There is always a handful of fans at every club around the globe that think they know better, but a cohort of Barcelona fans have really outdone themselves by questioning the ability of Lionel Messi.
By his own high standards, the No 10 did not enjoy his greatest evening on Saturday when he missed one penalty but scored with another to help his side limp to a 1-0 win over Real Vallodolid. Not too shabby for a bad night's work.
However, despite Ernesto Valverde's men going seven points clear at the top of La Liga, that was not enough for some fans, who were disappointed by the Argentinean's display.
Dismissing the fact Messi has scored 30 goals in 30 appearances this season to date, one supporter sought to hone in on his tactical and spacial awareness, or lack of.
Picking out one moment where Ousmane Dembele bursts into the Valldolid half, the Twitter user is adamant that the 31-year-old has misjudged the situation terribly and really should have been sprinting beyond the Frenchman.
Forgetting for a second the difficulty even Usain Bolt might have overlapping Dembele in full flight, the supporter states, without a hint of mischief: 'We gotta talk about Messi.
'Here‘s a scene where he has to do better, his off the ball movement at the counter attack isn‘t good enough.'
To his credit, he gives the scene the full Neville and Carragher treatment, crosses and arrows - the works really - to depict how the attack should have gone, if only Messi knew his onions.
Incredibly, some supporters were happy to pick up the pitchforks and torches.
@ Barcastastic commented: 'Yeah his decision making was not so good safe to say he had an bad game.'
Another added: 'Well he’s hasn’t been himself lately,' conveniently forgetting that the man has netted in nine of his last 10 La Liga appearances.
At least a couple of people appeared to see the peverse nature of the witch hunt against Messi.
Commenting with just a hint of sarcasm, one user responded: 'I’ve never rated him to be honest, he is just an Argentine Jermaine Pennant.'
Longlife2000
166
2 GOATS Stat in 18/19 season❤️🔥
Viswajiithmessi
136
1 game he does not perform well and these self proclaimed barça fans say he is not good enough
Demiadd
77
People just wait on one person to say something then everybody hops on “one fool, makes many” for starters the whole team performed poorly, the decision making was poor they lost the ball a lot, pique was exceptional I must say, the best player on the pitch in my view. But how quickly because of one game do fans who probably can not even strike a ball properly, get to criticize professionals who do it day in day out, yes he had a less than normal performance to his standards but this man has 22 goals in 22 games in la liga, safe to say he kinda earned a bad game with any criticism. He has been nursing a thigh injury too, likewise Suarez has a injury n yet they still push out to play. Give the players a break. I’ve seen other ppl have sitty performances after sitty performances n manage to scrape a goal n their fans praise them like gods but we Barca fans, one miscued pass n we start want to have our players head on a stick. We get use to the great performances that we forget they are humans n they can tire or be stressed or be experiencing discomfort but still push out n play, probably a little less than their best but they still showed up n tried so we can have the bragging rights over other teams.
Longlife2000
9
cr7 joined a new club and a new league..see how he adapted and adjusted..while for messi its been the same for more than a decade.
when Ronaldo was at Madrid last season what happens did he score more goals than Messi. ..you talk as if you don't think Ronaldo joining Juventus has nothing to do with his goals scoring but Juventus is a great club and one of the best teams in the world with great players when Higuain joined Juventus in his first season how many goals did he score for Juventus he score more than 20 goals in all competitions for Juventus so don't say Ronaldo joining Juventus that is why Messi has score more goals than him because 2017 and 2018 Ronaldo was at Madrid but still Messi score more goals than him so what you are saying doesn't make sense