Who else did you expect here? Messi is 38 and of course he’s still a very special player, blah blah blah. “hE iS oNe thAt StiLl deFiNeS tHe sPoRt and oh… my god, that’s so boring. He’s great. We get it. You know it. We don’t need advanced data to see or know that. Dude has been doing it for 20+ years. Whatever.
The most bullshit thing of all is before 2020, no one had put up a greater than 0.28 Net g+/96 season. That was by Ibrahimovic in 2019 who tied Robbie Keane’s 2014 record. Since arriving, Messi has broken that twice. Last year with 0.32 and this year now with 0.51(!!!). When I said he was breaking our G+ stat. He’s legitimately BREAKING. IT. It’s screaming. Messi is killing ASA. I know it’s cliche, but I cannot express the degree to which being 0.51 goals better than the average attacker is insane.
An aside: one goal of goal difference is worth about 0.6 points in MLS, so you can call that 0.2 wins (a win is 3 points, if you’re new around here). So Messi’s 0.51 goals added above average per game would be the equivalent of being 0.2 WAR per game better than the average MLB player (0.02 WAR per game). Messi would have a WAR of 35. That’d be triple the best season of Babe Ruth’s career. If basketball is your game, Messi is adding 25% of the goals per match (three goals per game in soccer, 0.75 raw goals added). The average NBA game has about 230 points. Messi is averaging 58 points per game. He is a Monstar.
Goal for the Rest of the Season: Someone besides Messi, do something
I mention that Messi is 38 and also mentioned how schedule congestion is about to catch up with Miami, it’s a great time to now mention father time is undefeated (did you hear the page ripping when I tore it out of Matt Doyle’s playbook?) and they’re going to need to find time for Messi to catch a breather at some point. He’s already playing more minutes (2400) this year for Inter Miami than his first two seasons, that plus he the Leagues Cup (280) and Club World Cup (360) minutes too.
He’s not going to suddenly turn to dust and be bad but at a certain point in time you’re going to have to protect your greatest player from himself. That begs the question, who could and will step up. You’re not going to just replace him through the aggregate (there is one for the friends playing bingo in the comments) but I do think they’re going to need someone who is going to either help create and keep the high level creation or find a way to limit how many extra chances are being created.
Guys like Yannick Bright, who hasn’t had the greatest offensive g+ with passing and possession but has interesting defensive g+ numbers. There is also your starting CB pair of Maxi Falcón, Gonzalo Lujan, who both had potential coming into this season and have moments but need to elevate their game… oh, yeah, and Benjamin Crem—-oh, bummer. Well, nevermind.
But the biggest “do something” has to be Rodrigo De Paul. The “fourth” Designated Player for Miami and arguably the biggest summer grab in the league. He’s only 31 and has the skills to come in to help Miami create goals without Messi and be the leader of this team on the field when Messi isn’t there. That may be a huge ask of a new player adjusting to both a new team, a new league and a new country but not as large of an ask as me not typing Rodolfo Pizarro multiple times before correcting myself and typing Rodrigo De Paul. Maybe a Freudian slip, maybe not.
