By Tarkan Batgun, CEO-Comparisonator
The answer is very simple. Messi gets fewer passes from his teammates in Argentina National team compared to his domestic competition in Paris St Germain and UEFA Championship games.
The graphics on the cover page shows all the comparisons covering his domestic league, UEFA competitions, and his current Argentina National Team performance side by side.
He is the maestro of the opposition, third in domestic and UEFA games with Paris. But it is fairly different in Argentina National team. He comes back, collects balls, drives the ball to the third, and expects balls when he gets to the box. When he gets the ball around the box, he kills it. Indeed, besides the artificial intelligence within the Comparisonator platform, eyes can also see this. Let’s have a look at the actual numbers which prove this:
Lionel receives 65.8 passes from his teammates on average per 90 minutes in French League 1
Lionel receives 53.2 passes from his teammates in Argentina
That makes 19% less passes in the national team.
How does this less pass ratio affect his performance? Let’s see the comparisonator ai calculations:
His overall performance in Argentina National Team is 30% less compared to his league performance
His offensive performance in Argentina National Team is 23% less compared to his league performance
His passing index is 58% less compared to his league performance
Even under these circumstances, Messi scored an average of 0.65 goals per 90 minutes in his National Team, compared to his domestic goal-scoring ratio of 0.54 goals per 90 minutes. It is unbelievably 20% more goals compared to his league performance.
Imagine if he receives the same amount of balls as in his team in France from his Argentinian teammates? I will leave that to your imagination.
