The difference in body and mind of Messi

* Argentina - France: 10pm today 18/12 on MetaSports.

Commenting on ITV (UK) television with two experts Lee Dixon and Ally McCoist, commentator Sam Matterface described the situation of dribbling to eliminate Josko Gvardiol of Lionel Messi in the goal to set the score 3-0 in the semi-final. The end of the World Cup 2022 between Argentina and Croatia is a "magic seed" phase.

The Croatian midfielder is 15 years younger than Messi. With 1m85, Gvardiol is 16cm taller than Messi. In terms of weight, with 80kg, the 20-year-old player is also 7kg heavier than Messi. So how can an older, smaller, lighter player get past his opponent in a duel from the middle of the field and extend to the touchline, before launching the return pass? The perfect reverse for Julian Alvarez?

Dixon, a former Arsenal and England full-back, said: "The key is not speed, but deceleration and acceleration. Gvardiol thinks he can catch the opponent, until Messi keeps moving. Then Messi suddenly stopped, turned the ball and moved again. The constant change of speed is a fine art. In the end, Messi cleared the table for Alvarez."

While, McCoist, a former Rangers and Scotland striker, exclaimed: "It's a quality of genius. It's as simple as a joke. It was Messi's last shrug and then reverse that made Gvardiol completely lost. balance and was left half a meter".

So how does Messi make those movements so soft? How Messi overcame his own physical limitations in a duel with Gvardiol to remind the world that, even in the final years of his career, he was still explosive, the swinging his hips to turn the ball, twisting his opponent's ribs as gracefully as a dance move, and the same size of 39 feet that help him become as unpredictable as Floyd Mayweather's peak?

Jonas Dodoo answered simply: "Messi was born with the body to make sudden turns".

Dodoo is a former track and field coach, specializing in sprint content, currently working as a consultant for the Football Association, English Rugby League and many professional clubs in the Premier League, Bundesliga, NFL and MLB.

"Anatomically, Messi's body is designed for that kind of movement," Dodoo explains of Messi's ability to turn the ball, twist the opponent's side. "He has a long torso and short legs, which makes Messi quick."

Former Stoke City defender Danny Higginbotham thinks dealing with the agility of an opponent is a tough job for a defender as tall as Gvardiol.

Higginbotham explains: "As a defender, you will always find a way to force the opponent's attacker to move in the direction you want. But Messi's ability to suddenly change direction and change speed is just too amazing. It was Messi who became the one to navigate the defender. Messi can stop the ball so quickly that once he makes you stop, he accelerates immediately."

According to the former England-born Gibraltar player, looking at the duel phase of a player as tall as Gvardiol against Messi, it is easy to see that this young midfielder has never been able to take advantage of his physical strength, because Gvardiol had to slow down as soon as Messi decided to slow down. At that moment, viewers thought that Gvardiol could catch Messi, because the Argentine striker made a back rotation. But suddenly, Messi turned once more and it only took that one second to eliminate Gvardiol. "The way Messi turns makes Gvardiol like a mouse being toyed with. The small body helps Messi have a low center of gravity, easy for such turns and redirects," Higginbotham likened.

Higginbotham himself has had direct experience with a player whose movement style made him feel unsafe. It was the summer of 2007, when Stoke faced Real in a friendly match and Higginbotham was pitted against former Spaniard Raul Gonzalez.

"I looked at Raul and thought, 'This guy is not the fastest, nor is he very muscular', but he is a legend of goalscorers, knows how to create, regardless of whether it is a domestic or international playground. I asked myself 'What's Raul's secret?'".

"I spent 70 minutes with Raul and I looked ridiculous. Just taking my eyes off him for a split second to see what was going on around me was like looking back, Raul was gone. I I don't know where he is anymore. I've never felt so insecure on the pitch with Raul. The secret is in his body movements."

Dodoo also agrees that the low center of gravity is a plus for Messi. It not only makes it easier for him to twist and turn, but also makes Messi "hard to push down". According to Dodoo, physically, the Argentina captain has an "excellent braking system that allows him to stop suddenly, as quickly as he accelerates. Messi's slick, slick movements are... It's a combination of stop-and-go movement. It requires excellent braking power as well as excellent acceleration."

But Messi's physicality is only one part, because according to Dodoo explained, there is another side parallel: "When we consider strength, speed and intensity of movement, we have to talk about hardware as well. and software. Hardware has a lot to do with muscles, joints and physical characteristics. Software is about the brain's perception, actions and decision-making processes."

It is Messi's "software" - as Dodo explains - that often helps him overcome opponents who are inherently better physically.

"Messi is very good at incorporating the ability to scan the surface of the court to predict and react to the micro-motions of the opponent," Dodoo said. "He often finds a way to slip past the opponent's defenses at a speed below the maximum, enticing the opponent like the way a bullfighter uses a red cape. As soon as the opponent gets bait, Messi accelerates. "

"Moving at sub-maximum speeds also means that whenever Messi needs to draw an opponent in, he's always ready to get out at once, like an up-and-down gearbox," explains Dodoo. like more.

The nervous system is the third part, and basically Dodoo thinks it's what connects the software to the hardware of a player.

According to Robert Moreno - the former head coach of Spain and worked with Messi for 3 years as Luis Enrique's assistant at Barca, it was the brain that helped Messi rise to a different level compared to his opponents, regardless of whether the opponent has physical advantages.

"Messi is like in the movie The Matrix," Moreno shared. "Do you remember a scene in the movie when the main character curls his body in front of the slow incoming bullets? To me, Messi plays the same way. Everything that happens in reality is slowed down. back in Messi's head."

"So it's normal for Messi to play with Gvardiol like an adult playing with a kid. He's made Jerome Boateng so miserable in the past in the Champions League," Moreno added, recalling the Barca match. defeated Bayern 3-0 in the first leg of the 2014-2015 semi-final. That day, Messi scored 2 goals and one of them was a ball that made Boateng fall to the field like a felled tree.

"Messi always thinks faster than the rest. The important thing is how Messi thinks, he acts as he wants. I am not a professional player, but I understand that once playing football, there are when you want to do something, but the connection between your head and your feet is broken and you can't do it successfully. Messi is the opposite. brain and limbs, having the flexibility to move the body at will. And once he wants to do something, Messi creates situations like before Gvardiol ", Moreno analyzed.

So when Messi had a duel with an opposing defender, even though the defender might know what the Argentinian star would do, he couldn't stop it. When the player moved, Messi was a meter ahead of him.

Like Moreno, this is evidenced through the glue connection between Jordi Alba and Messi when both were teammates in Barca colors. "There was an action when Messi received the ball in the bottom third of the left side of the field, he dribbled the ball, Alba moved into the space on the opposite wing and Messi flicked a ball right into that position. Alba. easy to catch and throw a cross," the former Spain coach added.

"Every team in Spain knows that line of coordination between Messi and Alba. But no one can stop it. Why? Because in football, not only do you know what you need to do, but you also know what you need to do. It's about doing it as quickly as possible," Moreno added.

He also took Kylian Mbappe as an example of more agility than people. When in a one-on-one position, the French striker often tries to push the ball forward a little, then accelerate to run faster than the opponent before crossing the ball. The opposing defender knows it, but can't stop it because Mbappe makes things faster.

According to Moreno, Messi is even harder to stop than Mbappe. The French striker can be caught in the form of "Ah, Mbappe will run to the right or to the left", but before Messi, the opposing defender can't predict anything. The Argentine striker can run left, right, back, pass... He said: "He has too many options, and Messi makes them so fast that they can't be stopped."

Not only is he faster in both thought and action and physically stronger than humans, but Messi also combines the ability to regulate speed with frequent "walking" on the field.

After closing the first round of the 2022 World Cup group stage, statistics show that Messi walks more than any other player of the tournament. Against Croatia in the semi-finals, out of the 10 Argentinian players (excluding the goalkeeper) of the starting XI, only Leandro Paredes moved less distance on the field than Messi, but the midfielder was withdrawn from the field during the match. more than 30 minutes left.

In the semi-final against Croatia, more than half of Messi's distance traveled on the field was classified by FIFA as "Zone 1", which is the middle level between standing still and moving at 7km/h.

"Messi walks because he knows he is 35 years old, can no longer reproduce the actions that require great continuous effort like in the past," Moreno analyzed. "So Messi is walking, waiting for the right moment, in the right position to receive the ball and give the pass, or give his teammates a chance to score."

But while he appeared to be walking, according to Moreno, Messi always turned his head around and analyzed what was happening on the pitch. The former Spain coach said: "He analyzes all the opponents in front of him and finds their weaknesses. That's what sets Messi apart from the rest."

It is also the process that Higginbotham believes creates Messi's genius.

"We know how good Messi is with the ball, but what is equally important is what he does before receiving the ball," said Higginbotham. "Just look at the moment and the area where Messi receives the ball and you will see, he puts himself in the right positions to take the ball, turn the ball, change position and immediately rush into the opponent's defence." .

Higginbotham also shared his opinion with Moreno about Messi not walking, but still observing developments and thinking. "He thinks in terms of 'what's the best position for me once I regain control of the ball, what's the best position for me to get the ball in, what position is the defender against? The side doesn't want to make a foul, and does that position have enough space for me to turn the ball and hit it?'", the former Stoke defender analyzed. "A lot of decisions are made by Messi when he doesn't have the ball, which gives him an advantage once the ball reaches his feet. That's genius."

According to Moreno, Messi's "soccer in football" is the key. He explained: "It's intelligence that is different from the common man's intelligence. A kind of knowledge that you can't explain. The same goes for the players. They do things that they themselves can't explain. Messi is the ultimate expression of this problem. He finds solutions to difficult situations that mortals cannot."

As such, Moreno sees Messi as a completely different player, in that he can analyze the game while he is in it. "As coaches, it's easy for us to analyze the situation from the outside, sitting in the room with the computers. But Messi analyzes the progress of the game on the field, while the game is in progress. That makes Messi became the best player in history for me personally," Moreno exclaims.

Thanks to "that football intelligence", combined with Messi's great stature, the physical attributes of the Argentine player went unnoticed.

"Messi is not like Cristiano Ronaldo, this is obvious," said Moreno. "But Messi is strong, it's strength in his legs, in his muscles and in all parts of his upper body."

"You can't play football at the highest level without health," he said. "It is true that there are stronger, stronger players, but Messi himself is healthy enough to play. Otherwise, how can he play every three days a game. The difference is first of all. A world-class player with a normal player is the physical condition to survive in that harsh environment."

Another aspect of Messi that is also rarely mentioned is the butt.

Last year, former midfielder Yaya Toure had an article in The Athletic, highlighting the role of the butt and how football players use the opposite glutes in shielding the ball from pressure from behind. enemy. It is the tight glutes that give the players an advantage in keeping the ball, giving them more space to wriggle away from their chaperones.

Yaya Toure said: "I used to be Messi's teammate at Barca, and almost every time Messi tries to dribble, there is always an opponent close to tackle the ball. As long as you use your glutes right. However, you will always have the opportunity to have better control of the ball and escape from tight spaces, or when pressured by an opponent.Being surrounded is always a challenge for players playing in the line midfield in modern football".

Messi has clearly learned to make the most of what belongs to his body. But if Moreno believes that without strength, Messi will not be able to become "the best player in history", then he also asserts that it is the thinking of playing football that plays an important and decisive role.

"It's not just about being strong that matters," Moreno insisted. "There are still many players in the world who can look like Messi better, stronger than him. But it is the difference in thinking and penetrating the game that creates an advantage for a player to reach world-class level. ".

And it is also the art of "scatting magic seeds" that allows Messi at the age of 35 to leave behind the talented 20-year-old midfielder of world football, leaving Gvardiol to wonder what just happened.