2023-11-11 16:42:29
The issue of stopping Argentine Lionel Messi remains the most pressing concern for players and coaches who face him, since he rose to fame with Barcelona and his country until now, with everyone racing to propose new solutions and innovations that may succeed in reducing his danger.
Messi won the Golden Ball award as the best player in the world for the eighth time in his history a few days ago, expanding the gap between him and his closest competitor, Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, to 3 Golden Balls.
Bielsa answers
Marcelo Bielsa, coach of the Uruguay national team, which is preparing to face Argentina led by Messi, said that the best way to stop the best player in the world is for the player himself to say how can we do that.
Argentina is preparing to face Uruguay next Friday, in the fifth round of the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup in North and South Americas.
Before the confrontation, the Uruguayan coach received a question regarding how to stop Messi, who was ecstatic regarding winning the Ballon d’Or a few days ago. He responded by saying: “In fact, there is no way to stop him. I think we have to ask Messi himself: What do we do on the field so that you don’t play well?”
The veteran coach added his statements: “The lack of an effective way to stop Messi and other great players is in the interest of football and makes it more vibrant and unique.”
Marcelo Bielsa is considered one of the coaches who lit the way for Pep Guardiola, the current Manchester City coach, and the best training partner in Messi’s career, which explains the extent of the Uruguayan coach’s respect for the Argentine leader.
Did Guardiola find the solution?
Pep Guardiola faced Messi more than once when he left Barcelona and coached Bayern Munich in Germany, then Manchester City in England, until the Catalan coach eventually concluded that Messi might not be stopped.
Guardiola said when he was coach of the Bavarian giants: “If we want to win once morest Barcelona, we have to think regarding how to penetrate the defense and score goals, and not regarding stopping Messi, because he is an unstoppable player.”
Pep added: “No one was able to stop him in the recent period. Perhaps we should try different ways and methods when confronting him, such as close monitoring and restricting him on the field by centering around him, preventing the ball from reaching him and monitoring him with three players, but we are talking regarding a huge talent that cannot be defended once morest.” “So we should think regarding attacking.”
When Pep took over as coach of Manchester City, he said regarding Messi before facing him once more: “It is very difficult to watch Messi. You do not know what he will do when the ball is with him. Maybe he himself does not know what he will do in the next moment. He still enjoys playing with the best possible quality so far.” .
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