The years go by like a flash, and before you know it, it's time for last year's installment of the soccer battleground. In this green field, the two superstars of the soccer world have very different destinies. One of them left his home country as a hero, while the other returned to his hometown and set sail again. The former struggled in his new surroundings, working with the team's favorites and dealing with the manager's restrictions, collecting only 6 goals and 14 assists in the league all season. The last time he scored 6 goals in a season was when he was 18 years old. The latter, despite the team's internal and external problems, was resilient and led the team to a sixth-place finish to qualify for the UEFA Cup. Even so, the king of popularity scored 18 goals and contributed three assists on his own, even though it was 12 years after he had not scored more than 20 goals in a single league season.
However, come this season (22/23), the fortunes of these two soccer veterans have changed forever. One has been relegated from being an absolute starter to the bench, while the other has been a godsend, shooting, passing and assisting with creativity in every kick. So far, he has scored 8 goals and contributed 8 assists, compared to last season's performance of 11 goals and 14 assists in 34 games, I believe that by the end of this season, he may be able to break his first season's goal scoring record.
Students, I'm sure you've already guessed which two players I'm talking about, and they are none other than Cairo and Messi. Messi, who is celebrating his second season at Paris Saint-Germain this season, has become more and more in tune with Neymar and Mbappe, and despite the fact that they have been subjected to a lot of negative press and hype, the three world-class players have joined forces to score 21 goals and 14 assists, and that's just in nine games.
Photo/website: Messi entering his second season at PSG
This article is not about the comparison between Crow and Messi, but will focus on why Messi suddenly "surged" this season, completely overshadowing Mbappe and Neymar. Looking back at the 21/22 season, Paris Saint-Germain ushered in Lionel Messi with the vision that this luxury lineup could be invincible, but at the end of the season, the team only won the Ligue 1 title, and both the French Cup and Champions League ended in the round of sixteen. The team's leadership was so displeased that they eventually fired Pochettino and replaced him with Galti, who was well known in France.
In comparing Messi's performances over the two seasons, we see that Pochettino has wavered on the positioning in which he has employed Messi, leaving him in an awkward position throughout the season. Galti's handling, on the other hand, clearly arranged Messi to be the commander up front, placing him in a right-front position, paired with Neymar to provide assists for Mbappe.
Pic/website: Messi's performance progression stats at PSG
Messi has failed to live up to his goal-scoring efficiency as a result of his positional uncertainty. Last season, Messi posted a 3.72 Shots/90 figure, compared to only 1.17 Shots on Goal/90. Such a statistic does lead one to wonder if Messi is out of it, but in comparing him to positions where he plays a non-primary shooting role, 1.17 hits per game is excellent. Is that too much to ask for De Bruyne to finish a season with 25 goals or more to qualify? However, under Galti's heavy use this season, Messi has been given a reasonable setup and assignment, and his shots/90 stats have risen to 4.87, and his shots on goal/90 has risen to 2.49, easily scoring five league goals in just nine games, and I believe it won't be long before he surpasses last season's record of six goals in a single season.
In addition to shooting efficiency, Messi's passing data in this season is also more efficient than last season. For example, the average data of key passes, in last season Messi as "assist professional" obtained the data is quite good, but positioning better this season, Messi's average key passes reached 2.73 times. There is also a reference data is Messi's PPA (pass into the penalty area success rate) data, last season he only averaged 3.77 times, but this season he contributed as much as 5.45 times, this is Messi in the positioning of the No. 10 position and the freedom of the war power and efficiency. In addition, Messi's SCA and GCA have also improved this season, and all kinds of data show that under Galti's coaching, Messi seems to be the decision maker who dominates the pitch as if in the late Barcelona period.
