Lionel Messi. Lazy?
The Barcelona star has never been the most energetic player when he’s not on the ball, and a clip of him in the Spanish club’s Champions League win against Dynamo Kiev on Wednesday only added to the idea that he doesn’t work hard enough for his teammates.
Deep into stoppage time, with Barcelona holding onto a 2-1 lead, Messi was seen watching idly on as Oleksandr Andrievsky advanced forward with the ball.
It wasn’t a good look.
“They should just let Messi go by January cos WTF is this?,” wrote one fan on Twitter.
Another said: “Best in the world but this is arrogance & self-entitlement with zero responsibility.”
Thankfully for Messi, Dynamo Kiev didn’t grab a late equaliser and Barcelona secured their third win out of three in Europe this season.
But Messi’s supporters are coming to his side in the midst of the backlash, pointing out that Barcelona had players back.
It’s not a very strong argument, to be honest, given that Barcelona were pretty much operating with nine outfield players due to Messi’s lack of effort.
But labelling him lazy after just one clip might be an unfair accusation to make - especially after what happened in the 58th minute.
Barcelona had a corner but it was easily caught by Kiev goalkeeper Ruslan Neshcheret, who sprung a quick counter-attack.
Messi, sensing the danger, sprinted back to ensure Barcelona had numbers in defence and helped erase the danger.
It’s the clip that Messi’s critics don’t want you to see.
We’re still not defending Messi’s efforts in injury time. Had Dynamo Kiev equalised from the move, then the Argentinian would have deserved a portion of the blame.
But one clip doesn’t define Messi’s entire work ethic.
Ronald Koeman would have expected more from him late on but let’s not pretend he’s producing Dimitar Berbatov levels of workrate.