So far in Copa América, it could seem like Messi's move to MLS has tanked his play with Argentina -- but is that really true?
Ryan O'Hanlon is a staff writer for ESPN.com. He's also the author of"Net Gains: Inside the Beautiful Game's Analytics Revolution."It's been a weird year for me, or anyone else who covers European soccer for a living.were relegated, promoted and dominated Serie A for a decade and now they can barely get back into the Champions League. Xavi played with Messi, then he coached Messi's former team and got fired by Messi's former team.
At the top level of things, he's scored 11 non-penalty goals and generated 10 assists in a little over 1,000 minutes. The best season of Messi's career was 2012-13, when at age 25 he scored 42 non-penalty goals and added 11 assists in just over 2,500 minutes for Barcelona. With Miami, he's actually beenthe most productive attacking season in modern soccer history -- 1.8 non-penalty goals+assists per 90 minutes -- and, with Miami, Messi is currently up at 1.
In other words, if you were going to design a competitive professional league that you wanted Messi to dominate from scratch, you'd probably land on something pretty close to MLS. Putting any nuance aside: Messi is the defending Ballon d'Or winner, and the consultancy Twenty First Group rates MLS as somewhere around the 30th-best league in the world. Who could've possiblySuperficially, it seems like Messi's move to MLS has tanked his play with Argentina.
So far in 2024, that same trend has held true: Messi is averaging just 66 touches per 90 minutes, while Argentina are undefeated and held opponents scoreless. Although it took a while to find the net against, they've been dominant, creating 5.7 expected goals and conceding 1.3. This team is at their best when Messi doesn't have to drop too deep to get the ball and instead concentrates the majority of his touches in the attacking third.
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