Argentine star Lionel Messi has become among the players who walk the most throughout most matches, but this feature did not prevent him from being the smartest among his peers, and breaking down the opponent's defenses to lead Albicelestes to the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup.

According to the statistics of the International Federation (FIFA), Messi's name was included among the top ten in the list of the most walked players, as shown by the four matches he played in the World Cup.

The numbers do not seem important to the best player in the world seven times, as he won the award for best player in the match twice in the four matches in the World Cup, so it can be said that what is happening does not affect the effectiveness of the “flea”, which contributed to scoring 3 goals, including two decisive goals. In defeating Mexico 2-0 in the second round of the group stage, and Australia 2-1 in the final price in his thousandth match in his career, when he scored - for the first time - in the knockout stages.

And former England defender Rio Ferdinand - who works as an analyst for BT Sport - believes that Messi's performance against Australia is "the best we've seen in the World Cup so far, by a wide margin."

And Messi passed, in a match during which he deciphered the password of the “Sucrose” defense, by opening the scoring and hitting 6 balls on the goal, 8.59 km, at the second lowest rate for a major player, including 4.75 km walking.

On the other hand, the BBC indicated before the Argentina match against Australia that Messi occupies one of the first three places, among those who cross the most spaces by walking, as he walked in his first three matches 4.99 km, 4.73 km and 4.62 km. , Straight.

Guardiola and Messi

Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola made it clear that the French star of Paris Saint-Germain is not satisfied with just walking without doing anything, and he said in a documentary program about the Argentine player entitled “This is Football” - broadcast by the Amazon station - “He (Messi), watches as he walks.” "That's what I like best. He moves his head: right and left, then left and right. He knows exactly what's going to happen. But his head is always like this (Guardiola turns his head left and right). He's always in motion."

And the coach - who previously supervised Messi in Barcelona - added, "He does not run, but he always watches what happens. He looks for weaknesses in the defense after 5 or 10 minutes, and has the map in his eyes and in his mind, to know - exactly - what spaces and the scene are." .

Guardiola described what the Argentine player is doing as, "It's like being in a forest, and I have to fight to survive. He knows that if he moves here or there, he will get more space to attack."

But this does not mean that Messi does not interfere in the game when the rhythm of the match imposes this challenge on him, as Ferdinand said - after the end of the Australian confrontation - "it almost suggests to everyone that he was not interested in what is happening, but suddenly he comes back alive" and "what he can do With him he opens the game from any position on the field. That is the difference between him and the others."

This phenomenon is not related to the advanced age of Messi - the 35-year-old - but rather a feature that extends to many years, as the numbers shed light on what he has been doing with him since the World Cup in Russia 2018 and before that Brazil 2014 in Russia, where it was clearly shown that he was walking , but he is not lazy.

Research has shown that Messi's effectiveness lies in creating spaces, spending time in locations closest to the opponent's penalty area, and most importantly on the field.

"Can we say that Messi gets a lot of space by not participating in play? Yes, that's exactly what studies show," Luke Bourne, a data setter at FC Barcelona, ​​asked during a press conference to study the analytics.