Quote Originally Posted by McNamara That Ghost... View Post
To say he had very little service here is just not true, regardless of what shitkickers we might have in the team. Everything went towards him (and the right choice it often was) - think of the goal against Norwich where Song could've played it to Gervinho but waited for longer and eventually played it to RVP, who then chipped it in. That's just a snippet of what happens when you know the best option is the same guy you always try and find.

He wouldn't get the amount of goals you assert he could get at the same time Messi gets his amount because he wouldn't be afforded the same amount of time on the ball and also he would have to be mainly on the outside of Messi, it was the same for David Villa, it would be the same for RVP. Messi's influence over the rest of the team now will mean he receives the ball more than any other and again, rightly so.

If you're going to assert that he would score the amount (you're saying 45-50) without Messi but still at Barcelona, then again I would have to disagree but with obviously less evidence to back it up with - however, Messi is able to score so many more goals than anybody else (aside from Ronaldo) because he has the attributes to create space in tight areas (which is an inevitability for Barcelona) much faster and with much greater regularity than anybody else. Plus his finishing is often crazily good. I don't know how good RVP's was last season but I know Messi's has been somewhere around 35% in the last year.

My last point is not irrelevant at all, if I wanted to say dominate by having the ball, I'd say dominate possession. I'd have thought it's fairly obvious by how many points Real Madrid did get that I am not talking about some kind of alternative universe where they might not have converted chances, I am talking about what did happen, where they dominated matches. And that includes creating bucketloads of chances, hence the 120+ goals they scored, in the league.
van persie hardly had much service last season. everything went through him yes, but little went to him in the first place. hence why him bagging 30 was a remarkable achievement. he was very clinical and made the best of scraps he was fed. the amount of times i used to sit there in front of the tv and just get completely bored and dumbstruck at the continuous sideways passing and lack of creativity in our team last season. our creativity was poor and we often relied on our DM to bail us out with some incredible through balls. apart from that, we were shocking at opening up space. i remember liverpool away when we had that smash and grab. we had 2 decent passes up to van persie all game, the cross from sagna and the through ball by song. he ended up scoring both. apart from that nothing. hence the wild celebrations.

countless times we used to berate the lack of creativity in the final third and wonder why van persie was left so isolated up top, so i dont know why you're suggesting otherwise all of a sudden. in fact going into the summer most arsenal fans agreed that an attacking midfielder was a priority which highlights the problems we had.

and surely you're not denying van persie can create space out of nothing? when he was actually given the ball he was the only player in our team that could create something out of nothing. the amount of times i used to sit there and applaud him for scoring the most unthinkable of goals. volleys, headers, twists and turns, whatever, he scored them.

im not sure how messi and van persie would fit in a team because as you say there's a lot of politics involved. but my point was purely hypothetical; its not fantasy to suggest that van persie could score 50 goals in that barca team. he scored 30 in a crap arsenal team. one of the best finishers ive seen and im more than happy to admit it, regardless of my ill-feeling towards him.