Messi brought the Parisians the championship

Last summer, there was a complete surprise transfer from Barcelona to PSG, where the main star of Catalonia, Lionel Messi, moved to PSG. And already in his first season, Leo brought his new team the league title. Previously, the Argentine can be said to have been untouchable, and he had a succession of various awards, among them Golden Balls, as well as constant records, both at club and world level. And after some time, when there was a crisis in the last team, Messi was almost single-handedly dragging the whole team along. But in recent years the Argentine has been increasingly criticised, and most of that has to do with a pedestrian style of play, and so with a decline in performance. 

And in Paris the criticism has peaked, all the more so when there is a young and promising Frenchman in the team – Kylian Mbappe. And Messi doesn’t look as solid against him. But it’s worth sorting out how fair this criticism is.  The statistics suggest that all is not as straightforward as it might seem at first glance. But in fact, we can say that Leo has played a key role in the team’s championship.

Still in the top flight in terms of creativity

Many say that the Argentine no longer shows his past game, and is inferior to Neymar and Mbappe in numerous ways. But that’s not really the case. The statistics show that the Argentine competes decently with the Frenchman in terms of key indicators in attack, while the Brazilian is even superior. And if we take a closer look, it must be said that the criticism isn’t deserved.

Key passes

In the entire league, Leo is one of the best. He sometimes lets himself get carried away, but he can also create a momentum from nothing. The Argentine is second with 68 assists, Mbappe in first place and Brest player Franck Honora in third with 67 assists.

A successful key pass

Here too, Leo doesn’t have much of a problem, as the figure reaches 48.5%, while the Frenchman has a figure of 47%. The real sensation, however, is Rennes’ Bendamen Bourigault, with a 52.3% success rate.

And it’s also worth mentioning that the Argentine has more actual goalscoring chances than expected. The statistics show that he was expected to produce 12 assists, but he’s already one more. The Frenchman was expected to provide 10 assists, but he has given 14. As for the Brazilian, with 10 expected, in reality there are only 4. 

And yet, Lionel Messi is among the top assists in the top European championships. And yet, he has played far fewer games compared to his opponents – Thomas Muller and Kylian Mbappe.

Moments created

The best in the French championship is Dimitri Payet with 64 chances, Messi has 54, Killian has 56. Neymar is again falling behind, with only 35 chances.

So, the Argentine shows a good game despite all the talk and criticism directed at him. And next season he is likely to stay with the team, and this is taking into account the fact that PSG will be purged in the summer.