Messi's "weak" foot

Messi tends to move and shoot the ball with his left foot, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have a good right foot. That's what today's entry is about, so without further ado, let's look at Messi's "weak" foot.

He has scored a total of 91 goals with his right foot, which makes up 12.62% of his goals. Since the 2009/10 season, Messi has had an amazing 26.57% accuracy in his right-footed shots. And since the 2014/15 league season, he has outscored his xG by 4, as well as giving over 320 key passes and making 61 assists with his "weak" foot in that same period.

He's scored 1 right foot hat-trick and 6 right foot braces, and some memorable moments like his first World Cup goal, his chip against Bayern Munich in the 2014/15 UCL season, his goal against Real Madrid in the 2010/11 UCL where he dribbled past 4 players, his incredible goal against Nigeria in the 2018 World Cup which was nominated for the Puskás Award, and others.

This great video from Messi Magic™ shows how good Messi really is with his right foot.

The consistency of the GOAT

Consistency is another thing which Messi is known for, not only because he has been world-class for multiple years, having a 10-year gap between his first and last Ballon d'Or, but also because of some individual qualities which he has been stellar in for over a decade. That's what the entry is about today, the specific qualities, and without further ado, let's get into the numbers.

Dribbling

His dribbling numbers were already spectacular in his early days, having 7.67 dribbles per game in the 2005/06 season according to StatsBomb, and while he's downgraded to 4.95 dribbles per game in the 2018/19 season, that is still an incredibly high amount, plus the number of minutes played massively increased. If we go to Opta's dribbles, we can see the following:

Clearly now can we understand the magnitude of how good he has been at dribbles for so much time.

Shooting

I already covered this subject earlier, which refers to xG. What I mean is that, on every single La Liga season since his first one, he has overperformed his xG, which is a very hard task, especially when done so consistently for 16 consecutive seasons.

Playmaking

In terms of assists, he has given over 10 assists since 2007, giving 20+ in many years as well. Other numbers include key passes, where he has done 40+ key passes in La Liga every single season since 2007/08. He's also attempted at least 30 troughballs in every single La Liga season except 2017/18. Remarkable numbers that show his great playmaking abilities.

Free kicks

Since 2008, he has scored at least 1 free kick every year, getting even 3+ every year between 2012 and 2019, amassing a total of 53.

These are only a few of the things Messi has been consistently good at, and perhaps I'll do a part 2 someday. But until then, see you in the next entry.

Slow recovery

Barcelona managed to defeat Huesca away yesterday with yet another great performance from Messi who came back after his injury. He got an assist, the second in a row, 2 shots on target (8 in total), 6 dribbles, he created a big chance, 9 ground duels won, received 3 fouls, made 2 long balls, 1 key pass, 71 passes and had 115 touches to earn himself yet another MoTM. He's still the highest-rated player in the league, of course.

Credit: AFP Photo

Messi played his 500th La Liga game against Huesca, and his 750th game for Barcelona, and as I showed earlier, he did it with fashion. He's still underperforming his xA, but it's not as much of a concern anymore.

With 3 big chances missed, I have to reiterate that finishing is important, especially now that Barça will play a lot of away games consecutively and they need to better their position on the table. Barcelona had an xG of over 3 + 3.7 from non-shot xG, which they should have heavily capitalized on but they ultimately couldn't. This can lead to serious trouble in the near future.

Credit: As

Without Messi's help...

Yesterday Barcelona drew 1 to 1 with Eibar at Campo Nou, a game that seemed easy at first glance, but as Messi did not play, it was difficult for Barcelona and they lost valuable points.

Once again, the clinical attribute is very much needed, since Barcelona missed two clear chances, one of them a missed penalty that Messi would have kicked if he played, and had a clearly higher xG than Eibar.

Crédito: AS

This brings us back to a topic that I spoke about yesterday, the points won by Messi, and that Messidependencia has been quite clear since last season. If this happens again, Barcelona could say goodbye to the league title.

Crédito: SPORTbible

Messi's xG

xG, which refers to expected goals, is a metric used to see the performance of a player, with each shot having a specific xG. Good shooters usually have a lower xG than their actual goals, but for Messi, it is far too short for him.

He has been able to overperform his xG in every season since 2005/06, including the 2012/13 season, which had a 1 / 1,643,094 chance of happening, or 0.000061%, practically impossible. This shows how incredibly clinical he is, both in and out of the box, and yet another display of his unimaginable quality.

He also surpasses the xG both in and out of the box, with his weak and strong foot as well, proving that he is clinical in almost every category. The same thing happens with open plays, direct free kicks, corners and penalties, there is simply no way to measure him.