.75 per game.

Another important thing to note is Golden Boots since Messi wins 6 to Ronaldo's 4 and Ronaldo hasn't won the award since the 2014/15 season. And although Ronaldo beats Messi in UCL top-scorer awards, his 2 offside goals in the 2016/17 season won him the award ahead of Messi (12 to 11). If it wasn't for those goals, Messi would have won it and it would be 7-6 for Messi overall.

Then there's other records/milesones like Messi having the record for most goals in a calendar year (91 to 69), most goals in a season (73 to 61), 3 seasons reaching 50+ non-penalty goals (Ronaldo has never achieved that), Messi being the youngest of the two to reach 100 goals all the way to 700, etc.

Against top sides, Messi has more goals against the top 3, top 4, top 5 and top 6 despite playing less games against all of those top sides. And against England's top 6, Messi has 2 fewer goals with 47 fewer games. And in finals, Messi has a ratio of 0.69 goals per final, while Ronaldo has a ratio of 0.59. And in head-to-head games, he has 22 goals to Ronaldo's 21.

And finally, when looking at their shooting % Messi wins overall 18.9% to 15.3%, or 5.28 to 6.54 shots taken per goal. Outside the box, the % is 8.79% to 4.63% (11.38 to 21.58 SPG), a massive difference, and inside the box it's to 27.14% 23.36% (3.68 to 4.28 SPG), again, quite a difference.

Overall, it can be seen that it's in fact Messi who is the better goalscorer of the two. I hoped you liked this entry and I'll see you in the next blog.

Messi's performance in 2018

One of the biggest examples of Messi being underrated, or perhaps normalizing the impossible so much that it didn't become as impressive from him, is him finishing 5th in the 2018 Ballon d'Or, a disgrace as I will show shortly. Without further ado, let's look at what Messi did in 2018.

First comes the 2018 World Cup, which I already talked about earlier. In summary, he deserved to be in the ToTT (if Ronaldo deserved it so did Messi) and overall did a great performance.

In the 2017/18 UCL knockout stages, he generated all 4 goals against Chelsea in the Round of 16, and after being MoTM in the first leg against Roma, the team crumbled in the second leg and got eliminated. Despite that, Messi was still Barcelona's best player and overall probably the 5th best player in the game (better than half of Roma's team). He was also the best player in the tournament until Barcelona got kicked out.

In La Liga, he was both the champion and the best player by quite a distance. He also won the Golden Boot. Some minor achievements include being the MoTM in the Copa del Rey final (and paving Barcelona's way into that final) and being the MoTM in the Supercopa de España against Sevilla as well, assisting Dembélé's winning goal.

To get a better picture of just how dominant Messi was, let's take a look at this:

As we can see, Messi made a lot of achievements in 2018, but even then, he only got 5th in the Ballon d'Or and The Best, probably the biggest injustice in its history.

The "False 9" Messi

May 1st, 2009, the day before El Clásico. Pep Guardiola explained to Messi something that would later prove to revolutionize football. He explained to him the false 9 position and wanted him to play it against Real Madrid. The rest, as they say, is history. Today's topic will be about that, so without further ado, let's get into it.

The day after that meet-up with Pep, Messi dropped a masterclass against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, assisting the first goal, scoring the third and fifth goals, and pre-assisting the sixth goal. His new position in the game definitely made an impact on the pitch as Barcelona thrashed Real 6-2 on their own ground.

He won the Ballon d'Or that same year, and the false 9 position seemed to accustom him greatly since he was the best player in the 2009/10 season as well, scoring 47 goals (winning the Golden Boot as well) and giving 11 assists in 53 games with Barcelona, and winning yet another Ballon d'Or later on. In the 2010/11 season, he was once again the best player in the world, with astounding performances both in La Liga and the Champions League, which meant yet another Ballon d'Or rolling in for him, scoring 53 goals and giving 23 assists in 55 games with Barcelona.

In the 2011/12 season, we would see perhaps the best version of Messi, racking up to 73 goals (winning the Golden Boot once again) and 29 assists for a total of 102 goals generated in the season with Barcelona. This won him the Ballon d'Or, obviously. In the 2012/13 season, he was in his most clinical form ever, but injuries did cause some problems for him. Nevertheless, he got 60 goals (winning yet another Golden Boot) and 15 assists in 50 games. In his final season as a false 9, the 2013/14 season, he got 41 goals and 14 assists in 46 games. After that, MSN was consolidated and Suárez moved into the central position, pushing Messi to be a right-winger once again like he was under Rijkaard. Although he did play from time to time as a false 9, using Suárez as a reference point, he was mainly a right-winger or an attacking midfielder from that point on.

Overall, his role as a false 9 was to cause a lot of tactical problems to the opposing team, leaving them in a no-win situation. If he was pressed by a defensive midfielder, it would free up space for Xavi and Iniesta to put the ball forward. If a centreback pressed him, then that would leave a flank open to exploit, and if he wasn't pressed, then he could just run havoc with his skillset.

As we can see, Messi's performance while being a false 9 was spectacular for the most part, and due to his tactical importance, goals and assists don't do justice to just how vital he was for Barcelona in that period.

The most recognized records of Messi

In this entry, I will talk about the most recognized records of Lionel Messi, because if I talked about all of them, they would not enter in just one.

Top winner of the Ballon d'Or 

In the years 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015, and 2019 he won the Ballon d'Or, 6 in total, the highest amount a player has achieved in history. It also counts within itself the record of most Ballon d'Ors won consecutively, with 4 won between 2009 and 2012.

Credit: Marca

Top winner of the Golden Boot

In the 2009/10, 2011/12, 2012/13, 2016/17, 2017/18, and 2018/19 seasons he won the Golden Shoe, again having 6 in total, 2 more than Ronaldo, his closest competitor.

Credit: Marca

Barcelona's top scorer

With 641 goals to his name, he is by far the club's top scorer, with a difference of 411 over César Rodríguez. He broke it against Sevilla on March 17, 2012, and no one has even come close since.

Credit: Marca

Top scorer of the Argentine team 

With 71 goals in 142 games, Messi surpasses Batistuta as the top scorer for the albiceleste. He broke the record after his renowned free-kick against the United States in the Copa América Centenario (or against Colombia in the Qualifiers months later if he is counted 56 goals).

Credit: AS

Top scorer in a European league

With 448 goals, Messi recently broke the record against Osasuna. The record belonged to Bican in the Czechoslovak league.

Credit: Mundo Albiceleste

Most goals in a calendar year

In the year 2012, Messi achieved the astronomical amount of 91 goals in just 69 games, breaking Gerd Müller's previous record of 85.

Credit: FC Barcelona