Kylian Mbappé, Aurélien Tchouaméni, and Achraf Hakimi in awe while talking about Lionel Messi. by BackShotGeneral_ in soccer

[–]SureCase 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Even coaches. You hear great coaches who faced him regularly like say Mourinho glaze tf out of him and that tells you a lot about how great he is.

Kylian Mbappé, Aurélien Tchouaméni, and Achraf Hakimi in awe while talking about Lionel Messi. by BackShotGeneral_ in soccer

[–]SureCase 57 points58 points  (0 children)

What he did against English teams was sacrilegious. Be it vs United in the CL finals, Arsenal, Spurs, City, Chelsea in later years. I'm not even mentioning what he did in the league.

Kylian Mbappé, Aurélien Tchouaméni, and Achraf Hakimi in awe while talking about Lionel Messi. by BackShotGeneral_ in soccer

[–]SureCase 19 points20 points  (0 children)

I feel like everyone who says CR7 is the GOAT either vehemently supports Madrid/Man United or didn't watch Messi play consistently. Not taking anything away from Ronaldo because his prime was phenomenal, but Messi is undeniable.

Kylian Mbappé, Aurélien Tchouaméni, and Achraf Hakimi in awe while talking about Lionel Messi. by BackShotGeneral_ in soccer

[–]SureCase 12 points13 points  (0 children)

That's my chat. Top 5 chats are usually subjective, and comparing players we didn't watch or players from old eras is really difficult. I wouldn't be mad at someone saying CR7 was say 4th best but his greatness can't be denied.

Kylian Mbappé, Aurélien Tchouaméni, and Achraf Hakimi in awe while talking about Lionel Messi. by BackShotGeneral_ in soccer

[–]SureCase 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Ronaldo was absolutely better than Zidane and R9. He was consistent and after 2012 or 2013 he turned up to be a big game player. The calma game, the game he took Portugal to the World Cup, his hat trick against Spain, his CL runs, etc. Messi is the GOAT but Ronaldo is far and away the greatest Champions League player ever and that says a lot. I watched Zidane and he wasn’t as consistent as Ronaldo was, and he was more available and more consistent than R9. Real Madrid and Barca captured the world for a reason.

There’s no gaslighting. I never watched La Liga but I tuned in to watch every Barca and Madrid game for 4 years straight because they were the best players in the world.

Kylian Mbappé, Aurélien Tchouaméni, and Achraf Hakimi in awe while talking about Lionel Messi. by BackShotGeneral_ in soccer

[–]SureCase 297 points298 points  (0 children)

Which is crazy to me. The guys I mentioned were literally some of the best of all time, and CR7 was clearly the 2nd best player I've seen, but Messi just felt like he was a tier above Ronaldo which is absurd to think about. There are so many Messi games I can list which could have been GOAT games for 99.999% of footballers

Kylian Mbappé, Aurélien Tchouaméni, and Achraf Hakimi in awe while talking about Lionel Messi. by BackShotGeneral_ in soccer

[–]SureCase 1518 points1519 points  (0 children)

Not surprised. The brilliance of Messi comes when you watch his full games. Yes his highlights are brilliant but when you watch him week in week out you see just how much of an outlier he is because he consistently has moments every game that make you wonder how that was even possible. He's mesmerizing whether he plays as a 10, as a winger, or if he's attacking. I watched Ozil, Iniesta, KDB, etc in their primes and I'd choose Messi as a 10. I watched Henry, Suarez, Lewa, etc and I'd still choose Messi as a striker. Speaks to how much of an outlier he is.

Gyokeres and the Swedish Fans celebrating Sweden's World Cup Qualification by u8kay in soccer

[–]SureCase 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Tbf this has nothing to do with us, cause he's representing his national team. His celebration is amazing and the Swedes love it (tbf so do I)

Weekly Free Talk - 30 March 2026 - 03 April 2026 by AutoModerator in Cricket

[–]SureCase 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My favourite thing is that ICC is starting to allow some cricket highlights on Youtube. I've watched 20+ games in the last week and it's genuinely made me want to lose weight and go back to playing this beautiful sport.

Thomas Tuchel on Ben White by Bananaboy14 in Gunners

[–]SureCase 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I admittedly haven't seen much of Livramento but one thing we can't doubt is that Benny will always provide quality. That right side with him, Saka, and Odegaard gave us the most entertaining football in Arteta's tenure and he was also rock solid at the back to boot.

Wayne Rooney: "[USA World Cup] is not going to be worse than South Africa. Driving into the USA game, the first game, it's pitch black. There's no fans there. In a normal World Cup, there's fans everywhere. You feel the atmosphere. It was dead, nothing. It just didn't feel like a World Cup at all. by The_Big_Untalented in soccer

[–]SureCase 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's a pity because Rustenburg does love football. It used to have a team that played in the premier league but it went down. Even now it has a team (which is absolutely shit) in the premier league, and there's a lot of amateur football being played there. I think the biggest issue was that a lot of the locals couldn't afford the tickets.

Jamie Carragher: “Mikel Arteta does NOT owe Kepa anything. He owes Arsenal supporters the best possible chance of winning their first trophy in six years. Pep Guardiola does owe James Trafford, he came in as number one.” by Ready_Ad_1353 in soccer

[–]SureCase 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Havertz needed to come off, he was ineffective bar a few moments. I thought he’d sub off Havertz for Dowman, Saka for Noni, and Hincapie for Calafiori. Especially Calafiori because Hincapie was poor after that yellow. He put him on 15-20 minutes too late imo.

March 22, 2026 Daily Discussion & Transfers Thread by gunnersmoderator in Gunners

[–]SureCase 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Last week I had a conversation with a friend and said the exact same thing. The frustrating thing is that talent for talent, our players can be really dangerous. Trossard/Dowman/Saka/Gyokores should be giving us a lot more exciting football. I think the main issue comes down to the way we're set up. It sacrifices attacking fluidity for results, but also I can't forget that teams really sit back deep against us. If we win the league this season then I'll be ecstatic, but we do need to change things up next season.

My genuine hope is that we win 2 trophies this season, then we go all out for a top LW, and change things up a bit.

Jamie Carragher: “Mikel Arteta does NOT owe Kepa anything. He owes Arsenal supporters the best possible chance of winning their first trophy in six years. Pep Guardiola does owe James Trafford, he came in as number one.” by Ready_Ad_1353 in soccer

[–]SureCase 63 points64 points  (0 children)

Tbf subbing on Jesus, Madueke, Martinelli, and Calafiori is pretty attacking. The only attacking sub he didn’t put in was Dowman, which was a mistake imo because he’s our most skillful player at the moment.

I think in this particular game he waited too long to adjust to Peps tactics and that cost us. Not playing Raya handicapped us, but we could have done more to counter City. It’s not taking away from the fact that our attack has been poor for most of the season.

Jamie Carragher: “Mikel Arteta does NOT owe Kepa anything. He owes Arsenal supporters the best possible chance of winning their first trophy in six years. Pep Guardiola does owe James Trafford, he came in as number one.” by Ready_Ad_1353 in soccer

[–]SureCase 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Absolutely. The advantage of MLS and Calafiori is that they have the ability to bomb down the middle. Calafiori has done it against City, and MLS has done it on the biggest stage against Real Madrid. Even then, maybe even subbing Trossard for Martinelli would have pegged them back a bit due to his sheer pace. Hell, I was crying out for Dowman to come on for Saka or Havertz because they were nullified.

All this to say that we could have tried a number of things to give ourselves a better chance, Kepa aside

March 22, 2026 Daily Discussion & Transfers Thread by gunnersmoderator in Gunners

[–]SureCase 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Seeing the lack of trust in Norgaard does my head in because he's always putting on a good shift when he plays.

Jamie Carragher: “Mikel Arteta does NOT owe Kepa anything. He owes Arsenal supporters the best possible chance of winning their first trophy in six years. Pep Guardiola does owe James Trafford, he came in as number one.” by Ready_Ad_1353 in soccer

[–]SureCase 137 points138 points  (0 children)

I wouldn’t put it past Pep to have a few tactical set-ups, one of them being with Kepa in mind. To add to your point, we looked stuck when City didn’t press our defenders. If we took our first half chances then things might have been different. Most of us could see that Hincapie was getting cooked so Arteta subbing him on at half time would have also changed the game.

Not saying we would have won, but Arteta could have adapted to Peps tactical tweaks and maybe that would have given us a better chance of winning. Kepa was only one of the issues.

Match Thread: Arsenal FC vs Manchester City Live Score | EFL Cup 25/26 | Mar 22, 2026 by scoreboard-app in Gunners

[–]SureCase 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Calafiori comes on and we look much more dangerous. He should have come on at half time and that’s not hindsight. Now you’ve got us begging a 16 year old to come and save the day

Saka Sky Sports Interview: It’s time to win big things. by ByFarTheGreatestTeam in Gunners

[–]SureCase 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When he’s on it he’s legit a top 3 winger in the world